City Council January Meetings Summary
The following summary is from the regular city council meetings on Tuesday, January 16 and Tuesday, January 30, 2024.
CLOSED SESSION
Pending Litigation: California Department of Housing and Community Development vs. Shangri-La Industries et al., Los Angeles County Superior Court Case #24STCV00629.
Pending Litigation: F. Roberts Construction Inc. vs. Shangri-La Industries, LLC et al., Ventura County Superior Court Case #2023CUBC018021.
Pending Litigation: Ashraf Shahsawarzadeh vs. City of Thousand Oaks et al., Ventura County Superior Court Case #2023CUPP007741.
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
California Lutheran University Women’s Soccer Team is recognized for their NCAA 2023 Division III National Championship.
APPOINTMENTS
Jaime Boscarino is reconfirmed as City Treasurer until January 31, 2025. The City’s investment policy has been updated to reflect the primary objectives of the City’s investment activities in priority order: safety, liquidity and yield.
Al Adam, Mayor, is designated as the Delegate Representative and Councilmember Bob Engler as the Alternate Representative for the City at the May 2-3, 2024, Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) Regional Conference and General Assembly.
Dan Weikel is appointed to the Ventura County Citizens Transportation Advisory Committee with a term ending November 2025.
2024 calendar year councilmember committee assignments are approved.
PUBLIC COMMENTS
Lang Martinez, homeless advocate. Money that was spent in Ventura on homelessness was useless. Said Project Roomkey, Project Turnkey just wasted money. The Vagabond Inn in Oxnard had so many deaths.
John proposed the City tell the County we want to do our election process. Get rid of the computers, which are hackable and difficult to audit. Return to paper ballots, one-day voting, hand-count at local precincts, easy to audit.
Josh Gray, director of government affairs and tourism for the Greater Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce, gave an update on events and activities.
Clint Fultz (online) praised the $7 million electric vehicle charging funds the City acquired. He said tire compounds account for three-fourths of all microplastics in global oceans. He would like to see E-bike charging stations and E-bike racks on buses.
Ellen Castillo (online) refrained from comment and wanted to observe consent agenda discussion first.
Jim Yarborough from Newbury Park requested a City resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza.
Steve Tarn did not appear online.
Clint Fultz with the Conejo Climate Coalition praised retiring Dr. Helen Cox’s role leading the City’s Sustainability Division. Andrew Powers, City manager, responded to Fultz the recruitment process to replace Cox had begun.
CONTRACTS
$3,000,000 for Badger water meters, appurtenances, meter reading equipment, and associated software (Cl 5598).
$1,634,722 annual Conejo Valley Unified School District project list approved through Thousand Oaks Plan to Assist School Sites (TOPASS) for Fiscal Year 2023-24.
$729,872 for one GapVax Vac Truck from Plumbers Depot Inc. in Hawthorne.
$479,800 contract with Polychrome Construction, Inc. of Northridge for piping, equipment painting, and coating Phase II at Hill Canyon Treatment Plant.
$467,165 for one Ford E-450 Camera Van from Haaker Equipment Co. in La Verne.
$380,000 Transit Services agreement with the City of Agoura Hills to provide Senior and Disabled Dial-a-Ride (DAR) services through June 30, 2025.
$372,236 to A-Z Bus Sales, Inc., of Colton, for the purchase of two replacement light-duty compressed natural gas (CNG) cutaway buses due to cost increases for vehicles Thousand Oaks Transit Replacement Light-Duty Compressed Natural Gas Cutaway Buses. It includes a $10,313 increase.
$310,170 from Thousand Oaks Boulevard Association for safety, beautification, and enhancement upgrades along Thousand Oaks Boulevard. Mayor Al Adam pulled this item for discussion. It includes funds for license plate readers. McNamee championed the technology last year and has worked to expand it this year.
$271,589 for one Ford F-450 Contractor Body Truck and one Ford F-550 Work Crew/Crane Truck from Rush Truck Center in Whittier.
$270,440 revised contract with Dudek, Inc. of San Juan Capistrano for additional design services on the Hill Canyon Treatment Plant (HCTP) Stormwater Diversion Project (CI 5427).
