A Political Pickle: Understanding Ojai's Measure O
Unfortunately, I wrote 6,000 words on pickleball.
Greetings readers!
I went quiet for a few weeks; the result is a 6,000 word story about four pickleball courts at Ojai City Hall.1
Since we’re less than a week out from Election Day 2024, I went ahead and removed the paywalls from my long-form interviews with mayoral candidate Andy Gilman and City Council candidate Kim Mang. This story, too, is presented without a paywall. If you wish to support this work, please purchase a subscription, donate, or share this article with a friend!
I did make repeated attempts to schedule an interview with mayoral candidate Michelle Pineiro. Ultimately, she offered to provide written responses to my questions. I declined, because I want to offer readers in-depth, back-and-forth conversation with candidates and decision-makers. I also didn’t feel that would be fair to my other candidate interviewees.
If you’re still making up your mind about the mayoral race, I recommend watching the League of Women Voters forum with both candidates. One more election-related piece of business for California voters: if you have not received your mail-in ballot, go here. And if you’re not sure of your voter registration status, head here. Remember: Nov. 5th is the last day to vote, and California allows same day voter registration.
One final word before we delve into pickleball: thank you to the readers who came to the Subscriber Happy Hour on Sept. 30th! The next one will be on January 27th at the Ojai Valley Brewery.
A Political Pickle: Understanding Ojai’s Measure O
“In Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the beleaguered Prince of Verona screams to the entitled citizens, ‘All are punished!’” So declared Brad Weidlich to the assembled Ojai City Council at the beginning of this year. Weidlich continued, “The message reverberates to the bloodstained teens, the grieving parents, and the world.”
His statement came on the evening of January 30th, 2024, during a special Ojai City Council meeting dedicated to a hyper-local, hyper-contentious political issue: four pickleball courts on the Ojai City Hall campus.
The punishment Weidlich referred to was scheduled to occur the next day, January 31st, 2024, when the pickleball courts were to be closed to the public due to noise complaints from the neighbors.
The vote to close the courts came six weeks prior — in the early morning hours of December 13th, 2023. It was the end of a seven-hour City Council meeting that began Dec. 12th. The assembled pickleballers — including Councilwoman Leslie Rule — were outraged.
Then came January 30th, 2024, when the community came together to re-litigate the December decision. The next day, the City declared: compromise achieved!
The January 30th decision left the City Hall courts open through September, when five new pickleball courts came online at the Ventura County-managed Soule Park. Including three additional paddle tennis courts2, the project came at a cost of $650,000 to the City.
But there was a problem: all parties were not on board with the compromise. Less than a month later, members of Ojai Valley Pickleball, Inc filed a referendum with the city. Their demand? Keep the courts open.
This, my friends, is the story of Ojai’s Measure O. It’s a story about community engagement with local government, poor governance, and private property rights. And to get into it, we must take a trip back to 2017.
Let’s go!
Quick Aside: What is Pickleball?!
Think of pickleball as little tennis — or big ping pong. Pickleball is played with a hard paddle and a hollow plastic ball that resembles a wiffle ball. Four pickleball courts can fit into one standard tennis court. Like tennis, pickleball can be played with two players, or four.
Factors like the accessibility of the game, simplicity of the rules, and the fact that it can be played outdoors on a court small enough for players to chat with one another made it an appealing sport during the pandemic.
You can learn more over on Wikipedia — I’ll note that this article contains a controversy section.
Meet Tim Krout: Pickleball Evangelist
The story of pickleball in Ojai begins with Tim Krout. He and his wife Brenda have lived in town for the past 60 years; they met as students at Nordhoff High School. Tim, who has been an athlete all his life, caught the pickleball bug first — when he was invited to play during a trip to Lake Tahoe. He recalled his exchange with the Tahoe pickleballers:
“I said, ‘Well, I don't have any experience.’
[They said] ‘It doesn't matter. Come on down.’
[I said] ‘I don't know how to do the scoring.’
[They said]. ‘It doesn't matter. we'll keep the score.’
I say, ‘I don't have any equipment.’
[They say], ‘I've got some right here that you can use.’”
