Don't Cry For Me Ojai

Ojai City Council Series Part XI

One by one the citizens of our valley spoke, calling on the council to adopt a resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza. They were impassioned and clear, and Councilmember Lang cried as she received their comments. The room was packed. It was hard to see everyone on the dias, but I had a clear view of Rachel.

This is Part XI of my continuing series on Ojai Politics. (If you’re just coming into this series, you can start here with Part I - Pluto Misogyny Showdown at City Hall)

This was not on the agenda, so council would not be discussing. However, almost five hours later at the end of the meeting, Councilmember Lang proposed an agenda item for the next meeting in two weeks. She’ll do all of the legwork, research, and write something up with regard to Ojai’s position as an International City of Peace.

I had come in ready to confront some past bad behavior by The Councilmember R and The Mayor Pro Tem F, but the parade of emotions put me in a different space, a space that had me thinking about peace and how each of us is responsible for being peace in action. If we are not willing to be this, then calling for a ceasefire across the world is just performative. A city council creating a resolution that calls for a ceasefire while two members attack the other three both on and off the dias along with members of the community, well, that is just another performative act. These are the words that found their way out of my mouth when I was called on during part two of public comment. I did not name names, hoping that the specifics of who I was speaking about were understood.

I had already gone up there for the first item on the agenda, which was “Proposed Rental Housing Development Rent Disclosure Ordinance”

Mayor Stix included this in her request to add this item to the agenda: "The purpose of this ordinance is to give the public and decision makers easy to access and understandable information about rental rates in all proposed new residential developments in Ojai that if built would have one or more deed restricted affordable housing units.”

I spoke in favor of the ordinance and cried like a baby as I acknowledged publicly that we were losing our rental of fourteen-plus years here in the Ojai Valley. I knew I’d cry. I tried not to cry. I cried.

I again encouraged the council to do anything and everything they can to take care of the most vulnerable in our community along with supporting actual affordable housing projects.

The Scorpio New Moon from the day prior was working on all of us in the room. I attribute the previous night’s events as well in part to the moon’s influence. During a closed session of the council, meaning private, no public involvement, some sort of argument broke out and our interim city manager got up and left. He did not return. He submitted his resignation letter via email just after midnight citing “the discord”.

The rapidly shrinking group of people who hate the Mayor blame her for this. I have no idea how that math works.

None of us, with the exception of Mark Scott actually know why he got up and left. I can paint a picture based on what I have observed during public meetings, and yet again, I have no factual information to share on this other than what the paper has printed and the words of Scott and some of the council members. In their statements, no specifics were given.

The rumor mill is running on our community Facebook groups with plenty of blame being assigned all around. I think it might benefit everyone to remember that Mark Scott is a grown-ass man who made a decision he felt would benefit himself.

The moon had already moved into Sagittarius by last night’s meeting. This is an energy that supports action, and action was taken by all speaking and the council members as well. There was a unanimous vote on all four items on the agenda.

During round two of public comments, an ask was made by Mr Drucker that City Attorney Summers, Councilmember Whitman, and Mayor Stix apologize for……………….. This story is so long and involved that this is all I will say other than to reference that this goes back to the origins of some of the current conflict that began during a closed session of the council in January of 2023 and led to Brown Act Violations, a lawsuit, a SLAPP motion, and an appeal on the judge’s ruling regarding the SLAPP motion. This is ongoing. This was also the first meeting that The Councilmember R attended as a newly elected city council member.

Items that are not on the agenda are not to be discussed by the council. A reason for this is that there is no public notice so other interested parties who may want to weigh in will not have the opportunity to do so.

The Mayor Pro Tem F again decided that she did not want to play by these rules and piled on, joining in with Drucker in suggesting her colleagues there on the dias apologize or make statements or whatever all with a smile on her face. It’s an act, one that distracts away from the fact that she does not have their backs and at any moment will side with The Councilmember R or anyone else opposed to The Mayor, Councilmember Whitman, and Councilmember Lang, and throw them under the bus.

She does this on the dias, on social media, and in the press.

They moved on to the next item, approval of commissioner appointments and other processes relating to commissioners. This has come up a few times already so it seemed as if not much discussion would be needed. They were swimming along when The Councilmember R made a statement about how these were NOT political appointments and she would like language added to the ordinance to reflect this.

