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thank you for starting this discussion, Kenley! it's a natural extension of what took place today.

as a table leader for this installment of the OVWD, i had the distinct pleasure and responsibility of facilitating 10 people (two groups of five) in taking on the tasks of ranking, justifying, and voting on the issues and topics that were outlined above. both groups that i worked with were very well aligned on nearly all topics, and our voting was easy.

so when the "final results" came up with develop community cleanup and beautification action plan as the top item, we all scowled at each other in confusion and mild disgust. that certainly wasnt in line with anything WE'D been discussing.

turns out the voting system that we used tonight screwed us up in several ways (though it must be noted that despite that grave flaw the system is quite remarkable). good thing they have the hard copy data that we all filled out at our tables, which Steve Bennett publicly promised to have tabulated by hand, in order to get the accurate results that the machines did not deliver. it'll take a few months to get said results, but keep a bookmark on the link in Kenley's post in order to check in and see what's goin on.

Kenley - thanks for taking the lead (and appreciate carpooling in the electric car).

Our table was suprised and disappointed at the "final results" as well - we had voted up the Green and Sustainability Plan, and the creation of a Recreation District (having someone at our table on the recreation board who explained how important it was to establish a district in order to get funding). I'm guessing there was some discrepancy in the data, and that we might see some shift in the results once it is hand-tabulated.

And agreed also that Steve Bennett's office has obviously put in a ton of work and did a really great job.

Neither the cleanup/beautification nor graffiti items were on our table's top 10 list.

Congratulations to Steve Bennet and crew for a great job organizing, tabulating and providing the background information on the first meeting items. It's refreshing to participate in a harmonious group primarily interested in building a community.

Good morning. This is Dennis.

I was not able to make the meeting, so I appreciate the timely and summary comments.

I did my own quick and intuitive tabulation of what was said here, these four concepts jumped out at me from the above comments:

CLEAN -- CLEAN -- GREEN -- SUSTAINABLE.

My intuition tells me that the machine got it wrong and it got it right.

My personal objective is to SAVE Ojai from misdevelopment, which in gross terms is a cancer that will kill her.

So what do we have to do?

The machine tells me Ojai needs to CLEAN herself, but it goes deeper than just the physical level.

I believe it is going to take a POLITICAL process, yes the dirty work of political reform.

Besides physical cleaning, there must be moral, spiritual, legal, intellectual, cultural, sexual and all kinds of CLEANING that needs to be done.

The machine tells me four key words. Two of them, or 50% are CLEAN. The other two are GREEN and SUSTAINABLE.

Three things jump right out at me: chains, housing and initiatives; specifically, Subway and Jersey Mikes, Mallory Way and Jeff's initiatives.

In these areas I believe there has been, and still is, a mess that stinks to high heaven. It needs to be CLEANED up so that Ojai can be GREEN AND SUSTAINABLE.

There is a huge coverup and massive denial program going on in this town. The covers need to be pulled and the denials systematically dismantled.

The machine got it wrong and it got it right. Let's get to work.

Wait - a machine miscounted votes? Impossible.

I spoke to Steve Bennett after the meeting and he said that he thought the machines counted zero as 10 and that is why the items with 0 vote showed as a top vote. It will be adjusted with the paper we filled out at our tables.

Hi Dale - thanks for the insight - that sounds right on. I was impressed with how much the citizens that participated want to help the youth of the valley. And I am glad we had a number of students participate - I'd like to see more of that in Ojai's business and political arenas.

I saw Carol Smith there - were there any other city officials in attendance? This discussion was a great way for our elected and appointed officials to hear what the citizens find important.

After Ken and I exchanged our..."I am SO shocked" by the results, I started table hopping to check in with other table leaders, who were also mystified by the results to just "put a coat of paint" on Ojai to improve the Valley.

It didn't compute, given the people in the room. Well in fact....it DIDN'T compute. Their electronic system goofed up and those at the bottom (with zeroes) were counted as top ranking (tens).....so keep tuned for the REAL election results.

Sound like our last presidential election? Jim Lashly was humorously ranting..."no electronic voting, no hanging chads...I want a paper vote" - and it's true.

Kudos to Steve Bennett's office however, for an amazing effort in our behalf, which is still unfolding.

My deepest thanks and appreciation for all you good people who attend all these meetings and are working so hard to make our valley a model sustainable community.

Just received the following from Steve Bennett - I think Kenley has some additional information to share...

---------------------------

Dear Ojai Valleywide Participant,

Thank you for your participation yesterday.

As many of us suspected the final voting was not accurate yesterday. We have hand calculated the results and they are substantially different from the results on the screen yesterday.

You ranked two items much higher than the others.

At 8.40 Item H was first, Develop an environmental plan to make the Ojai Valley a model green and more sustainable community.

At 8.12 Item A was second, Improve our neighborhood ability to be prepared for disaster, including a valley-wide CERT program.

The ranking of the other items was as follows:

4.87 Item B, Improve communication during emergencies.

4.84 Item F, Decrease car use within the valley by expanding the trolley/public and use of other transportation alternatives.

4.84 Item M, Youth Center.

4.78 Item C, Create a valley wide recreation district.

4.56 Item D, Expand recreational programs, particularly for youth.

4.43 Item G, Preserve Open Space in the Ojai Valley.

3.37 Item E, Improve public transit in and out of the valley.

3.37 Item K, Improve dialogue between groups of people valleywide.

2.65 Item L, Reduce gang activity/crime through valley-wide meeting and conflict mediation.

0.43 Item I, Develop community cleanup and beautification action plan.

0.28 Item J, Focus on graffiti prevention and cleanup.

We wanted to get you this accurate ranking as quickly as possible. We will be back in touch with you concerning our next step. Remember to mark you calendar for November 4, 2007, the date of our final Valleywide Discussion meeting.

Thank you again for your participation.

Steve Bennett

great effort and great meeting. thank you steve bennett and all of us who took part. glad to see that the results now make sense.and.... thanks tyler for this gift to our community.