Dot, Dot, Goose!

Ojai City Council Series Part VI

In Honor of the Super Blue Moon that was Exact While The Meeting Took Place, Plus Look! Dots!

Councilmember Whitman was served with a notice that an intent to recall him had been started. The group, a PAC, meaning the membership of the group is allowed to remain secret, is calling itself “Ojai for All”. They have completed the first step and now need to get enough signatures on a petition to actually mount a recall election, which, if it happens, would be during the California primaries in the spring of 2024.

Gross.

(If you’re just coming into this series, you can start here with Part I - Pluto Misogyny Showdown at City Hall)

I don’t know who the “All” is that they are talking about, but if I could hazard a guess it would be the white, privileged, monied set and those who think the white, privileged, monied set is either a group that will take care of them or a group they aspire to be a part of. The PAC defines themselves as a “nonpartisan group of Ojai Valley residents who represent a crosssection of the city in terms of national party affiliation and political views…” - The Ojai Valley News

Let me translate this for you - the conservatives don’t hold any seats on our city council so this is their way of trying to grab power.

During our last election, Councilmember Andy Whitman won with the most votes in any of our districts, winning with 59% of the total. So this shady, as in operating in the shadows, PAC is going after the one being who got more votes than any of the others due to their hatred of the mayor. They really can not wage a recall effort against her, as she comes up again for re-election in the fall of 2024, so they are going after Whitman. Councilmember Lang may be next on their list of people to attack. I say “may” because I am not sure they are going to publicly go after her. They are attacking her in other more sinister and quieter ways, out of the public view, as they are Mayor Stix, and then again also publicly via the dreck they write into our local paper which gets published in the editorial section due to the paper being biased against the mayor and anyone who votes alongside her.

It’s a real shitshow and it’s one of the reasons I am writing about this. Our local media has been co-opted. So those of us who are frustrated by their biased reporting need to find ways to share a differing viewpoint. I’ll remind you that The Ojai Valley News, (parent company Ojai Media LLC), is partly owned by the CEO of Fox Sports, Eric Shanks, and the Ventura County Sun is their brand-new publication. Here’s hoping the Ventura County Star continues with its more even reporting.

Councilmember Rule and Mayor Pro Tem Francina are probably “safe” from the PAC’s machinations as they seem to be aligned with them.

Also, how exhausted are you at this point by the U.S. Pluto Return? It’s tentacled its way into every aspect of our lives from national to local. It helps me to remember this piece when faced with the ugliness playing out right now as I witness the patriarchal forces try to hold onto the power that is slipping through their grasp with all of their might, so much so that they seem to be willing to tear themselves apart in the process. November 19, 2024, when Pluto finally settles into Aquarius for a twenty-year stretch, can not come soon enough for me.

On August 30th, the council gathered for a priorities workshop. This event was held publicly, as are most city council meetings and workshops. The only closed sessions of the council have to do with things like interviewing recruitment firms to hire a new city manager, interim manager, Mark Scott is just this, interim. He’s great, from what I have both seen of him and heard about him from others. Closed sessions may also have to do with talking about strategies regarding lawsuits that need to be done privately so as not to give away this information to the other side.

We gathered in the icy cold of Kent Hall in the extreme heat that late afternoon, the building adjacent to the one where our regular city hall meetings are held. I say icy because it felt to me like the thermostat was set to 60 degrees. Cold air is supposed to be stimulating. Air that is too cold, however, is numbing. The chairs, though, were so uncomfortable that there was no chance that any of us were going to nod off during the almost four-hour-long meeting.

The intent was for the council members to prioritize a sizeable list of agenda items. This was Interim City Manager Mark Scott’s meeting, and it was clear he had spent a lot of time and thought on it.

He explained the process:

*Talk about and define each item and come to a collective agreement about what each item means.

*Reduce the number of items needing prioritization by either grouping them together and/or removing them from the list due to other things needing to happen before they could even begin to be addressed by City Staff/Council and/or with the understanding that they would come in front of the council in a more organic way as the need arose.

*Invite Councilmembers to add items to the list

*Dotocracy
Each Councilmember will get 10 magnetic dots, differing colors per member, and get to place their dots next to 10 different items on the list. He stressed the FUN of the activity. He had extra dots if needed. He also encouraged collaboration and flexibility.

