A Proclamation was presented by Mayor Douglas Tucker to Officer Michael Zabarsky for going the extra mile to help a Fillmore family living in substandard conditions.

A Proclamation was presented to the Morris family for the Fillmore Area Transit Company’s (FATCO) 40 years of service to the community along with the many non-profits and sports events the family has sponsored over the years. Pictured (l-r) are Council Member Rick Neal, Mayor Douglas Tucker, Chappy Morris, Wm ‘Bill’ Morris, and Council Member Diane McCall.

The Fillmore Bears Pee Wee Division Pacific Football League received a Proclamation from Mayor Douglas Tucker. The team was noted for superior sportsmanship.

The Fillmore Bears Pee Wee Division Pacific Football League.

There were four items on Tuesday's Fillmore City Council Meeting along with three proclamations. The first agenda item was a contract for a City App, second was parking enforcement on Central, next was approval of a "In God We Trust" display, and last was giving Commissioners a stipend.

The first proclamation went to Officer Michael Zabarsky for going the extra mile to help a family living in substandard conditions.

Another proclamation went to the Fillmore Bears Pee Wee Division Pacific Football League for their superior sportsmanship.

Also, honor's went to the Morris family for the Fillmore Area Transit Company's (FATCO) 40 years of service to the community along with the many non-profits and sports events the family has sponsored over the years. Chappy Morris responded, "It’s been an honor to serve you."

The Ventura County IT Services Mike Pettit and Kevin Coe, Deputy Chief Application Services, gave a presentation regarding the development of a City of Fillmore Mobile Application. With this new app residents with iPhones and Android Smartphones will have quick access to City services. Requests will automatically be routed to the correct department for proper handling regarding various things such as potholes, abandoned shopping carts, graffiti, code enforcement, VCAlert and more. The app will also provide a list of frequently called numbers, an events calendar and other important information and links. The bilingual app uses GPS coordinates to locate shopping carts (CartSnap), potholes, car accidents to can quickly respond. The cost is $8,000 ($4,000 iPhone App and $4,000 Android App) with annual maintenance cost anticipated to be $1,121. Other cities using such apps are Oxnard, Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley. The app is expected to be available in four weeks.

The Council once again addressed the problem of parking on downtown Central Avenue. Parking is restricted on Central to two hour between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., Monday through Friday with unrestricted parking lots at the rear of the businesses on both the east and west sides of the street.

Police Chief Dave Wareham addressed the Council stating, "Without a doubt, there's a parking problem....some are cooperating, but some are not." Downtown Central has 50 businesses and only 53 parking spaces. Wareham told the Council the problem is basically two specific people who are not complying. He said when addressing one of the two people, they responded, "It's my right to park here and I don't care about my neighbors." Wareham reported that some tenants and business owners move their cars every two hours, sometimes returning to the same space they were they had previously parked.

The cost to the City to regulate the situation is not a simple or inexpensive fix, approximately $40,000 to $400,000 for added enforcement. The Council suggested patrolling Central Avenue more often and looking into changing the zoning which would require new business have restricted parking. The Council will continue monitoring the problem.

In April 2014 the Council discussed displaying the national motto "In God We Trust" prominently in the council chamber. At the time it was not decided where or what type of plaque would be displayed. After discussing both the cost and location it was decided and agreed upon having the motto painted above the dais.

The last agenda item was deciding whether to start compensating commission members with a stipend. This would be for the three commissions: Parks and Recreation Commission, Film Commission, and Planning Commission. A questionnaire was sent to Cities throughout California asking if they compensated their commissioners.

Thirty-eight of the 55 that responded said they do compensate their commissioners. Some that did were here in Ventura County: Camarillo, Moorpark and Simi Valley. Compensations ranged from $10 to $543. Some were a monthly stipend and others per meeting attended.

Council Member Diane McCall who was on the Planning Commission for seven years, stated that being on that commission taught me more about Fillmore than she could have achieved on her own and what prompted her to be on the Council adding, "How do you put a dollar amount on that?"

There were also discussions about some being compensated more than others. They all agreed the Planning Commission goes through a great deal of documents but struggled with the problem of implying one person’s time is more valuable than another's. Mayor Douglas Tucker stated, "I was on the Planning Commission and it takes a great deal of your time. I feel time is valuable....I would like an educational allowance...with well educated commissioners to serve the community." He suggested talking to the people on the commissions for their opinion.

Everyone agreed on the educational allowance, $50 per month for the Planning Commission and $25 per meeting for the Parks and Recreation, and Film Commissions' with a limit of two meetings per month.

An item that was approved by a simple voice vote was a FY 2015-16 Budget Development Guidelines that Finance Director Gaylynn Brien presented the Council. The guidelines encompassed four main policies to be used going forward. (1) The City will adopt and maintain a balanced General Fund budget by ensuring that annual operating expenses are held to levels within annual operating revenues; (2) The City will maintain a prudent reserve in the General Fund balance to be used to respond to catastrophic events. This reserve amount as, a percentage of budgeted expenditures, will be established by the City Council as part of its action in adopting the budget; (3) The City's water and sewer enterprise funds shall be self-supporting such that fees for operating services will be maintained at a level adequate to cover all operating expenses and infrastructures needs; (4) One time revenues shall not be used to fund ongoing operating program expenses. Any such revenues shall be used to pay for one-time expenditures, if authorized by the City Council, or placed in the appropriate fund balance; (5) One-time expenditures that result in long-term cost savings, efficiencies, or both will be considered money well invested.

The Council also passed and approved by a simple voice vote, a resolution showing their commitment to sustainable energy and declared their goal to conserve energy consumption and achieve Platinum Tier Level Status. The primary objective of this Energy Policy is to implement best energy management practices across all departments of the city and "lead-by-example" setting short, medium and long-term goals for reducing energy consumption, increase use of clean, renewable energy, and reduce annual electricity consumption by 20% (compared to 2006 use) by 2020.