Not Ready to Vote for Peace

Ojai City Council Series Part XII

The agenda was light, with only two items plus the approval of the consent calendar, but the content was heavy: climate change, our housing crisis, war, and a demand for a ceasefire in Gaza. It’s been days since the five-hour-long meeting, and I am still finding the words.

This is Part XII 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)

How do we solve the world’s problems here in our small town?

I can tell you first how I think we don’t do it.

1. We don’t, as citizens, get up and share graphic descriptions of violence against men, women, and children at the mic, so graphic that I had to leave my seat and exit the building until he was done.

2. We don’t share information sourced from conspiracy theorists, as a council member did on the dias as she read from a book filled with it. I won’t mention the book here so as to not promote it.

3. We don’t disrespect our fellow council members or the community by taking so much time at the mic that the groans at the back of the room were audible as the point was repeated again and again and again by the same councilperson. (Council, please, I beg of you, start imposing time limits on council members’ comments).

4. We don’t show up at a meeting to only speak on events happening outside of the sphere of our community. Several people at the council meeting spoke about a desire for a ceasefire in the Middle East whom I had never before seen at our meetings. I hope they will become more engaged here in our community while continuing their activism concerning events outside of our community.

5. We don’t run on a platform that claims to be in support of addressing climate change and then vote against the city’s climate change measures as two councilpersons did.

6. We don’t try to shift the onus of the Rental Disclosure Ordinance from developers to the community in need of housing.

Rental Disclosure somehow passed on the second reading with all in favor although The Mayor Pro Tem F initially said that she wanted to change her vote to a “No”. It took almost an hour to get to item two on the agenda due to the back and forth and some grandstanding.

The upshot of item two is that a local Ojaian is developing a residential property (2 units) and planning on offering what was referred to as “semi-affordable” and/or “affordable” housing. Because rental disclosure has not yet become an ordinance, I don’t know what the actual numbers are. “Affordable” to you may not be affordable to me, and certainly won’t be to the many people living below the poverty line here in Ojai. If you visit Ojai or live comfortably in Ojai, you may have no idea this is the actuality, as it looks from the outside like our community is largely populated by white people with money.

This is true for some, certainly. Most of the rest of us are just faking it except those who are obviously suffering due to lack of housing, healthcare, dental care, mental health care………………………………fuck, this is depressing.

Ojai is enforcing a Greenhouse Gas Reduction Code that states that all new residential properties along with other kinds of new developments must be all-electric, in an attempt to combat accelerating climate change. The developer wanted an exemption under the “hardship” clause. The planning commission granted him one, and this was then appealed by Steve Colome on behalf of the Ojai Climate Committee. It came before the council for their vote.

Compelling testimony was given by Colome as to the fallacy of the developer’s claims, and then by Ojai citizens during public comments, specifically Michelle Ellison, Allison Stillman (who enumerated the multiple climate change disasters she weathered and barely escaped over the past six years in various parts of the country), and Michelle Pineiro who narrowly lost to The Councilmember R by 17 votes back in the 2022 election.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, and something about truth and fairness being her highest values, The Councilmember R was not in support. She argued that in other parts of California, these kinds of codes are being challenged in the courts, so it was not fair to the developer to hold him to the current law. She voted to deny the appeal by the Ojai Climate Committee due to the potential “risk”.

My point was that accelerating climate change poses a bigger risk than potential litigation, and I encouraged the council to support getting off of all fossil fuels.

Councilmember Lang pointed out that this is our current law, and speaking of fairness, what about all of the other developers who are currently adhering to this law in Ojai? Points Lang! She voted in support of denying the developer’s ask, and in support of the appeal by the Ojai Climate Committee as did Whitman and Stix.

The Mayor Pro Tem F voted in favor of the developer after brandishing and reading from a book written by conspiracy theorists and transphobes (I really do not want to report this. I have no desire to be mean here to TMPTF, but these are the facts of what happened).

Mayor Stix spoke in support of Lucas Seibert, the Ojai Community Development Director, and his work and recommendation to deny the exemption given to the developer and support the appeal by Colome and the Ojai Climate Committee. She also stressed fairness, the fairness we need to be showing our children concerning climate change, and the responsibility we bear in halting it.

With the three to two votes final tally, the developer must now build an all-electric property.