“That was a game changer for me,” Tim said, “As long as I've lived in the valley, and as often as I walk through Libbey Park, I've never once had a tennis player holler at me to come and play.”
Inspired by the inclusivity of the game, Tim decided to share it with the valley. In 2017, he received permission to use the tennis courts at (the former) Matilija Junior High School for (temporary) pickleball play. Brenda made fliers. The duo visited Ojai schools and placed the advertisements around town. Then, they waited.
“I parked my truck in the parking lot at Matilija with a sign on the back, and sat on the bed and just waited,” Tim recalled during a conversation at the (now-closed) City Hall courts. “People would come by, and I said, ‘Hey, you guys want to play pickleball?’ [They’d say], ‘Never heard of it.’ [I’d say], ‘Well, anytime we're here, come by, and I'll help you get started.’”
Lifelong Ojai resident Leslie Clark (of the Nomad Gallery) is one of about 40 pickleballers who got started at Matilija.
“I always played tennis, but [you] get older, your body wears out. I backed off from it, and I missed [it] so much,” Clark explained. “So I heard about these people that were playing at Matilija. I went out with a friend [and] I fell in love with the sport immediately, partly because there was absolutely no condescension. There was no, ‘You don't know how to play.’ It was so welcoming.”
The Matilija arrangement worked, but it wasn’t ideal: Tim had to set up and take down portable nets every time the group played, and the lack of lighting prevented evening hours. For about a year, Tim, Brenda, and a growing group of pickleballers played at the Matilija Courts after school hours and on weekends. During the winter of 2018-2019, the pickleballers were briefly permitted to play during evening hours under the lights of one of Ojai’s eight Libbey Park tennis courts.
By 2019, the Libbey Park arrangement was sunsetting, and “one of the [Matilija] phys ed teachers said that we were interrupting their use of the tennis court,” Tim said. Ultimately, the pickleballers were locked out of the Matilija campus and left without a place to play, Tim said.
Ojai Pickleball vs. Ojai Tennis
The pickleballers found an ally in Former Councilman Randy Haney — a former Nordhoff High School football coach and one-time Ojai Parks and Recreation Commission Chair.
“This group of people has been patiently asking for some help on getting a designated court within our community for pickleball,” Haney told his fellow Councilmembers in April 2019. “It is the number one growing sport in the nation for people over 60.”
The discussion, initiated by Haney, included consideration of permanent pickleball on one the Libbey Park tennis courts — an absolute non-starter for the Ojai Valley Tennis Club.3 Haney joked that the tennis players in the audience could have one shot at hitting him with a tennis ball.
“I’m a little shocked that this has gotten this far, to be honest,” Weil Tennis Academy founder Mark Weil told the Council of the Libbey Park proposal. “If a group came and said, ‘Hey, we want to play badminton at the Libbey Bowl, on stage… You guys would say, ‘That’s ridiculous.’ That’s how [this] hit me.”
“Don’t give anyone any ideas,” cautioned Johnston.
Francina chimed in with a bit of Ojai history, “Does anyone remember when we had folk dancing on the courts? I know that may come as a shock to you but we used to have folk dancing on the courts. And It was beautiful!”
Howard Radding, another local tennis player, contended that pickleball and tennis cannot coexist as neighbors — because pickleball is loud and distracting4.
When the discussion returned to the Council, Haney gestured to his right, “There’s an asphalt tennis court right out here. Poles are still in the ground. It’s waiting to be lined and waiting to be netted. So the reality is there’s other opportunities and other venues [for pickleball.]”
We shouldn’t blame Haney for the idea, though. The location was called out in the City’s staff report, which was prepared by former Recreation Manager Sophocles Cotsis and approved by then-City Manager Steve McClary.
The issue came back to the City Council in May. And I have to say: it’s a little bit funny to go back and watch these meetings — because you witness a problem created in real-time. Here’s Libbey Park neighbor Dan McSweeney:
“I don’t think there was a lot of discussion about the noise level that pickleball causes… For people living around that, it’s going to be a big disturbance to the peace and quiet of our neighborhood.”
