Councilwoman Says Developer Offered ‘Bribe’

An Oxnard councilwoman on Friday accused an Orange County development company of trying to “bribe” her by offering its assistance in passing a utilities tax on the June 5 ballot in exchange for her support for a controversial building project.

Councilwoman Ann Johs said a representative of Warmington Homes made the offer April 2 in an informal meeting on a 77-acre development proposed for the northeast corner of Oxnard Boulevard and Gonzales Road.

In that meeting, a Warmington Homes representative offered help from the company’s public relations firm to help pass Measure C, a proposed 5% utilities tax designed to solve the city’s financial crisis, Johs said.

“They were offering something to gain a vote, and that to me would be a bribe,” Johs said. “They wanted my vote on their project.”

Hardy Strozier, a planning consultant for Warmington Homes of Costa Mesa, said he attended the meeting but never heard anything about the utilities tax. There was nothing mentioned in his presence, he said. “If there is any substance to the allegation of a bribe, they should go to the city attorney and the police, not the press.”

The Warmington Homes project, which would include 132 single-family houses, 154 condominiums and a 4 1/2-acre office complex, received tentative approval from the Oxnard City Council on Tuesday.

The council voted 3 to 2 to amend the city’s General Plan so that the project could move forward. But the council postponed its final decision until late summer by sending the proposal to the city’s Planning Commission for further review and approval of a zoning change and special use permit.

Johs and Geraldine (Gerry) Furr, who also attended the April 2 meeting, were the two council members who opposed the project. The two said they voted against the project because they believe that the office complex would create too much traffic for the neighborhood.

Furr could not be reached for comment Friday.

“This was a long, hard-fought battle,” Strozier said. “We tried to deal with this planning issue in a very fair way, and aboveboard. It had its day in court. There were three who voted for it and two against,” he said. Strozier suggested that Johs’ allegation amounts to political sour grapes.

For the last two years, Oxnard has had to dip into reserve funds to avoid deficits. The city manager has warned that unless city voters approve the 5% utility tax, the city will have to make drastic budget cuts to avoid a $2.7-million deficit.

One solution, endorsed by the Oxnard Peace Officers Assn. and others, is Measure C on the June 5 ballot. The measure would raise an estimated $5 million a year by taxing natural gas, electricity, telephone and cable television service for most Oxnard residents, exempting low-income families.

Johs said she is looking for ways to solve the city’s budget crunch but is reserving her support for Measure C until she sees the results of an ongoing audit of city finances.

As the April 2 meeting with Warmington officials was winding down, Johs said, “They wanted to know how we felt about the utilities tax. Then they suggested that they could be of great help by getting their PR firm to work on it and help it pass.

“To me, it felt like they were trying to bribe me,” she said. Johs said she abruptly got up and left. She said she did not remember the name of the Warmington representative who made the offer.

Later that day, she reported the incident to John Tooker, Oxnard’s assistant city manager. But she said she hasn’t taken the allegation to the district attorney.

If Warmington Homes wants to support Measure C, she said, the company should join the political group, Citizens for Public Safety, established to support the measure.

“They shouldn’t have gone through a city councilwoman,” she said.