YOUR COMMUNITY NEEDS YOU TO SPEAK UP! City Hall Monday, October 9, 2023 6pm *Agenda Item 12*

FINAL CHANCE for the public to comment on Citywide General Plan Use Designations until 2045!

If you’ve been following along with the General Plan Advisory Committee (GPAC) Land Use recommendations, you know Johnson Drive Corridor has been an area of intense focus.  On Monday, October 9 at 6pm, the City Council will be voting on adopting the GPAC’s recommendations or an adapted version from the Planning Commission (Agenda Item 9, General Plan Update Draft Land Use Designations and Preferred Land Use Map).  After public meetings and surveys, MCC/District 6 Board gathered and shared community feedback with the GPAC, the Planning Commission and our District 6 City Councilman.  With much discussion and some concessions, the GPAC, the Planning Commission and the MCC/District 6 Board are in alignment on Plan Areas 1 and 3!  However, the Planning Commission and the MCC/District 6 Board disagree with the GPAC recommendations for Plan Area 2.  Compare the differences between maps below.  

What GPAC & Community Development Dept. wants

It’s Plan Area 2 that we differ from the GPAC’s recommendations (map above), and we need your support on or before the City Council meeting on Monday.  The Planning Commission and MCC/Dist. 6 recommend the following (map below):

• Plan Area 2 East: Preserve the thriving, existing businesses including Marshall’s Bodacious BBQ and essential automotive services along Ventura Blvd, as opposed to GPAC’s recommendation of Mixed Use 4 stories (or potentially 5‐6 stories with density bonuses).
• Plan Area 2 West: Replace existing Heavy Industrial with Mixed Use 3 stories as opposed to GPAC’s recommendation of Mixed Use 4 stories.  ***MCC/Dist. 6 does not support a TOD (Transit Oriented Development) designation in this area, due to the limited trains at the East Ventura Metrolink stop and no bus service. 
• Proposed Area 2 North: Replace existing Heavy Industrial, Light Industrial and Commercial with Mixed Use 3 Stories because of health and environmental factors given the proximity to single family residential homes north of the Santa Paula Branch line. GPAC made no recommendation on this area. 

What District 6 Residents & Planning Commission wants

The more people who write in or speak, the louder our voice. Remember, the city council works for US! We voted them in. There are several ways YOU can help:

1) Don’t have much time?  CLICK HERE to submit a Public Comment Form (no later than 4:00 PM on Monday, October 9).

2)  Willing to show your support in person or virtually on Monday evening?  Arrive at the Ventura City Council Chambers for the 10/9/23 @ 6pm meeting.  Fill out a Comment Card and hand it to the City Clerk.  Ask your neighbors (plus friends and family who may not be in our District who support our cause).  Or attend virtually using the WebEx link in the agenda here:
 10/9/23 6pm City Council WebEx Mtg. Link

WebEx Meeting link

3)  Prefer writing a letter? Feel free to use our letter as a template or make your own and contact your City Council representative via phone, letter, or email (no later than 2:00 PM on Monday).

Here’s a simplified template:

10/4/23
Dear Esteemed Council Members, 

I am in support of the Planning Commission and MCC’s recommendations for Johnson Drive Corridor Land Use Area 2, NOT the GPAC and Community Development Department’s recommendations.   

<Add more if you feel compelled to>

Thank you, 
<Name, Address>

For all options, refer to ‘Agenda Item 9, General Plan Update Draft Land Use Designations and Preferred Land Use Map’.

Ventura City Council Contact Information:

City Council, 501 Poli Street, Room 205, Ventura, CA 93002 (Clerk Room 204)
Phone: 805-654-7827
Link: City Council Page

Attached is our letter to the City Council.  You may use this as your template and/or for talking points.  For more information about the entire Johnson Drive strategy, surveys, meetings, as well as archived information on Victoria Corridor and Moon Dr. Overlay, refer to the Montalvo/District 6 website in the link below.  

Thank you for your continued support!

Sincerely,

Montalvo/District 6 Community Council Board

Find us on Nextdoor/Facebook/Instagram or visit our website: https://montalvocc.wordpress.com
Quarterly meetings in February, May, August & November on the second Tuesday

Household Hazardous Waste Event 2.19.22

Click here to register to dispose of your hazardous waste at the City’s next event on Saturday, 2/19/22.