She proceeded to call out The Mayor for her statement and “others” that these are political appointments.

Okay, an aside, this is just me, I’m pretty sure this is all about semantics, as I understand a political appointment as someone appointed by a politician. The Mayor confirmed her meaning as well and then proceeded with her discussion points on this agenda item.

Councilmembers Whitman and Lang both chimed in to say that the way new commissioners will now be selected via a committee of three (The Mayor, a rotating Councilmember, and the commission committee chair) negates the need for specific language regarding politics.

Here The Councilmember R argued her point some more and then proceeded to resurrect the ghost of Name Redacted’s removal. A few quiet audience groans could be heard (sorry) as Mayor Stix interrupted and asked her not to bring up the past and stay present with what they were working on. The inner workings are that The Councilmember R and Name Redacted have been aligned since she ran and she does not miss an opportunity to bring him up just to initiate conflict.

“I am going to ask you not to be ridiculous,” she responded to Mayor Stix’s request that they stay on topic.

Back and forth, blah, blah, blah, The Councilmember R yelling and pointing at the Mayor, accusing her of censoring her. The Mayor asking her to please stay in the present and work on the issue at hand. The Mayor Pro Tem siding with The Councilmember R.

Councilmember Whitman raised his hand and made a proffer that calmed the energy.

They got the ordinance passed.

Next up was an ordinance on giving locals preference for affordable housing. This is now possible due to California State Senate Bill 649 being passed enabling local communities to help people like me who are being displaced from our communities due to losing long-term affordable housing. There currently is no affordable housing here for us in the Ojai Valley. When I called the Ventura County Housing Authority and Assistance office last week she said I was her fourth call from the Ojai Valley in 24 hours, all the same story as mine.

I got up to make a comment very much in support of this one and at this point was back in the frame of mind to be specific about the behavior of The Mayor Pro Tem’s
bullying with a smile on her face and The Councilmember R’s yelling and finger-pointing. I pointed out that their behavior did not create a safe space for us or them at which point The Councilmember R weaponized her self-perceived victimhood to try to counter me. The Mayor shut her down and let me finish as I heard The Mayor Pro Tem quietly say, “I don’t know what she’s talking about,” again with a bemused smile on her face.

During the last meeting, long-term resident Peggy La Cerra got up in defense of me after I’d been called a dog who needed to be leashed by Agora Foundation board member Barry Rabe (the implication is that I was Mayor Stix’s dog). After speaking about Barry, she turned to The Councilmember R and called her out for her bad behavior towards me and other members of the community as well as her fellow council members.

Peggy submitted this letter to our now-resigned city manager. My thanks to The Ojai Vortex for publishing it in full and to Peggy for your comments at the meeting and your support. I am so sorry you were attacked in this way.

November 11, 2023

Mark Scott, Interim City Manager

City of Ojai
401 S. Ventura Street
Ojai, CA 93024

Dear Mr. Scott,

I’m writing to inform you in your capacity as City of Ojai Interim Manager that an incident report involving Council Member Leslie Rule has been entered into Ojai Police Department database by Chief Newman at my request. Although I initially contacted the police about this matter on October 26th, 2023, the same day it occurred, I delayed my decision to file an official report until I’d spoken to advisors and given the matter serious consideration (it was filed on November 6, 2023). 

As Chief Newman told you, I experienced an unnerving 2-part incident involving Council Member Leslie Rule and a female companion of hers at the Ojai Valley Athletic Club on Thursday, October 26th. I’ll recount it here.

In brief, I was approaching the front entrance of the athletic club on foot from the parking area on South Fox Street. When I was about 10 feet from the front stairs, I saw Ms. Rule walking from the west parking lot with a woman I didn’t know. They appeared to be speaking to each other. Then, suddenly, Ms. Rule’s companion started screaming at me (I heard, “HEY, LITTLE MISSY… (Unidentified loud diatribe)…MY FRIEND LESLIE… (More unidentified screaming)…” Stunned by this unprovoked verbal assault from a stranger, I ran up the stairs and into the club. I set up a mat in the exercise room where a stretch class was about to start and began a breathing practice to calm down. A few minutes had passed when I realized that Ms. Rule was passing very close to my mat making some low guttural sound. [Apparently, she’d come to take the same class with the other woman; they must have entered the room and set places next to each other at the farthest corner before Ms. Rule began walking back toward me.] She continued walking toward the room’s entrance, where mats and yoga blankets are stored. It’s possible that she picked up some prop (my eyes were averted). Then she walked back toward me, stopped at my mat, leaned downward and inward toward my head and said, “Karma’s a bitch, isn’t it Peggy?” in a menacing tone. The whole experience was bizarre and chilling. I got through the class, left quickly, and headed toward the front counter at the club’s entrance. I stayed there, talking to a long-term employee, April, until Ms. Rule and the woman who’d screamed at me had walked out of the club. I immediately asked April if she knew the woman “with Leslie Rule” and she said that she didn’t. I looked through the glass doors to see if they were gone. They weren’t. Both Ms. Rule and the other woman remained at the bottom of the steps for some time (at least 5 minutes). I stayed inside until they’d left the area.