The Councilmember R then left due to being sick. She was masked throughout the meeting. Even though the meeting would get heavier, in some ways it got easier and smoother at that point as the sanctimony typically on display was now gone. This also facilitated a shift in The Mayor Pro Tem F as they are typically aligned. The power balance changed and it was all more harmonious even as we headed into the topic of a peace proposal and a demand that the City Council call for a ceasefire in Gaza as some other cities have across the country.

“I don’t envy you,” I said to the four of them as they sat there on the dais after having listened to people supporting Israel and its right to exist versus those who were there in full-throated support of a ceasefire in Gaza.

During the last meeting, Councilmember Lang had agreed to put together a peace declaration after hearing from many members of the community asking the City Council to formally weigh in and call for a ceasefire in Gaza. She and Mayor Stix met with representatives from the Ceasefire Now group and other peace activists. They came up with a draft that everyone seemed to agree upon.

They then met with a local Rabbi and got some more feedback, specifically about the potential safety issues the current version could create for Jewish citizens living in the valley, and then changed the language removing any specificity to Israel, Palestine, Gaza, Hamas, etc. creating a general peace proclamation instead.

The news out of that region today is terrible. Fighting has once again commenced and all negotiations have been halted. After the horrific attacks by Hamas against Israeli citizens on October 7th, killing more Jewish people, at least 1200, in a single day since the Holocaust, the right-wing Israeli government’s response led by Netanyahu has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths of Palestinians, many more injuries, destruction of communities, and exaggerated suffering. Hostages are being held by both sides.

The comments at the meeting were carefully crafted, emotional, and heartfelt. People spoke in support of Israel, sharing their perspective that with a ceasefire Israel would cease to exist, or people spoke in support of Palestine asking for a unilateral and immediate ceasefire, and without that language included in the declaration they would pull their support of it.

People asked, “Why now? Why this for Palestine and not for Israel, Ukraine, The Sudan, etc?”

It’s gone on for thousands of years, and it’s biblical. The Bible was referenced or at least biblical stories were by some of the speakers.

Do we base our political policies on religious dogma and mythology?

As much as we like to shout, “Separation of church and state!” it’s right there in our Pledge of Allegiance which we say at the beginning of every City Council meeting, standing, our hands over our hearts, as we face the flag, “One nation under God”.

How do we solve this?

Well, we did not solve it, as the echoes of ancestral trauma filled the space that night.

Councilmember Lang expressed her initial intent in volunteering to work on this to bring peace and connection. She acknowledged that instead, the document seemed to have created even more polarization. She also apologized to the Ceasefire Now group for not giving them notice that the draft had changed.

Councilmember Whitman researched the “right” way to do this as a city council and realized that there just was not one. There is no way to address this in a way that satisfies all parties. He suggested getting involved at the federal level.

Mayor Stix thanked everyone for coming out and expressing their opinions and acknowledged the fact that we are blessed to live in a space where we have the freedom to do so. She quoted Thích Nhất Hạnh, saying “Peace is a practice”, and that what happened during the meeting was just that. She agreed with the others that there was no consensus at this time and thanked Councilmember Lang for taking the lead and for her work on this, something so messy and difficult. Whitman jumped back in with his thanks to Lang as well.

The Mayor Pro Tem F suggested that we all just let it be for now and keep the conversation going without a vote. She also made some comments on the military-industrial complex, evil, suggested that we look at how our tax dollars are being used, and perhaps we should investigate The Crown family who owns The Ojai Valley Inn.

The council was unanimous, no vote was taken.

And yet, healing happened in that space on that night. As I returned to my seat after speaking about the need to acknowledge the suffering across the board and in the very room and the fact that what is playing out there is so nuanced and complicated from a political and historical perspective that we can not solve it here, the people in the room as a whole seemed more relaxed and at ease. The city had let them all speak, and they felt heard.

Both antisemitism and Islamaphobia are on the rise as are other distortions of fear manifesting as hate. They are being fueled by far-right fascist idealogues grabbing at power and infecting their constituents. Some on the far left are using these ideas and their followers are being manipulated by them as well.

What’s happening in Israel/Palestine, many see it as an either-or situation, and it’s not. It’s a humanitarian crisis. It’s a crisis we are all feeling and one that continues to be a flashpoint for us in ways that no other conflicts are, creating massive trauma bonds in the process.

How do we solve the world’s problems here in our small town?

I can tell you on that night this is what we did.

We came together in community, connection, and respect for one another and listened. We held space for one another, and this facilitated healing.

It was love and peace in action.

And the council still got the business of the city done.

Read Part XIII Here

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