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• Councilmember Rae Hanstad urged a combined meeting of the Planning Commission and the City Council, framed as a public "workshop", to get everyone on the same page on the issue. She used the analogy of the Council and the Commission each painting a house from opposite ends and hoping to have the same color of paint when they meet in the middle. (During public comment Dennis Leary suggested that while the analogy is good, it's possible that they're painting the wrong house.) The workshop idea was never explicitly rejected, but did receive some scrutiny from both sides of the table as to its necessity. As it stands now, the Planning Commission will be made aware of the Council's desire to be present at their September 19 meeting (most of the City Council will be out of town during the Planning Commission's September 5 meeting), which may be billed as a workshop.

• Councilmember Sue Horgan iterated that while there are differences regarding the specifics of how to protect our City, it's important to recognize that we all share the goal of protecting our City's integrity and character. She personally has some specific questions and issues with the proposals that she didn't go into in depth, but wanted assurance that they'd be addressed before their next meeting.

• Mayor Pro Tem Joe DeVito talked for a while, and honest-to-goodness i could not understand a thing he said except that he moved to suspend further Council consideration of the Formula Retail issue and to let the Planning Commission continue their task of drafting a proposal to replace the one they rejected from the City. The rest of the Council agreed, and Mayor Carole Smith confirmed that the City Council was indeed honoring the Planning Commission's recommendation to reject the HCD ordinance.

• The public comment period featured the likes of developer Ron Polito (E' Bello), Ernie Salomon (Matilija Plaza), Dee of Noah's Apothecary, Kenley of the Citizens' Initiative, and a few other community members. Most of the comments were unprepared, but all were impassioned and fairly articulate.

• Kenley expressed concern over the considerable time that was elapsing while local government churned slowly to produce a policy, and was urged several times by Council to honor "his" 600+ signatories and continue the process if Council had not adopted a suitable proposal by the October 19 deadline (at which time the Citizens' Initiative gets submitted as a ballot measure requiring a special election). Joe DeVito warned that such an election would drain the City to the tune of $50,000.

After the public hearing was officially closed, we heard "reports" from Council Members, which i gathered to be a slightly more casual and free-form sharing period. From this we were treated to two gems:

• Fresh from a Sanitation District meeting, Rae urged us to be aware of which things belong in the trash versus down the drain. Turns out those little stickers on your apples and pears literally inhibit the processing of our waste water.

• Carole made us aware of the frequency of death by lead poisoning in our local condor population, which has been carefully restored of the past 25 years. Apparently the scavenging animals can eat a significant amount of lead in the form of bullets in dead deer, prompting recent exploration into lead alternatives such as copper. As a conscious and voting public in a condor area, we are urged to be aware of this issue...particularly those of us who are hunters.

Following the oral report by the City Manager, Mayor Smith invited a Captain from the Fire Department (i missed his name, and i apologize) to address us, at which time we were informed that the Zaca Fire is considered 95% contained, though a threat to Ojai still exists. He praised the tremendous work of the many firefighters who'd worked on this blaze, many of whom in recent weeks were our local Ventura County crew.

Police Chief Norris was invited to speak next, and he informed us of a CalTrans-sponsored guardrail project to be taking place between Casitas Springs and Meiners Oaks (and further into the Lockwood Valley area) for the next week which would require some traffic regulation including occasional reduction to one lane. The project is scheduled from 9am to 2pm through Friday. No mention of recently deceased long-time Ojai transient Victor Keith Stolz, who was found dead two weeks ago in front of the public library. The death's been ruled as accidental, but some aren't convinced.

i walked home through the warm evening bathed in the light of the post-eclipse moon, pausing at the wide open doors of the Wesleyan Church where a brass-heavy band was rehearsing a catchy jazz/swing tune. i could hear it all the way to our nice, socialized, non-chain Post Office.

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