As the debate between pickleballers and tennis players raged on, Haney once again invoked the abandoned tennis court outside City Council chambers. The audience erupted in applause. Take a look:
“I agree with you, Randy,” added former Ojai Mayor Johnny Johnston. “I think that this court right out in front here, probably for $50,000 could be resurfaced, fenced, lights, and done probably in less than three months. If somebody wanted to do it.”
According to Tim Krout, the pickleballers hadn’t thought about the City Hall court before City leadership suggested it. (I’ll note that the only City Council Member left from this period is Councilwoman Suza Francina — and her term expires in January.)
In August 2019, the Council voted unanimously to resurface the old court, authorizing $15,000 for the paving job. Ojai Historic Preservation Commissioner Brian Aikens confirmed that the space was once used as a tennis court by the Smith-Hobson family (the Ojai City Hall campus includes the original Smith-Hobson home). He acknowledged that the court looked more like a “decrepit parking lot” than a place for racquet sports.
The City staff report on the matter did acknowledge pickleball noise as a “concern.” Former Councilman Ryan Blatz appeared to be the only Council member who took the concern seriously. “We just have no idea what the impact of the noise will be,” he said to his colleagues, adding, “I’m just worried… if that noise is a problem, we’re going to be stuck.”
“I don’t see us being stuck,” Haney responded.
2020: Pickleball Play Begins!
The City repaved the old tennis court in 2019. The rest of the work — including sealing the asphalt, priming, painting, striping, and installing the court’s net system — was completed and funded by pickleball players. “I got bids for contractors,” Tim Krout said during a recent interview. “[The quotes were] 35 to $40,000. We collected money and did it for a little over $7,000.”
Play began on January 11, 2020. By late February, pickleball was back on the City Council’s agenda — specifically, “sound mitigation options.5” According to then-City Manager James Vega6, the City had already received four noise complaints.
Importantly — Ojai does have a noise ordinance on the books. Basically, in residential areas (such as the neighborhood across the street from Ojai City Hall), one is disallowed from making noise exceeding certain decibel levels7.
In response to the noise complaints, city staff conducted five-minute acoustic tests to gauge the noise level. The tests indicated “an approximate 3 to 4 decibel increase when the courts are in use,” according to a City staff report, “although some residents note that there is a ‘popping’ noise made by the pickleball that causes some irritation.” Critically, the City determined the pickleball “pops” did not violate the noise ordinance, as the decibel (dB) reading did not exceed 60 dBs during play. “This is typically in the category of laughter-type noise, which is about 60 decibels, as well,” Vega said.
A small group of neighbors contended that the court noise is far more disturbing than “laughter-type noise.”
“I know they’re having fun, but that popping noise goes on all day…” said Ron McCrea, who identified himself as a City Hall neighbor. “When it starts, I leave. I cannot go home.” McCrea added, “There’s only one way to solve this thing, and that’s to tell them to go someplace else and play their game.”
Mary Wargo, who rents an apartment across the street from the courts, read a concerned letter on behalf of Ojai resident Karin Quimby,8whose family owns the rental property. Wargo also described her own experience of the play occurring across Ventura Street:
“It’s massively noisy. That sound radiates through my residence to the back patio. I have to keep my doors and windows closed; I have to put on a loud air filter to filter out that banging noise. It’s a high-intensity noise.” Wargo said. “I don’t think anybody in here would want to live across the street from that. It’s that bad.”
Another Ventura Street neighbor, Judy DeVore, expressed similar concerns: “It’s just a terrible sound. It’s a thwack. It’s high-pitched, it’s redundant, it has changed the way I have to do things… Really, I pay a lot of rent over there, and part of it is that I have a little patio. Well, I don’t have that anymore.”
Disturbed neighbors were outnumbered by grateful pickleball players. Pickleballer Kristen Bell characterized the courts as a “tremendous gift [the Council has] given to the community.” She added, “We don’t want to be a nuisance to anybody, so thank you for the research; I’m glad that we were within the decibel limits. However, I’m still committed to doing what we can to mitigate the sound.”
When the discussion came back to the Council, Francina took a moment to apologize to the City Hall neighbors (whom she represents). “Speaking for myself, I now feel that I did not do my due diligence investigating the impact of the popping noise on the neighbors. And for that I apologize, I really do.”
