OJAI : Hiring of Departing Official Is Urged

A citizens committee studying whether Ojai should expand its boundaries has recommended that the city hire as a consultant the outgoing director of the agency that would oversee the expansion proposal.

The committee, which includes 30 residents from the city and the surrounding Ojai Valley, directed City Manager Andrew Belknap Thursday night to study whether the group can afford to hire Robert Braitman, who leaves his post as the executive officer of the Local Agency Formation Commission today.

Braitman, head of LAFCO for 18 years, resigned in October amid charges that he had sexually harassed a female co-worker. The charges were later dropped.

“The Ojai Valley is an anomaly in Ventura County,” Braitman told the committee, because only 30% of its citizens live in a municipality.

Braitman said he supports the annexation proposal wholeheartedly. “Making the benefits of municipal government available to all the valley’s citizens could only be a positive thing.”

Committee Chairwoman Mannie Sprague, a retired lawyer living in the unincorporated east end of the Ojai Valley, said Braitman would help the group in its drive to expand Ojai’s boundaries from Casitas Springs on the west to the summit of the upper Ojai Valley on the east.

Committee member Virginia Unruhe agreed. “I don’t know that there is anybody else in the county who has the background that Mr. Braitman has to assist us with this project.”

Expansion, which would boost Ojai’s population from just over 7,600 to more than 26,000, would require voter approval in the areas proposed for annexation.

Braitman’s consulting fee has not been determined, Belknap said. The fee might be paid by the city of Ojai or covered in part with a county grant, Belknap said.