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Resident urges action on police response to mental-health crises and alleges ADA violations
Summary
During public comment, Janet Ortega recounted what she described as aggressive police responses to her son's mental-health crisis and said multiple formal complaints to the department remain unanswered; another commenter alleged city ADA noncompliance. Council asked staff to follow up and requested a report back.
Several members of the public used the public-comment period to raise concerns about police response to mental-health calls and accessibility issues.
Janet Ortega described a July 23 incident in which she says police issued aggressive commands while her son was in a mental-health crisis and that multiple complaints filed with the department went unanswered. "If my son doesn't get help from these people...he's gonna be a statistic like the rest of them," Ortega said, asking the council to intervene and to allow her to attend a forthcoming Ventura County disability summit that she said was closed to the public.
Earlier, Timothy Eubanks questioned whether emailed public comments are read and alleged that the city "is openly violating ADA laws," urging the council to address the issues he listed. City Manager Singer and Vice Mayor Chavez acknowledged the concerns; the city manager said staff would follow up and provide the council with outreach and updates. Council asked staff to bring follow-up information to a future meeting so the issues raised could be investigated and reported back to council.
The council did not take formal action during public comment but asked staff to investigate and report back at a subsequent meeting.