When my partner, Wyn Matthews, came to the club to pick me up, I was still visibly shaken. He urged me to discuss the incident with Chief Newman because she sits in on City Council meetings and, as such, is familiar with Ms. Rule’s behavioral control issues, and was present when I’d made a public comment at a meeting on October 24th, 2 days before this incident occurred. [Ironically, my comment had focused on Ms. Rule’s misconduct during council meetings (a transcript of my statements about Ms. Rule’s conduct in council meetings follows below*).] 

Given this information, a friend who is a mental health professional, and a law enforcement officer, both affirmed my sense that Ms. Rule’s actions on the 26th constituted an escalation of her bullying behavior and poor impulse control. My concern that Ms. Rule might attempt to frighten and intimidate me again – or someone else – is one of the reasons I made the decision to file an incident report. Another reason is that Ms. Rule’s aggressive companion, a woman who doesn’t know me at all, was somehow moved to make a loud, vulgar, verbal attack on me in public, in broad daylight. I have no way of knowing how many other people who don’t know me also might be primed to aggress against me. 

Although the incident that prompted this letter occurred outside the confines of the Ojai City Council Chambers, its causal origin can be traced to dysfunctional conduct therein, on the dais, as well as in the gallery. Mayor Stix has repeatedly attempted to maintain order during meetings, but she needs – and is entitled to – support from you and, if necessary, law enforcement, to restore civility to this public forum.  

In sum, this constitutes formal notification to the City of Ojai that a council member who has repeatedly demonstrated a lack of control over her anger and frustration in city council meetings also has behaved in a menacing manner toward a member of the community who requested, in a public comment, that she bring her conduct back into alignment with the Code of Ethics of the League of California Cities. Please inform me of the steps that will be taken to ensure that the City of Ojai itself intends to come into compliance with this ethical code.

Sincerely,

Peggy La Cerra
Ojai, East End

Cc: Chief Trina Newsom

Ojai Police Department

* What follows are relevant statements referencing Council Member Rule, that I made in my public comment during the October 24th, 2023, Ojai City Council Meeting.

“Ms. Rule, you are a democratically elected official of the City of Ojai. It is inappropriate, and unethical, for you to repeatedly get up and walk out of the chamber whenever a speaker you may not want to acknowledge comes to the podium; it is also inappropriate and unethical for you to gesticulate and articulate your disapproval whenever someone says something that you don’t want to hear. You’ve done this repeatedly to Nora Herald, you’ve done it to Teal Rowe, and you’ve done it to many others in the gallery and on the dais of this chamber. Please behave professionally, ethically, and respectfully toward everyone, or step down.”

And even with all of the drama, the business of the city got done, with all 4 agenda items passing unanimously including approving a study for a citywide 25-mile-an-hour speed limit.

P.S. Earlier in the day, Senator Bernie Sanders had to step in to prevent a fistfight from happening between the president of the Teamsters Union, Sean O'Brien who was testifying before the committee, and GOP Senator Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma when Mullin challenged O’Brien to finish something there they had started with each other on the social media app formerly known as Twitter.

So, yeah

It’s come to my attention, based on the numbers, that the pieces I have written that contain more conflict draw more views. I wonder about this in this reality, the shadow and the light, Scorpio and Sagittarius sitting in opposition, the polarity seeming to be pronounced as we battle our way into the next moment.

Where is the peace in this? I guess it’s in the choices each of us makes in the moment. If the drama wanes will this reality wane along with it? We are conflict junkies here, most of us, where will the fun be without it?

Read Part XII Here

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