Haney was a bit more dismissive of the noise complaints, comparing the pickleball courts to another (noisy, high-impact, beloved) Ojai establishment: the Sunday farmer’s market. “When that was initiated, I’m sure there was a tremendous amount of pushback… and we’ve figured it out and gotten along… I just have a sense that if we work together, we can mitigate some of this noise.”
The Council unanimously directed City staff to institute limited hours at the courts and to explore low-noise balls, quiet paddles, and a sound mitigation study. Less than a month later, the City was on the receiving end of a legal threat from McCrea. To avoid litigation, both parties agreed: the City would install “sound-lessening” fencing at the courts and limit pickleball play hours until January 2024, McCrea confirmed.
And then… The Council didn’t take up the issue again for nearly two years. Remember: this was 2020. Pickleball was about to pop off — in Ojai and across the nation. Similar turf wars over play area and debates over decibel levels lit off across the nation. Let’s take a quick tour of headlines across the nation:
You get the picture.
2021: Welcome to the Sound Mitigation Economy
Now, dear readers, we must enter the world of sound mitigation. Indeed, a whole economy has sprung up to manage pickleball sound issues — and the City of Ojai has made a few investments. By mid-2020, the city installed noise-dampening Acoustifence panels on the south and east sides of the court, as well as a six-foot gabion (rock) wall. Current City Manager Ben Harvey revealed in 2024 that the court’s sound wall cost taxpayers $15,300. I’ll note that the pickleballers helped assemble the rock wall, as volunteers.
The City further required pickleball players to adopt “quiet paddles” — specifically, one of dozens of “green-zone” paddles adopted by Sun City’s The Grand — a retirement community in Arizona dealing with its own pickleball fight. (It later turned out that this list wasn’t independently verified — oops.) The important point here is that there’s a collective recognition of the noise issue and a movement toward using quieter paddles and paddles. Truly — it’s a growth area in the pickleball economy.
By 2021, however, it was clear that the noise issue remained and the pickleball community was growing. The Council was changing, too: Betsy Stix was elected mayor in late 2020, and future Ojai City Councilwoman Leslie Rule entered the political mix. During one of the last meetings of the year, City Hall pickleballers and neighbors showed up to address the Council once more.
“You and our group are co-conspirators in our pickleball conundrum,” Pickleballer Jim McCarthy reminded the Council. “After all this, we’re still afraid of having no place to play. And there’s a whole lot more of us now.”
Karin Quimby — she’s the Ojai resident whose family owns the apartment building approximately 100 feet from the courts — was also present. “The City has completed its sound mitigation efforts: the building of walls [and] the hanging of acoustic fencing, and I’m here to say that those efforts have patently failed,” she said. “Neighbors continue to suffer daily — hourly.” Quimby called for the pickleballers to relocate to Libbey Park — a proposition that remained unpopular amongst the tennis community.
Jessica McCrea, whose family owns a home in the neighborhood, said that she used to enjoy sleeping in on the weekends — but she can’t rest during pickleball play. Nor can she concentrate, “As I am sitting there trying to read my book, I couldn’t do it,” she said, recounting a recent weekend. “I ended up just leaving the house for the day.”
Rule was one of the final speakers during a public comment period that swung from pickleball to mask mandates and vaccine passports (remember, we are in 2021), then back around to pickleball.
“I was originally here to speak about pickleball, but now I want to speak about masks,” Rule said, donning a surgical mask. “Wear your fucking mask,” she proclaimed.9 Audible boos came from assorted members of the public. “Sorry, that was uncalled for,” she acknowledged, then transitioned to the public health benefits of pickleball. You can observe this moment for yourself, if you wish:
2022: The Leslie Rule of It All
Rule later confirmed that pickleball was a key part of her decision to run for City Council in 2022. Council watchers as psycho as I can observe her decision-making occur over a series of meetings in 2022.
“I might run for City Council,” Rule announced with a laugh when she arrived at the speaker’s podium in July 2022, right after Anson Williams (the mayoral candidate of Happy Days notoriety) announced his mayoral run. “Kidding,” Rule added before transitioning to the pickleball portion of her statement.