$250,136 three-year contract with ShelterClean Services, Inc. of Sun Valley for bus shelter and bus stop cleaning and maintenance.
$233,400 five-year contract with Locus Technologies of Mountain View for a task and compliance management platform for environmental compliance programs.
$190,000 boiler equipment purchased from LA-based Parker Boiler Co. for the Hill Canyon Treatment Plant (HCTP).
$176,711 for one CAT Generator and one CAT Forklift from Quinn Power Systems in Oxnard.
$150,000 three-year contract with Technical Systems, Inc. of Oceanside for maintenance and repair services of Hill Canyon Treatment Plant.
$112,038 contract with SitelogIQ, Inc. of Ontario for integrating Building Automation System (BAS) data from Hill Canyon Treatment Plant (HCTP) and the Municipal Service Center (MSC) into the Energy Information System (EIS), adding the solar photovoltaic (PV) data from Goebel Adult Center, Grant R. Brimhall Library, Newbury Park Library, Teen Center, and Transportation Center to the EIS.
$79,693 contract with AECOM Technical Services, Inc. (AECOM) of Westlake Village for additional professional engineering services for Permanent Disinfection Boosting System Installation (CI 5534). Waived formal Request for Proposals (RFP) process.
$57,360 for one Ford T-150 Transit Cargo Van from National Auto Fleet Group in Watsonville.
City-Owned Parcel #669-0-171-305 was transferred to the adjoining property owner at 897 East Hillcrest Drive (Janice E. Cleary, Trustee of the Bypass Trust of the Stanton E. Cleary and Janice E. Cleary 1996 Trust, dated October 2, 1996). Approved 3-0, Adam recused, Taylor was absent.
REPORTS
$1,770,674 in Development Impact Fees received for Fiscal Year 2022-23. Fees are charged to new development projects. Fee revenue must be separately accounted for and used for the specific purpose for which the Fee was collected. The City has 18 Fees established via City Council resolutions; five of those Fees are no longer being collected.
Financial Reports for Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 2023, showed General Fund revenues, including other financing sources, were $107.8 million, and expenditures were $92.8 million. The report can be viewed at www.toaks.org/departments/finance/financial-information.
Kelvin Parker, Community Development Director. Among stats on building permits and services, he highlighted significant housing legislation: AB 1332, AB 1033, SB 4, SB 684, and SB 821.
Newman asked that Parker’s report, currently only oral, be submitted as a public document. “Let’s have it be a permanent resource,” he said.
McNamee asked about ADU (accessory dwelling unit) property owner-occupancy requirements but was told by Parker that the requirement no longer exists.
City Manager Andrew Powers also clarified that a new program would allow ADUs to be sold off as separate parcels but recommended the Council wait before opting into that program.
BIDS
Construction bids were sought for the Wendy Drive Sewer Main Replacement Project (CI 5744).
PRESENTATIONS
David Maron from the Ventura County Civic Alliance shared his organization’s 2023 State of the Region Report; however, several financial data were current only through 2020 and 2021.
The population is trending older. The economy “has just been flat-lining.” All of the job growth has been in the service sector, of which salaries to government employees are the biggest sector.
Public school enrollment is declining. From 2014 to 2022, there has been a nearly 15,000 decline in K-12 school-aged population. The projection through 2031 is a further loss of 11,000 students. “Our schools are just going to continue to decline,” said Moron. Conejo Valley Unified School District, he added, “is not going to come to you and ask can they build new high school or some new schools anytime soon. The concern might be of even school closures if that continues.”
Birth rate in Ventura County is declining “much more than elsewhere,” with a 20-year drop from 12,000+ births to 8,700.
Ventura opioid deaths were higher in 2022 than in Los Angeles, Orange and San Luis Obispo counties, at 21.7 deaths per 100,000 residents.
Violent crime rate was among the lowest in the County.
Annual vehicle miles traveled on Highway 101 dropped 21% since 2019, pre-COVID, and has not bounced back.
McNamee asked why the private schools were not being tracked. Maron said he’d make a note of that interest for a future chart.
ADJOURNMENT
Annual adjournment was in memory of Mayor Emeritus Alex Fiore who passed away January 3, 2002. Of Fiore, Adam said, “If ever there was a Mr. Thousand Oaks, he was it.”