Materials accepted include:

Aerosol cans, adhesives, batteries, compressed gas or propane tanks under 5 gallons, fire extinguishers, fluorescent tubes and bulbs, fuel additives, gasoline, household cleaners, medical sharps, medications, mercury products, motor oil and filters, paint, polishes, varnishes, paint-related materials, pesticides, pool chemicals, turpentine, transmission fluid, smoke detectors, and thermometers.

Items that are NOT accepted include:

55-gallon drums, compressed gas or propane tanks greater than 5 gallons, commercial and industrial waste, explosives, bullets, fireworks, radioactive material, electronic waste. E-waste can be dropped off for free at Gold Coast Recycling at any time.

New Ventura City Council Member Sworn In/ Dec. 2020

Click the image for more details.

2020census.gov

Nonresponse followup

Census Bureau to Email Households to Encourage Response to the 2020 Census

JULY 27, 2020 — The U.S. Census Bureau announced that it will begin emailing households in low-responding areas to encourage them to respond to the 2020 Census.

Millions of emails will be sent this week and then grow in numbers and continue into September. These emails supplement a final campaign reminding people to respond to the 2020 Census on their own, as census takers begin asking households to respond to the census.

 

The messages alert households in low-response areas that time is running out and their response to the 2020 Census is important for their communities. The email messages will invite people to respond online at 2020census.gov.

People who receive the email and haven’t already responded should click on the link provided and complete the census online. It’s easy, safe and important.

The emails will go to all households that the Census Bureau has contact information for in census block groups with a response rate lower than 50%. This will include households who may have already responded. In total, the Census Bureau expects to email more than 20 million households in these low-responding areas.

The email messages will come from 2020census@subscriptions.census.gov and will give recipients the option to opt out of receiving future messages. The Census Bureau is also considering sending text messages to areas that have low response.

The Census Bureau’s recent success with contacting households by email to participate in the Household Pulse Survey prompted the agency to add these methods to support the 2020 Census. This contact method will help increase response rates and reduce the need for in-person follow-up.

The Census Bureau is continuing to review the use of text messages and will make an announcement prior to deploying that outreach. In addition to emailing households, the Census Bureau is increasing other outreach efforts during one last push to encourage everyone to respond to the census online, by phone or by mail. The Census Bureau recently announced that it has launched Mobile Questionnaire Assistance, a program that offers assistance with responding at locations such as grocery stores and pharmacies in low-responding areas.

Additionally, the Census Bureau has expanded its paid advertising—launching a series of new advertisements aimed at increasing online response and expanding to a total of 45 non-English languages receiving some level of paid media support.

Households have until October 31 to respond to the 2020 Census. However, census takers have begun following up with households that haven’t responded yet in select areas and will begin following up with households nationwide in August.

Ventura Mayor Responds to Requests for Changes to Ventura Policing Policies

Written by Mayor Matt LaVere

I received numerous emails and phone calls from concerned citizens about the police use of force policies in our community. I appreciate hearing from so many of you. To follow-up on my statement earlier this week, I want to reiterate how important it is that we do better as a community and as a nation to combat racism and racial injustices.

Elected leaders and law enforcement leaders need to step up and create environments in their communities which ensure that everyone is treated equally and fairly under the law. There can be no room for racism, racial injustice, discrimination or inequality of any kind. That’s not who we are as Venturans.

I want the public to know that the men and women of the Ventura Police Department maintain core values of integrity, courage, fairness, compassion, and respect for all persons. That is why VPD invests so heavily in recruiting and hiring the right people, building a strong ethical culture and performing regular evaluations. Ventura police officers receive extensive training (both in the Academy and in over 100 hours of annual training) in a number of important issues, including Professionalism and Ethics, Policing in the Community, Use of Force and De-Escalation Techniques, Working with People with Disabilities or Mental Health Concerns, Cultural Diversity, Anti-Discrimination, Implicit Biases, Ethical Decision Making, and Crisis Intervention Techniques. My experiences with Ventura police officers have shown me that our officers remain deeply committed to equality and to serving all members of the public with dignity and honor.

I have spoken with our Police Chief Darin Schindler regarding the 8 policy recommendations contained on the “#8CANTWAIT” website.

For some reason, this website says that Ventura police policies contain only 3 of the recommended policies (#’s 3, 5 and 8). This is incorrect. I want to briefly discuss each of these policies, and specifically, how they relate to the Ventura Police Department. As you’ll see, VPD policies contain 6 of the recommended policies. And even though there are 2 policies not explicitly followed, VPD has policies in place which largely track these 2 policies but contain minor distinctions which I explain below.

