Development Is Key Issue for Quiet City Council Candidates

Agreement more than combativeness has marked the 14-candidate race for three seats in next week’s Ventura City Council election.

Virtually the entire field has pinpointed growth as the key issue, and the call for it to be slowed, managed or controlled has been the theme of the Nov. 3 contest. Most of the candidates, however, have refrained from severe criticism of the current council, acknowledging that fundamental controls are already in place. Consequently, incumbents Russ Burns and John McWherter only infrequently have been called upon to defend their records.

In fact, only a handful of candidates has engaged in sharp debate about anything; most have preferred to stress their own qualifications and positions without directly challenging those of their rivals.

Seven Filed Statements

Seven of the candidates have filed financial statements the city requires for those raising more than $500 in campaign contributions. They are Richard Francis, Tom Buford, Don Villeneuve, Edward Buckle and Billy Graham, as well as Burns and McWherter.

The other candidates are Barry Epstein, Carroll Dean Williams, Terry Lee Shain, Alan DeCotes, Troy Waltrip, Frederick Hoff and Jack DeLong.

Francis, a 38-year-old lawyer who has lived in the city nine years, set a record for raising funds after his campaign statement filed last week showed that he had received $18,523 in donations.

An unsuccessful council candidate in 1981, he helped block construction of a planned shopping and office complex earlier this year by gathering signatures of 11,000 residents opposed to the project. He has advocated limits on industrial and commercial construction, opposed the development of a two-year Cal State University academic center on Harbor Boulevard and suggested that Ventura’s water shortage be remedied, in part, by replacing the fresh water used to pump oil from the city’s oil fields with recycled water.

Inside Out

“I’ve been making a difference in the community from the outside for some time,” said Francis, who sits on the city’s Mobile Home Rent Review Board and is organizing a nonprofit organization for the aid of hyperactive children. “I’d like the opportunity to try to make a difference from the inside.”

Buford, 39, an attorney who has lived in the city for 25 years, has raised $8,092 for his first run at public office.

Buford is president-elect of the Greater Ventura Chamber of Commerce and chairman of the city’s Pier Steering Committee. He has stressed his independence and leadership skills.

He said he is concerned about growth but opposes setting a limit on industrial and commercial development, supports the city’s efforts to examine Taylor Ranch as a site for the university center and advocates a cooperative approach among Ventura and the neighboring water districts to investigate a full range of alternatives for bringing water to the city.

“I think I make good decisions and I enjoy the decision-making process,” said Buford, who has a seat on the county’s Mobile Home Rent Review Board and the board of directors of the Ventura Kiwanis Club. “I maintain my independence by speaking my mind and making sure I’m informed on the issues.”

Villeneuve, 57, a Ventura College biology professor who has lived in the city 26 years, has emerged as one of the campaign’s more critical voices.

‘Blueprint for Disaster’

An unsuccessful council candidate in 1985 and a former Planning Commission member, he called the Comprehensive Plan Review Committee’s forthcoming recommendations for a population of 122,000 in the year 2010 “a blueprint for disaster.”

He supports restrictions on industrial and commercial growth, opposes a university center on the Harbor Boulevard site and has advocated using recycled water for the city’s oil wells.

“I’ve been disturbed by the direction the city’s been going in for the last 10 years,” said Villeneuve, who has raised $8,919 for his campaign. “We’ve had rapid increases in development without any effort to address the problems created by this development.”

Buckle, 52, an attorney who has lived in Ventura for three years, has also been critical of the city’s approach to development.

A professor of business law at Oxnard College, he has accused city officials of letting developers determine the ground rules on such issues as commercial construction and the university center. “Who’s minding the store?” is the headline on his campaign advertisements.

He supports restrictions on the number of residents who can live in various areas of the city, opposes the development of the Harbor Boulevard university center and has called for a regional approach to solve the water problem.

“You have to set some sort of guidelines so we can begin to absorb new people,” said Buckle, who has raised $3,420 for his campaign. “I don’t think we can handle 122,000 people until we first get the ability to move the 122,000 people around.”

Burns, 69, who is seeking reelection to a second four-year term, has chosen to focus more on Ventura’s attributes than its problems.

Close to Utopia

A retired engineer who has lived in the city 19 years, he said that the quality of life engendered by street fairs, fine weather and community spirit far outweighs the detractions of development.

He said he favors the approach the city already has for controlling growth, expressed support for the university center on the Taylor Ranch site if it is feasible and cautioned against panicking over the possibility of water shortages.

“We don’t live in a Utopia,” said Burns, who has raised $9,838 in contributions, “but it’s close to it.”

McWherter, 72 and a 14-year veteran of the City Council, said that he decided to seek reelection because he felt that he owed it to the people who have supported him over the years.

A retired engineer who has lived in the city for 23 years, he said that the experience he has gained serving on more than 30 boards and commissions was too valuable to give up.

Bothered by Conscience

He said that he favored the city’s present plan for managing growth, opposed the Harbor Boulevard university center and urged that plans for a water pipeline be given priority.

“My conscience would have bothered me” by not running, said McWherter, who has raised $12,324. “I didn’t think there was anybody that could take my place.”

Many council observers agree that the other eight candidates, most of whom have raised little money and have not regularly attended candidate forums, are long shots.

Graham, a 58-year-old native of Ventura, has raised $614 in his first bid for the City Council. A retired engineering consultant, he supports a two-term limit for councilmen.

“I know the area so well, I just think I can improve on what’s been done,” he said.

Epstein, a six-year resident of the city, supports a clean-up of the beaches and a weekly art show on the promenade.

“If you want to be a tourist town, spend the money and get the beaches clean,” said the 32-year-old real estate agent. “It will come back to you in the long run.”

Williams, a 45-year-old poet known for his weekly tirades against the council, has tried unsuccessfully to have the mayor arrested for limiting the time that citizens have to address council members publicly.

“I’ve referred to them as the seven clones. One says something, and they all say the same thing,” Williams, a former manufacturing engineer, said of the council. “I would like to sit right there in the middle of them and be able to speak out.”

‘Delicate Balance’

Shain, a 40-year-old electronics technician who moved to Ventura from the San Fernando Valley three years ago, said he wants to avoid the rapid development that overtook the Valley but thinks the council’s limit on residential construction is too conservative. The current limit allows 800 additional residents a year in Ventura. “I don’t think that’s enough,” he said. “There’s a delicate balance that has to be reached.”

DeCotes, 39, a musician and waiter, has campaigned to restore the city’s annual Fourth of July fireworks show and establish a police detoxification program for handling overdose victims.

“When I’ve gone to City Council meetings, I’ve seen they don’t really care about the residents,” said DeCotes, a resident for 13 years. “They’re more concerned with approving things for developers.”

Waltrip, 61, who runs his own construction business, stands out as the one candidate who opposes restrictions on growth.

“I’m a believer in the free enterprise system,” said the eight-year resident. “I really take a dim view of any kind of government control that takes away people’s rights.”

Rent Control for Elderly

Hoff, a 39-year-old insurance agent and former sheriff’s deputy, supports a city ordinance that would control rents for senior citizens.

“A lot of seniors are on social security and fixed incomes,” said Hoff, who has lived 27 years in the city. “If rent keeps going up like it is, they’re going to have trouble living where they’re at.”

DeLong, 65, a retired postal safety inspector, advocates restrictions on growth, especially development in agricultural regions.

“I hate to see our farmlands being turned into condos,” said DeLong, a resident of Ventura for 41 years. “It’s just too much.”

According to Ventura County election officials, the city has 48,311 registered voters. Turnout in the 1985 municipal election was 28%.