“I actually was just being kind of flippant in my flippant way,” she explained during a recent interview. “Because it never even occurred to me to really do that.”
By August, however, the humor was gone. Rule and her 2022 opponent, current mayoral candidate Michelle Pineiro10, announced their candidacies during the same August 23rd City Council meeting. (Readers can learn more about Leslie Rule’s background and her entrance into Ojai politics here.)
Here’s the thing about Rule that I’ve just come to appreciate: she’s a lifelong athlete (a “jock,” in her words). That’s the story of many pickleball players. In pickleball, the court is small enough and the rules simple enough to make the game accessible to anyone with a paddle — even a sports injury.
Rule grew up in the Bay Area. Initially, tennis was what she did to bond with her father. “I started playing with my dad when I was seven. My parents were divorced. That's what we did together.” As she got older, she’d spend hours drilling, memorably “hitting on the church wall in San Francisco all night and getting high.”11
Rule eventually joined the tennis team at UC Berkeley but took a long break from the game after becoming a mom. “When I tried to go back to it, I found no joy in it… [that was] one of my greatest sadnesses,” she shared. For Rule, the psychology of the game was a tremendous challenge. “Winning meant nothing to me, and losing meant everything… you can’t possibly win in that game.”
She discovered pickleball at the Ojai Valley Athletic Club in 2021 — and that was it. “It gave me an opportunity to be kind and gracious and expansive [and] to welcome other people to play. My real battle was getting over being competitive and just enjoying … and that’s a wonderful feeling.”
“Bad Governance and Bad Leadership” (2022, continued)
Pickleball didn’t make it back onto a City Council agenda until a chilly COVID-era meeting at Libbey Bowl. It was the beginning of 2022 — two years after play began at the City Hall courts.
Once again, pickleballers outnumbered irritated neighbors. Tennis players were inflamed, once again, by a City staff report that suggested (again) moving pickleball play to a Libbey Park tennis court. One new idea came to the forefront, however: sending the matter to the City’s Parks and Recreation Commission, an advisory body to the Council.
“We really have circumvented the commission approach,” acknowledged former City Councilman William Weirick. “We really haven’t asked the [Parks and Recreation Commission] to look into this. And I’m not saying that to delay this, but I think there’s some legitimate criticism there.”12
The Council found some common ground around the concept of moving the pickleball courts — without an agreed-upon location. Weirick took the opportunity to ask Tim Krout a critical hypothetical: is a pickleball complex at Soule Park “something the pickleball community would embrace?”
After several prompts from Weirick, Krout responded, “Sure, if you owned the property or had the property now, yes. But I see that years down the road… What are we going to do in between?”
“I’ve never been against that [Soule Park] location, and I’ve never been against more venues — because this sport is going to keep growing,” Kraut said during a recent interview. His mission, he said, has always been “to keep a place in [the City of] Ojai for people to play.”
Haney, for his part, found the relocation idea offensive.
“You know, they maintain that place!” He exclaimed, describing the pickleballer’s efforts at City Hall. “The city doesn’t sweep the courts down; they do! They change the nets, they buy the nets, they paint the courts… Every condition that we’ve placed on them, they have lived up to. And yet here we are, ‘Thank you for living up to it, and now we’re going to take it away from you!’”
Councilman Blatz also had some words for his colleagues, stating that the entire saga reflected “bad governance [and] bad leadership.”
“I think it’s completely disingenuous for this Council to say we didn’t know what was going to happen. It was really clear. We knew the noise issue; we knew exactly what we were getting into.” Blatz continued, “We’ve spent money, we went through this entire process, we acted like there was some sort of sound mitigation fence that was ever going to work, knowing that it was never going to work… I’m not prepared to tell [the pickleball players] that because they’ve been so successful… they have to move because of that.” Take a look:
Given the lack of agreement, the Council voted unanimously to send the matter to the Parks and Recreation Commission.
“Sending it to a subordinate recreation commission at this point, after we’ve beat this thing to death over so many meetings, seems a complete cop-out on making a decision and just pushes it down the road,” Blatz remarked.
Indeed.
