Notes from Ojai City Council: Next Steps for Homeless Housing, Financial "Tasks," Legal Fees, Trees, and More
And by "notes" I mean 2,700 artfully arranged words :)
Greetings, readers!
Last week, I previewed the April 14th Ojai City Council meeting. Today, I want to tell you what happened. I want to flag that this is not a comprehensive report, but an overview of the events I found most noteworthy — and there were quite a few — more than I could fit in my social media update. Remember: for a free trial subscription, email andra.belknap@gmail.com.
Let’s go!
The Ojai City Council kicked off the evening of April 14th with a seemingly dry update from Special Projects Manager Christy Billings: a “quarterly progress update” on the City’s “targeted forensic review.”
Billings provided an update on a series of tasks. No one acknowledged what exactly necessitated the tasks, or the review.
Folks, this is the kind of thing I find to be a little bit funny.1 Because I get why they wouldn’t want to mention the reason for the “targeted forensic review.”
Who remembers this story?
Recall: on the morning of May 14th, (now former) Ojai Assistant City Manager Carl Alameda was charged in Los Angeles County Superior Court with 11 felony counts of embezzlement and 23 counts of insurance fraud, all of which related to his previous employment with the City of La Cañada Flintridge. He pleaded not guilty.
On May 15th, the City of Ojai found out about this episode via press release.2 On May 16th, Alameda was terminated from his position. By May 27th, the City contracted with financial firm Kroll to perform a special forensic financial examination to determine any potential misconduct by Alameda.
Six months later, Sherine Ebadi, Kroll’s Managing Director for Forensic Investigation & Intelligence, provided the answer to the question on everyone’s mind.
“... We did not find any direct evidence that Carl Alameda embezzled or otherwise was engaged in financial misconduct while here at the city,” Ebadi said. “There are caveats that make it difficult for us to say that he did not do it. I can say that I found no evidence of it. It’s hard for me to say he did not do it.”
So, there’s no direct evidence that Alameda misappropriated City of Ojai funds. But, according to Ebadi’s findings, he certainly had the opportunity.
“We had learned from a number of people that had seen [Alameda] that day that he walked out with a very large bag that may have had documents in it,” Ebadi explained. “And when we searched his office, there were virtually no documents in his office… which begs the question, did he in fact take documents with him? And if he did, why? And what did he take? And since they’re paper, it’s very difficult to know what he took.”
Hence, Billings’ tasks — one of which is “finance to have better oversight of spending.” (That one is in progress.)
Obviously, none of this history came up April 14th. One thing about government: all manner of drama is hidden within seemingly boring presentations.
Alameda is next scheduled to appear in Los Angeles County Superior Court May 8th.
Moving along!
Next, we heard from a collection of local young people representing Ojai’s Green Valley Project.
They shared the results of an urban heat island study they conducted in Ojai. Using their results, they identified four privately-owned locations with excessive heat: Adamson’s Towing, Ojai Self Storage, the Ojai Valley Inn, and the Ojai Community Hospital. They plan to approach each business with an offer of oak trees — and the hospital has already accepted their offer.
I say: rock on.
Then we moved into the “non-agendized” public comment period.3 A few residents criticized City Manager Ben Harvey’s use of the phrase “STP,” or “same ten people,” during a podcast conversation about locals involved in government. (I’d argue it’s more than ten people — but whatever.)
City Council regular Larry Steingold (arguably an STP) approached the podium wearing an STP baseball hat. “These people are not a problem to be managed. They are the backbone of civic life,” Steingold declared.
Another arguable STP, Starchild Weivoda, addressed Harvey via Zoom (these public comments come over the loudspeaker with a “voice of God” effect).
“I just wanted to provide the City Manager an opportunity to reaffirm… his appreciation for the public that worked to make the city better and to apologize for any offense his comments may have given.”
… and then there was an awkward silence. It was awesome.4
We also learned that the Ojai Library will be closed for renovations for 6-8 months, beginning as soon as July. (This is extremely impactful news for the members of the public who rely on the library’s air conditioning during the summer months.)
Next, the consent calendar. (The consent calendar is made up of “routine items” that generally don’t require Council discussion.) Councilwoman Leslie Rule took a moment to call attention to the City’s “warrants report” (a summary of recent expenditures) specifically, a $7,681.10 check to the legal firm Meyers Nave.
“I just want to point out that… this settlement and my indemnification cost is now up to $257,000 and counting. So we’re at a quarter of a million dollars,” Rule said.
Side note: the Council, minus Rule, met in closed session two days later, April 16th, to continue the indemnification discussion (aka — the City’s responsibility for Rule’s legal bills).
City Attorney Bethany Burgess reported that “no reportable action” came of the discussion. A mandatory hearing in the Rule v. City of Ojai matter is scheduled in Ventura County Superior Court for the morning of May 6th. The entire conflict originates from statements Rule made during the January 24, 2023 Ojai City Council meeting (one of Rule’s first!) and a lawsuit filed against her by seven locals (Byrne et al v. Rule et al) who say they were harmed. A hearing in the Byrne case — a motion for a summary judgement — is scheduled for the morning of May 15th. The whole thing has become so convoluted that it will require several thousand words to disentangle.
Anyways — after about 45 minutes of the above, the Council came round to the main topic of the evening: contractor bids to build the City’s $12.7 million state-funded permanent supportive housing project for chronically homeless community members.5
