Pickleball Prevails!

The handful of votes that made the difference, Mayor-Elect Gilman’s Chat with Matt LaVere and Ben Harvey, and a few words on state housing law.

This post was updated at 4:30 p.m. Dec. 3rd to include a statement from City Attorney Matthew Summers and again at 9:20 p.m. Dec 3rd to include a statement from No on O proponent Karin Quimby.

READERS.

Measure O (aka the Ojai Pickleball Act) to resume pickleball play at four controversial Ojai City Hall courts will become law by a margin of 23 VOTES — that’s according to the Ventura County Clerk-Recorder & Registrar of Voters’ final election results. The vote will be certified tomorrow, Dec. 4th.

Via Ventura County Clerk

In total, the pickleballers won 2,129 votes to the No on O campaign’s 2,106. I immediately phoned lead pickleballer Tim Krout and informed him of the news.

“Wow. I think I’ll hold off jumping up and down until the county certifies.” Krout said. “I’m not counting my chickens — yet.”

The pickleballers are set to return to the courts they helped create. Photo via Ojai Valley Pickleball.

“We are deeply disappointed in the outcome of the election, obviously,” said Karin Quimby, who ran the No on O campaign. “The neighborhood has been fighting hard to regain their peace from the invasion of pickleball and the opposition has been fighting hard to play their game next to homes, despite its impact on their neighbors. We are unable to fund a recount, but hope the city will as it is their land that has been taken over by a special interest— in perpetuity. We just hope that the majority of pickleball players are enjoying playing at Soule Park, which the city spent a large amount of money to give them, and that they will continue to play there rather than in this quiet, residential neighborhood.” Quimby added, “Not having ballot language doomed us in the end.”¹

Like Quimby said, no argument against Measure O was submitted for the ballot. Here’s an image of my own County Voter Information Guide.

Mary Wargo, who lives in the apartment building immediately across the street from the courts (the building is owned by Quimby’s family), said, “I'm very angry that our neighborhood will be ruined by noise that was completely avoidable due to more areas of play that were available. I know I'm not the only one who feels this way.” Wargo began appealing to the City Council in 2020 for relief from pickleball noise.

According to Ojai City Attorney Matthew Summers, “The election certification and declaration of the results by the Ojai City Council is scheduled to take place at the December 10, 2024, Regular Meeting. The City Hall courts will reopen ten days later.”

The Ventura County Clerk’s Office provided a breakdown of each side’s vote by “vote type” — take a look:

Interestingly, “No” won vote by mail, while “Yes” won in-person voters.

We also learned that a total of 4,235 Ojai voters weighed in on the matter of pickleball, 19 more voters than the mayoral race.

Mayor-Elect Andy Gilman won 1,198 more votes than candidate Michelle Pineiro, via Ventura County Clerk.

As for Ventura County as a whole, 76.25% of registered voters cast ballots in 2024. Voter turnout appears shockingly lower than the 2020 General Election, in which 85.91% of Ventura County voters hit the polls. (I will be looking into this). Glancing at the vote totals, it’s clear that Vice President Kamala Harris underperformed relative to President Biden’s vote totals in 2020. Harris earned 217, 423 votes (56%) in 2024, compared to Biden’s 251,388 votes (59.45%) in 2020. President-Elect Trump, meanwhile, earned fewer Ventura County votes in 2024 (158,888) than in 2020 (162,207). Interesting.

On that note, I’ll conclude my 2024 elections coverage. That is, unless someone requests a recount.

In other news, I spent the evening of Dec. 2nd at Ojai Mayor-Elect Andy Gilman’s first Ojai Chautauqua event since Election Day. (Gilman’s day job is as Executive Director of the Agora Foundation, which sponsors the Ojai Chautauqua events)