The Parks and Recreation Commission picked up the pickleball project in March of 2022. Former City Manager James Vegas provided a progress update to the Council in July 2022, a full two and a half years after play began.
Long-time City Council observer Bill Miley and others aligned with the City Hall neighbors took the opportunity to introduce a new political group: Citizens for Sound Pickleball Policy (CFSPP)13, a 14-page white paper called “Sound Facts Behind the Noise,” and a proposed solution. In Miley’s words, “[The] Soule Park courts, in our opinion, is the solution.” (I’ll note that at this point, there was one pickleball court and multiple racquetball courts at the county-managed Soule Park. It was playable — assuming you watched out for cracks in the pavement and were open to playing pickleball on a racquetball court.)
Anyways — the white paper, authored in part by Miley, characterized the offending pickleball “pops” as “high pitch” and “high loudness.” A type of sound, they wrote, is known to provoke “alarm” and “annoyance” in humans. The report further defines pickleball “pops” as “impulsive noise,” which can be challenging to measure.
“A regular sound level meter… will not be able to capture the noise from an impulsive sound,” the report stated, alleging that sound data from the City may not be accurate. Importantly, the CFSPP white paper was authored by individuals who are admittedly “not experts in the areas of sound engineering or acoustical testing.”
Meanwhile, the pickleballers, led by the Krouts, continued to advocate for opening Libbey Park for pickleball, given the limited hours of play at City Hall.
“We have facilities that are under-utilized. You can go to Libbey any time of the day, and the courts are not full,” Brenda alleged, to a chorus of boos from the assembled tennis players.
“Let’s make Libbey Park a multi-sport facility and not just a single sport for just a few,” Tim appealed to the Council.
Councilman Haney, the pickleballers’ principal Council ally, moved to dedicate two Libbey Park tennis courts for pickleball play during the hottest summer months — that would allow pickleballers to play in the evening under the park’s lights. None of his colleagues joined him. After more than an hour of public comment and deliberation, the Council took no action. I think it’s fair to label this discussion unproductive — at the Council level, at least.
Meanwhile, the Citizens for Sound Pickleball Solutions commissioned a sound study of their own, in collaboration with acoustic engineer Bruce Walker. Critically, Walker took acoustic measurements from inside Wargo’s second-floor apartment — remember, she lives across the street from the courts. According to Walker’s measurements, pickleball noise was, in fact, creating unlawful levels of noise pollution inside Wargo’s home.
Simultaneously, the Soule Park proposal moved forward. In September 2022, the Council considered a recommendation from Weirick to partner with the county to provide “additional recreational opportunities” at Soule Park.
Weirick sold the concept as “a framework, a framework to give us options.” Many in the audience, however, interpreted the proposed “framework” as a means to add pickleball courts to Soule Park — and move the pickleballers out of City Hall. The Council voted 3-1 to take the concept to Ventura County, with Blatz voting in opposition and Stix abstaining.
This is the point at which a solution begins to emerge — though it’s not a solution favored by the pickleballers.
2023: A New Council and a Busy Commission
Let’s now direct our attention to the activities of Ojai’s Parks and Recreation Commission, where Commissioners Ryan Firestone and Karen Wilson14 worked for more than a year to study the pickleball problem, commission another sound study, and provide recommendations to the City Council.
Meanwhile, a new Council was seated in January 2023 — Haney, Blatz, and Weirick were replaced by freshmen Councilmembers Rachel Lang, Leslie Rule, and Andrew Whitman. Former City Manager James Vega, too, was replaced by Interim City Manager Mark Scott.15
The new Council dove into the pickleball matter during the summer of 2023. And they had a few questions. First, what happened to the the Soule Park partnership negotiations?
This is where we run into another governance issue: Ojai’s Parks and Recreation Commission stopped meeting in July 2023 due to a lack of quorum (the minimum number of members needed to host a meeting). The same problem occurred on the April evening they were set to discuss the proposed Soule Park partnership, according to former Recreation Supervisor Luis Gomez. “All of that [negotiation] came to a stop,” Scott confirmed. “It doesn’t need to stay stopped. It can be [re]initiated and I think it probably should.”
