Andy Whitman and the Politics of Scarcity
The final in a series of character profiles. Plus: a look into resource management in the Ojai Valley.
Greetings, readers! Well, I’ve been gone for a few weeks. I buried myself in research and, in completing the piece below, I fought my way out. In writing, this became more than a story about Ojai City Councilman Andy Whitman, it’s also about the resource scarcity issues he invokes in policymaking. And this brings up a question: do you prefer short(er) weekly reports, or longer pieces as I write and report them? (This one took a solid four weeks.) My instinct is to produce a mix of the two, but I would love to hear your feedback. Please reply to this email or talk to me in the comments section if you have thoughts to share.
And one housekeeping note: for the best experience, I recommend reading this work online. To read online, simply click the “view in browser” tab at the top right of the email. You can also click the title of this article (above), which I recently discovered is a hyperlink!
Alright folks, let’s get into it.
Andy Whitman and the Politics of Scarcity
“My vision for the future is an Ojai that retains the characteristics of the town that I grew up in,” declared Andy Whitman during a September 2022 Ojai City Council candidate forum. “If you want to keep Ojai Ojai1, please vote for me.”
Whitman’s experience of Ojai began in 1969 — he was nine years old when his family moved to the Upper Valley. When Whitman became a student at Summit School, the City of Ojai had fewer than 6,000 inhabitants.2 He’s one of five — the youngest of four brothers. Whitman’s parents each left their mark on the community: his mother Nancy as an iconic local artist and father John — who passed away in 2015 — as a local activist. John, an insurance executive, co-founded the organization Citizens to Preserve the Upper Ojai. Together, the group challenged a 1975 Ventura County Board of Supervisors decision permitting an exploratory oil and gas well near Sisar Creek, citing the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).3 Four years and one appeal later, they won.
Today, Whitman shares three adult children with his wife Heidi. The couple has inhabited the same Signal Street home for 33 years. Whitman is a practicing attorney with law firm Schaeffer Cota Rosen LLP. The firm focuses on defending healthcare providers in patient care litigation.4
So what exactly drew Whitman to City Hall? He was inspired to get involved in local politics due to concerns about growth and development. But — let me be clear — we’re talking about the early 2000s. "I got involved really seriously because… we were told by the state that we needed to build 500 homes in an eight year period,” Whitman told me during a recent interview. “I came out [to City Hall] to talk about the idea that the state should not be suggesting that we build 500 homes unless they have a plan for how we're going to address water, traffic, air quality, and everything else.”
Wait, 500 new homes? In the City of Ojai? In an eight-year period? Before we proceed, let me give you some background. Every California city (and county) is required to submit a report called the Housing Element to the state demonstrating they have a plan on the books to “to meet the housing needs of everyone in the community.”5 The Housing Element is typically updated in eight-year phases. As part of that process, each community is assigned a “Regional Housing Needs Allocation” (RHNA). Basically, it’s a projected number of additional housing units needed to accommodate that community’s growth — at all income levels.6 For reference, in our most recently adopted Housing Element (for the years 2021-2029), our RHNA number is 53.7
Readers, I went through every Housing Element since 1993 in search of the “500” number that so alarmed Whitman back in the early 2000’s. I couldn’t find it.8 Here’s my theory: it did not come from the state as a RHNA number, but the city itself. The 2000-2005 Housing Element included a chart that speculated on Ojai’s total [housing] developmental potential: 530 additional housing units. That number included vacant and underdeveloped acreage in addition to the state assigned RHNA number, which was 231 at the time. I ran this hypothesis by Whitman — that he was disturbed by the total development potential as opposed to a RHNA number — he responded, “you’re probably right.”
Regardless of the specifics — you get the big picture. Whitman was inspired to engage in local politics during a time of growth — and additional forecasted growth.9 He was appointed to the Planning Commission shortly thereafter, in 2005.10 Two years later, when the union of two city commissions resulted in an overabundance of commissioners, “the city asked if anyone wanted to opt out and I elected to opt out,” he said.
And what drew Whitman back to City Hall in 2022 — a full 15 years after his service on the Planning Commission? It was his older brother, Marc, a well-known local architect and an active member of Ojai’s Climate Emergency Mobilization Committee (we’ll call them the Climate Committee moving forward).11 According to Marc, he and his fellow Climate Committee members hit, “kind of a dead end with the [2020] City Council,” specifically regarding the building reach codes. After the reach codes were approved with myriad exemptions allowing for natural gas infrastructure, Marc and his fellow committee members reasoned that “we’re going to have to change the Council,” in order to make progress. Indeed, the younger Whitman confirmed he “had no thoughts about running,” until Marc suggested it. Whitman’s decision was solidified by his father’s example, “I just decided, okay, Dad would be proud,” he said.
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