Dotocracy in Action Much Later in the Night - L.to R. - Councilmember Lang, Mayor Stix, Councilmember Rule, and Councilmember Whitman

L. to R. - Councilmember Whitman, Councilmember Rule, Councilmember Lang, Mayor Stix, and Mayor Pro Tem Francina

There was the typical back and forth during all of this, between council members and Mark Scott.

Public comment then began. There would only be public comment given at the beginning of the process and not after each item on the long list otherwise it would have become the Nicholas Nickleby of city council meetings and I would still be there.

Mercury Retrograde was the first to make an appearance in making sure that the mic on the public podium was not on and the three-minute countdown clock was late to start.

We heard from a couple of former City Councilmembers on paving and streets and how the current council could do it all better, in their opinion.

The majority of public comments, however, related to our unhoused population and housing in general. While mentioning it, I really have not yet devoted an article to the “affordable housing” saga that began even before the prior city council’s tenure. This is something that dovetails with accusations and findings of Brown Act violations, lawsuits, a development project, a management company, and a giant conspiracy theory with our Mayor at the center of it meant to distract the public away from the actual culprit - greed. It’s always greed or the patriarchy or white supremacy. And really, are they any different?

Tisha Morris, wife of City Council Member Rachel Lang got up and said this:

”Okay, second to the unhoused situation, that was pretty compelling. (she was referring to Ruth Miller, Chair of the Ojai Homeless Shelter Task Force who had spoken just prior)

Something that’s not on the board, and I am only bringing it up because I feel like it would save so much time so that the council could address the things on the board. I am proposing making it a priority to draft and enact a code of ethics. The council has exhausted itself in meeting after meeting in dealing with issues that could be addressed through a code of ethics that contains a process for reprimanding actions.

We’re unfortunately living in a time when what seems like common sense, courtesy, and decorum no longer exists. So, for example, some of the things that the code could contain or outline would be decorum among the council members in session, on social media, and toward the public during public comments. I think we all know what I am referencing, many of the things I am referencing. It also could outline what constitutes a conflict of interest.

So many of these issues that you guys have spent so much time on, literally until midnight, when we could be focusing on these things (she pointed to the whiteboard with the long list of items to be prioritized). This could also apply to appointees, including commissioners. This would have been a formal process to address the issues pertaining to Name Redacted. Instead, what’s happening is that it’s putting the onus, the burden, on the public to be the police of the ethics, and also on the council members with no guidelines to follow in trying to figure out how to weigh in on these issues.

Here’s the thing, The Council sets the tone for the public. When a council member criticizes another council member on social media (this is something that has already happened), it gives a permission slip to the public to do the same. If anything, you should have each other’s back regardless of how you feel about the policy. We live in a dangerous time when people feel emboldened to use hate, verbally and physically. We all know what happened recently in Lake Arrowhead, a community very similar to our own. Please do not feed this type of energy. I urge the council to prioritize a code of ethics to relieve yourself of the time spent on these issues and set an example for this City of Peace that Ojai has historically been……..”

Although last night’s meeting was devoid of any high drama or major conflict, it still would have been useful if something like this were already in place, having observed certain councilmembers’ tones and behaviors, nothing super egregious, but enough that I noticed. I also think it is worth mentioning that Tisha Morris does not regularly attend or comment during meetings. Her appearance that night emphasized the importance of what she was speaking about.

A community member spoke on the need for public safety and emergency protocols as a top priority. Later the mayor mentioned there are other agencies the council is collaborating on this with and they are well underway.

Yeah, evacuating from The Thomas Fire in 2017 was no easy feat for many of us as we only have three main roads out of the valley, and off and on they were closed due to the wildfire raging around our town and community at large, a wildfire that was the largest ever to occur in recorded history at that time. You can read all about it here in my piece entitled “The Fire”

Name Recacted got up and spoke. I was not planning on speaking, but after hearing him use some fear tactics regarding money, lawsuits, and public perception to try to paint a picture, I hurriedly grabbed a comment card, filled it out, and handed it in.

Two others went ahead of me, both of them speaking beautifully on the need to care for our unhoused population including Martha Ditchfield who has been the president of our Ojai Family Shelter (which only operates as an overnight shelter in the cold months) for the past 15-20 years.

I got up and asked the council to make it a priority to operate from their hearts, to come from a place of love, peace, and bravery, and not to let fear-based information seep into their consciousness and affect what they believe are the priorities for this community, most importantly, the care and needs of the most vulnerable among us. Once that’s done, everyone else is cared for. I encouraged the implementation of the code of ethics that Tisha Morris had spoken about, and emphasized again the need to care for our most vulnerable (including the tent community of unhoused people that continues to grow on the other side of the parking lot next to the very building we were in), thanked them, and sat.