As an aside, I want to note that the Parks and Recreation Commission has not met since July of 2023 — all for lack of a quorum. I asked Haney for insight into this — he used to chair the Commission, after all. His answer was simple: “The City Council doesn’t think it’s a priority to fill vacant commission seats.”16
As for the year-long investigation into the pickleball problem, the Commissioners’ report was completed in April 2023, but it didn’t reach the Council until August; why? Same reason, according to Scott.
Ultimately, Firestone and Wilson’s report arrived with 110 pages and five recommendations to the Council, including:
Developing pickleball courts at Soule Park,
Continuing pickleball play at City Hall, with continued sound abatement measures,
Developing pickleball noise standards,
Not expanding pickleball to Libbey Park tennis courts.
The report included another sound study, this one conducted by Pickleball Sound Mitigation LLC (PSM) at a cost of $13,250. (See what I mean about the pickleball sound mitigation economy?) Critically, the report stated, “Sound level metering conducted by PSM does not suggest any violation of the City noise standards at the property line of the nearest neighbor to the City Hall courts.” However, “It is possible for some sounds to be a nuisance at [dB] levels lower than the ordinance. This is the case with pickleball sound.”
According to Quimby, PSM is a “pro-pickleball sound engineering firm.” Still, like the CFSPP white paper, the PSM study noted challenges associated with regulating “impulsive” noise, like the pickleball “pop.” According to the report, “applying the limits for continuous noise to impulsive pickleball noise understates the perceived loudness of pickleball impact dB levels.”
Unlike the CFSPP white paper, however, the PSM report suggested that “sound at the City Hall site could possibly be brought [to] a more acceptable level with the suggested guideline using quieter paddles”17 in combination with “a sound barrier higher than the current one.” On these two recommendations, the PSM report was right in line with the pickleballer’s suggestions.
As Council deliberation began, however, it became clear that a Council majority favored closing the City Hall courts and swapping them for a (then-theoretical) set of refurbished and expanded pickleball courts at Soule Park.
"They commissioned that report, and then they just tossed it in the trash can," Tim Krout commented.
Next came December 12th, 2023 — a seven-hour marathon of a meeting in which public comments swung between calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, support for the homeless community camped outside the Council chambers, affordable housing, and… pickleball courts. It also featured another new man in the City Manager seat: Interim City Manager Carl Alameda18. Tensions were high all around for wildly different reasons. The transitions were emotionally jarring — borderline absurd.
Once the debate transitioned back to Council, Rule surprised her colleagues — even the Deputy City Clerk — with a PowerPoint presentation showcasing the players who enjoy the City Hall courts.
“Our real job is to serve the community, and these are the people who play at the park,” Rule said to the Council. She narrated as portraits of pickleballers appeared on screen:
“They are the heads of schools, they are kids, they’re an ex-PE teacher who teaches people how to play,” Rule continued as new faces cycled through the presentation, “I don’t know him… I don’t know them… that’s our emergency room doctor; that’s the pastor’s wife who loves to curse…”
“[Pickleball noise] does not bother all of the neighbors. Sound is very, very subjective,” Rule continued. “This is a public park. Somebody built investment property across from a public park.”
Mayor Stix eventually asked Rule to “wrap it up.” Rule responded, “I don’t know how to wrap it up. What I want to suggest is that we wake a motion that we engage with figuring out how to fundraise for a 30-foot [sound-deadening] wall…” None of her colleagues joined her.
“Are you guys really going to close the courts? Really?” Rule protested. The deliberation was heated. You can watch for yourself, if you wish:
You know the rest: the Council ultimately voted 3-2 to close the courts on January 31st (“the punishment” referenced at the beginning of the piece). The votes in opposition belonged to Councilwomen Rule and Lang.
Six weeks later, January 30th, the Council changed their collective mind, ultimately sanctioning 8 more months of City Hall pickle play.
Something else happened that night — something I’ve not yet mentioned: the Council unanimously authorized their new City Manager Ben Harvey to resume the stalled Soule Park negotiations with Ventura County.