 

Recommendation #1: Ban Chokeholds and Strangleholds
Response: Venture police officers are NOT permitted to use a “chokehold”, “stranglehold” or any other technique that is intended to stop the flow of air into a person’s lungs. For example, the action of kneeling on an individual’s neck (which resulted in the killing of George Floyd) is not permitted within the Ventura Police Department and our officers receive training to ensure such actions are not taken.

Recommendation #2: Require De-Escalation
Response: VPD currently requires de-escalation in several areas of VPD’s policy manual and our officers receive extensive training in de-escalation. For example, VPD’s use of force policy dictates that police officers may use only that amount of force that reasonably appears necessary and if an individual becomes compliant or situational circumstances change, officers are required to de-escalate.

Recommendation #3: Require Warning Before Shooting
Response: VPD policy requires an officer to give a verbal warning preceding the use of deadly force whenever feasible.

Recommendation #4: Exhaust All Other Means Before Shooting
Response: VPD policy requires officers to use only that amount of force that reasonably appears necessary in any given situation. Sometimes exhausting all other means is not possible. For example, if an officer is responding to an active shooter at a school, it would not be feasible to first exhaust the use of verbal commands, a Taser, a baton, or any other level of force. Our officers are trained to go immediately to the most appropriate level of force and receive extensive training on only using the level of force necessary in any given situation.

Recommendation #5: Duty to Intervene
Response: VPD policy explicitly requires officers to intervene when they observe another officer using force beyond what is objectively reasonable.

Recommendation #6: Ban Shooting At Moving Vehicles
Response: VPD policy addresses shooting at or from moving vehicles. The policy specifically discourages shooting at or from moving vehicles and requires officers to move out of the path of an approaching vehicle instead of shooting at it, wherever feasible. The policy does allow officers to discharge a firearm at a moving vehicle, but ONLY when the officer believes there are no other reasonable means available to avert the threat of the vehicle, or if deadly force other than the vehicle is directed at the officer or others (i.e. someone is shooting at officers from the vehicle). In speaking with our Police Chief, he remembers shots being fired at a moving vehicle only twice in his nearly 30 years of service. One incident was decades ago and the second incident was 6 years ago when a driver at the Ventura County Fair was shot in his vehicle after causing an accident and running over one of our police officers.

Recommendation #7: Require a Use of Force Continuum
Response: VPD’s arrest control tactics program utilizes a use of force “paradigm” rather than a “continuum”. But the principles are similar. VPD police officers follow the Koga Method which trains officers to think and act properly, responsibly and without undue force. Our officers are trained to choose the appropriate level of force, based on the situation, while following policy which dictates they use “only that amount of force that reasonably appears necessary”.

Recommendation #8: Require Comprehensive Reporting
Response: VPD policy requires that officers document all uses of force promptly, completely, and accurately. Those reports are approved by a supervisor and then all use of force incident reports are evaluated by a Tactical Review Committee. The Ventura Police Department takes its reporting requirements very seriously.

In sum, the Ventura Police Department has wide-ranging training and policies in place meant to guarantee that all individuals are treated with dignity and respect. However, there is always room to continue learning and to improve policing. Chief Schindler, City Management and the entire City Council remain fully committed to ensuring that everyone in Ventura continues to be treated equally and fairly under the law. I look forward to continuing this discussion and appreciate everyone who has reached out to me with their ideas and comments.

2020census.gov

 

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2020census.gov

2020 Census

2020census.gov

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Ventura Police Department

Barranca Vista Open House

Wildfire Policy Reform Meeting

On April 12, Gov. Newsom released a proposed roadmap – created by the strike team he assembled in February – that examines key actions the state must take to address wildfire threats, protect California’s economy and help meet the state’s clean energy goals.

You can read the Governor’s report here:
Governor’s report

Gov. Newsom has asked the legislature to take action on the findings from this report before the July 12 recess.

Additionally, the Commission on Catastrophic Wildfire Cost and Recovery, established by 2018’s Senate Bill 901, will be hosting a meeting in the community of Ventura on April 29 to explore and provide recommendations on various wildfire policy reforms. As the first meeting following the release of the strike team report, the Commission is expected to examine its findings and proposals. The live stream link can be found on the Commission’s website the day of the meeting.

Your continued engagement with your elected leaders on these proposed solutions will be essential to a fair and positive outcome. We look forward to keeping you informed of actions you can take to stay engaged and support practical policy solutions that address the wildfire issue.

[The full text of this post is copied from a letter composed by Chris Thompson, Vice President, Local Public Affairs, Southern California Edison ]