There were a couple of online comments and one other public comment from someone who came in late and always speaks (I am not one to point fingers about this, I have gotten up at all five meetings I have recently attended).

Mark Scott took charge once more and started to run down the list of the thirty-three line items he had put on the whiteboard prior to the meeting gathering council member’s input and questions as he went along.

This was the longest part of the night, and my butt was really hurting by now due to the bad chairs, so I was less patient than I normally am in the cushy chairs in the gallery of the city council meeting room. You can see my photos below regarding what was on this list coming into the meeting, what items were then added by council members, and which items received higher priority status based on the number of dots next to each.

White Privilege Pickleball was on the list, and this is all I am saying about this item.

Talking, talking, talking, talking. Jon had left two hours in to go home to feed the doggies and let them out. He returned about forty-five minutes later. I let him know if this went beyond eight o’clock, we’d be leaving at that point. The meeting had started at four.

More talking, talking, talking - I am not disparaging the importance of this workshop nor the conversations, just trying to demonstrate the length, although, again, there were questions asked that had already been answered or would be answered if patience and not anxiety had been applied by some on the dais (there was no actual dais at this meeting, just a long table and chairs as the front of the room).

Mark Scott stressed the need for an affordable housing workshop, with actual experts whom the city would probably have to pay as the participants as opposed to an affordable housing town hall which would be comprised of community members on and off yelling at the council out of frustration and/or greed and/or misinformation. Housing availability in our community is always at a premium. Affordable housing is now non-existent. This is not hyperbole, and if it has not already come to your town (it probably has by now) it will.

At some point, Councilmember Whitman was talking about the general plan and I had a big deja vu, you know the kind, one that’s so intense it has you wondering which version of reality you’re actually in. I’d already had deja vu multiple times that day, but they were of the smaller variety. This seemed significant with the super/blue moon in Pisces conjunct Saturn. I felt like it may have to do with what he was dealing with in himself as a response to the recall effort being mounted against him, a recall effort initiated during a Mercury and Venus Retrograde. Good luck!!!!!!

We got to the point where council members were welcome to add items to the list

Councilmember Lang added an ordinance to create a Peace and Ethics Committee to create a Code of Ethics for the city council, for commissioners, and for city staff, for interpersonal conflict resolution between members, and in support of our longstanding designation as “Ojai International City of Peace”. Her other addition was the issue of Street Safety.

Mayor Pro Tem Francina wants an ordinance that businesses can not ban cash sales.
She also wants to eliminate districting. Our city was divided into 4 districts due to a California law change a few years ago. She was elected as a rep of District 4. She lost her housing back in 2021 and had been living outside of her district until just a few weeks ago when she finally secured housing in her district, meaning that she had been illegally holding her seat for a year and a half as the council member must live in the district they are elected to. The Ventura County DA did an investigation and came down with a ruling this summer. The council voted to grant her grace for a bit more time and voila! She secured housing.

Mayor Stix - Wants to strengthen our tree ordinance which is in place to protect our tree population. She also added an implementation of an Earth-Friendly Pest Management Policy on city grounds as a way to encourage an expansion of this throughout the city/valley.

Councilmember Whitman - Spoke on pedestrian circulation - meaning making more of Ojai more walkable for all.

Three hours in and we took a long overdue break, my ass was killing me.

Dotocracy commenced once we were back, and here is the outcome. Multiple dots mean that multiple council members selected the item.

Only one dot for the Peace and Ethics Committee. Boo!

Items that were not dotted are not off the list, they are just not a priority in the immediate. The items with stars did not need to be dealt with in this priorities workshop.

It’s no surprise that the only item with 5 dots is the need to deal with the unhoused tent community currently on the City Hall Campus as it is urgent for the people there, both trying to live there and for those on the city staff and council who interact with them every day. CA recently passed a law stating that if a town does not have a full-time working shelter for the unhoused these humans must be allowed to sleep on city property.

Thanks and love were expressed with a big shoutout to Mark Scott for putting this all together, the Ojai elementals smiled upon us when they graced us with this veteran city manager who brings so much experience, humor, kindness, compassion, and a willingness to admit when he is wrong about something and grow.

The Mayor adjourned the meeting and we were free, almost four hours after it had begun, just before my eight o’clock deadline.

Read Part VII Here