It was a near-complete political victory for Citizens for Sound Pickleball Policy. This all makes sense when you realize that Karin Quimby is a professional political organizer. Her professional experience includes the Human Rights Campaign and the Environmental Defense Fund. The pickleballers were simply out-maneuvered.
A political problem still existed for the Council, however: the pickleballers didn’t necessarily accept Soule Park as a reasonable compromise for the closure of the City Courts. Why? There’s the issue of entrance fees19, lack of safe bicycle access20, and the lack of shade (oak trees famously shade the City Hall courts).
Still, the Soule Park project moved forward. During a special meeting on February 15th, the Council authorized $147,000 for Soule Park pickleball courts. Five days later, the Ojai City Clerk’s office was on the receiving end of a ballot initiative to keep the City Hall pickleball courts open. The Clerk’s office later verified that the pickleballers supplied 533 valid signatures of Ojai voters — enough to qualify for the November ballot.
The City had a choice: they could a) put the question on the ballot, or b) reopen the courts and guarantee their accessibility year round by adding new language to the municipal code. The Council chose option A — at a cost of approximately $15,100. You know this initiative as Measure O.
The question of Measure O has led to a flurry of local political activity — let’s take a quick look at both side’s arguments, and then (I swear to God) I’ll wrap it up.21
Let’s start with the pickleballers, who emphasize the community-building nature of the courts — similar to Rule’s PowerPoint.
A paid Yes on O mailer warns that “a small minority should not be able to close parks.” Their language takes a swipe at the City Council for ignoring the recommendations of its own Parks and Recreation Commission; another bullet point is aimed at CFSPP. (“Don’t let real estate agents and investors decide which public parks stay open and which close!”)
The “No” campaign, led by Quimby, calls O “an attempt by a special interests group to take over the use of city land for their preferred sport — in perpetuity.” They call on Ojaians to “be a good neighbor.” In short, this campaign is all about protecting the aforementioned “small minority” (the residents and homeowners).
A close look at the “No” campaign literature showcases Quimby’s political expertise: her endorsees include every Councilmember but Rule, three former Ojai mayors, and all three candidates for City Council. Former Mayor Johnston is not on the endorsement list, though he is featured on campaign literature:
I want to offer one final thought: in examining Measure O, I’ve thought a lot about the other land use debate in the City Hall neighborhood: the unhoused community living on the other side of the City Hall campus.
In both discussions, we hear similar themes: the rights of homeowners and residents in their neighborhood versus the rights of the public on publicly-owned land. The next phase in the discourse about Ojai Tent Town comes right after Election Day: Nov. 6th at the Ojai Planning Commission.
As always — thanks for reading. And happy voting!
Yes — I do question my life choices.
One of which is a “multi-sport court” — meaning, appropriate for pickleball.
To be clear: there are plenty of pickleballers who play tennis, and vice versa. But in the debate over play area, the two sports were absolutely pitted against one another.
Foreshadowing!
Who could have guessed?
Vega departed Ojai in July 2023
Semi-relevant: I also found an ordinance disallowing “disturbing or raucous yelling, shouting, hooting or whistling” on public streets or sidewalks.
Quimby and family own two duplexes that they rent as apartments: one that fronts Ventura Street (and City Hall). The other fronts Signal Street.
This moment… was incredible.
Pineiro did not agree to an in-person interview in the style of my interviews with mayoral candidate Andy Gilman, City Manager Ben Harvey, and Council candidate Kim Mang.
One thing about Leslie Rule: she’s a great interview.
As do I.
I must congratulate this group on the pun.
Sadly, Karen passed away in August 2024. She was a dedicated community member and I was grateful to have her as a reader. Rest in peace, Karen.
Scott exited in dramatic fashion in November 2023 — he was replaced by Carl Alameda.
This is a massive governance problem. Note the current fracas over the gymnastics program.
I want to confirm that there are certified quiet paddles on the market. Pickleballers tell me that the technology is quickly improving due to demand.
He served as City Manager until Ben Harvey came onboard in January 2024.
$2 on weekdays and $5 on weekends. An annual pass is $60, for seniors it’s $30.
I can confirm from experience: it’s a little scary.
Is anyone still reading this?
Great piece! Thanks for spelling out all the background and stakes of both sides :)