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Ojai council frames priorities: affordable housing, wildfire safety and infrastructure top the preliminary list
Summary
Council members sketched preliminary goals including affordable housing, wildfire safety, climate resiliency and infrastructure; staff will collect tactics and reconvene to finalize.
The Ojai City Council on Monday began a multi-step process to set council goals for the term, identifying a short list of priorities and asking staff to work with councilmembers and subject-matter experts before returning with tactics.
During an extended discussion led by City Manager Weston Harvey, councilmembers individually named priorities. Staff then grouped overlapping items and highlighted areas where at least three members agreed. The council preliminarily agreed that affordable housing and wildfire safety and risk mitigation were top priorities. Other leading topics included climate resiliency, infrastructure maintenance and improvement, fiscal sustainability, arts/culture and recreation, economic diversification and tourism management, public safety and improved communications.
Why it matters: Council goals are intended to guide budget choices, staff work plans and quarterly status reports. Harvey told the council that goals should be "strategic, measurable, achievable, realistic and time sensitive" and that adopted tactics would be incorporated into a work plan and a quarterly scorecard for the council and public.
Next steps: Council directed the city manager to gather more detailed tactics and to consult subject-matter experts. Staff will email the draft list of goals to councilmembers and expects to return the topic to a council meeting in mid-March; the council agreed to move the midyear budget update to April to free meeting time for further goals work. Several councilmembers said they prefer more time to develop tactics and to solicit community input.
Public comment: Multiple residents urged the council to prioritize wildfire mitigation and housing. Members of the Ojai Valley Fire Safe Council recommended a broad "wildfire safety and risk mitigation" goal that covers fuel management, evacuation planning, building hardening and critical water infrastructure. Several residents urged actions to increase housing supply and reform local zoning and parking rules.
What staff will do: The city manager said staff will meet individually with each councilmember, consult experts and return with a proposed set of tactics for each priority goal for council review and adoption.
