Councilwoman Both Praised, Scorned for Her Stands

Oxnard City Councilwoman Dorothy S. Maron isn’t squeamish about calling herself a politician.

“I am a politician, and I don’t think that’s a dirty word, because Franklin Roosevelt was a politician, and Harry Truman, the heroes of my youth,” said the 10-year council veteran, who recently announced her intention to run for mayor in November.

Indeed, some council watchers and candidates say that, behind the New York accent and the disarming smile, Maron is primarily concerned with furthering her political career. Critics say she is self-serving and has lost touch with constituents.

Maron recently has advocated pulling in the reins on development in a city that has long been noted for courting developers. However, slow-growth advocates question whether her intentions are genuine.

A group called Community Concern, which includes representatives of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People and the Assn. of Mexican-American Educators, attempted earlier this month to place a measure on the ballot seeking her recall.

The failed recall effort targeted Maron for her vote in December to oust David Mora, the first Mexican-American city manager in a city that is more than 50% Latino.

The group, which maintains that Mora was a scapegoat for the council’s “misguided policy decisions,” came about 400 signatures shy of the 9,127 signatures needed to put a recall proposition on the November ballot.

Maron, 60, shrugs off the recall attempt, saying the group does not represent the entire Latino community. It represents a “minority of the minority,” she said.

The episode, Maron said, only proves what she has learned in her many years in politics: “If you are going to take a stand, you have to expect that not everybody is going to love you.”

Maron’s interest in politics was sparked in 1968 when she was appointed to the Ventura County Grand Jury to study development issues. A native New Yorker and a former office manager for a publishing house, Maron was a member of the Oxnard Democratic Club.

In 1970, she was appointed to the Planning Commission. Ten years later, Maron, a mother of three who describes herself as a “fiscal conservative and social liberal,” was elected to her first four-year council term. She has been reelected twice.

Supervisor John Flynn, who lives in Oxnard, has praised Maron for her staunch support of the Zoe Christian Center, the county’s only year-round homeless shelter. “I like Dorothy,” he said. “I think she’s a good person.”

Maron lobbied intensely last month to persuade her council colleagues to commit to a permanent site for the center, which has been operating without a permit in an area zoned for industrial and manufacturing concerns. Mayor Nao Takasugi and Councilwomen Ann Johs and Geraldine (Gerry) Furr have said the current location is inappropriate for the center because it is near a fertilizer company where toxic chemicals are stored.

Last month, the center awarded Maron the Golden Eagle Award for her support of the homeless.

She has also been praised by Oscar Karrin, a council candidate and staunch advocate of the rights of mobile home residents. Although he does not always agree with Maron’s methods, Karrin said she has always supported mobile home residents by opposing proposals to implement restrictions and fee increases on the residents.

“We’ve been rubbing each other the wrong way for years, but I don’t hold a grudge against her,” he said. “Every time it came up before the council she voted for the mobile home residents.”

Maron, a registered Democrat, considers herself a “quiet person inside.” Yet she seems to enjoy the confrontations of the political arena.

“When she has something to say, she takes the bull by the horn,” Karrin said.

For example, last month Maron started a verbal skirmish with Takasugi during a meeting to discuss how to reduce a projected $2.8-million deficit from the 1990-91 budget.

Maron criticized the city for promoting “growth for growth’s sake.” The comment prompted Takasugi to defend the city’s development policies, saying new development will lead to higher tax revenue.

“But we are giving away the city to developers,” Maron countered. The debate continued for several minutes until Johs interrupted and asked Maron and Takasugi to refrain from further “political speeches.”

Maron has received the most criticism for voting along with Johs and Furr to request Mora’s resignation. Ray Tafoya, a spokesman for Community Concern, said his group will oppose the reelection of Maron and Johs in November but will give Furr a second chance because she is the newest member of the council.

At the time, all three councilwomen said they voted against Mora because they held him responsible for a series of financial problems. Maron previously had been a Mora supporter but said she decided to back a call for his resignation after researching some of the city’s financial records.

“How could it happen that a city that has grown so much could have less money than we did in the past?” she said at the time. “I’m not blaming this on Mora, but he is the guy in charge, and he should be held accountable.”

However, in later interviews she said the city attorney had advised her not to reveal her true reasons for voting against Mora. Now, Maron is offering a third reason, saying she voted against the city manager because he had aligned himself with Takasugi, rather than the council majority, on development issues.

Councilman Manuel Lopez, a staunch Mora supporter, said he is confused by her inconsistency in explaining her vote against the former city manager. “To this day, I don’t think there was any logic to it,” he said.

Tafoya said the vote against Mora was simply an attempt by Maron to distance herself from politically unpopular decisions by the council. It was simply Mora’s job to implement those policies, he said.

One of the policy decisions that critics usually mention involves a utility tax that the council voted to eliminate in 1987, two years before it was set to expire. The decision, which Maron supported, ended a reliable source of revenue, critics say. When the tax was eliminated it was generating more than $1 million a year for the city.

Maron said she does not regret her vote against Mora, “but perhaps I could have handled it with better finesse.”

In the past two years Maron has begun to promote what she calls a policy of “controlled growth.”

But even avid slow-growth advocates question Maron’s sincerity. “What she is going to do in the future is anybody’s guess,” said Scott Weiss, former chairman and founder of Citizens To Protect Oxnard, a grass-roots, slow-growth organization. Weiss plans to run for the council in November.

Critics suggest that Maron is trying to jump on the slow-growth movement that has taken root in the county.

Lopez suggested that Maron’s policy on growth is her way of distinguishing herself from Takasugi, a pro-growth advocate who Lopez believes will seek reelection. Takasugi has not announced whether he will seek an unprecedented fifth term.

“If you are trying to get into a position against an incumbent, you can’t say you agree with what the incumbent is doing but you will do it better,” Lopez said. “You have to have a reason to run.”

In April, Maron blasted the city’s new General Plan as a “very pro-growth document.” She said the plan, which will guide development for the next 30 years, had failed to address her concerns about traffic, housing and high-risk industrial companies. Upon her recommendation, the council voted 3 to 2 to form a committee of residents and council members to review the document. Three weeks later, Maron withdrew her recommendation without an explanation.

Weiss noted that Maron has supported some large development proposals, including a 77-acre residential development near Gonzales Road and Oxnard Boulevard. She also has supported a proposed 3,000-acre project in Ormond Beach, one of the biggest housing and commercial projects ever considered in Oxnard.

The Planning Commission has since forced the developer of the Ormond Beach project to scale down the proposed development dramatically.

Maron defended her vote on the 77-acre project, saying she recommended a change to the proposed development that will ultimately reduce from 454 to 400 the number of houses and condominiums built.

As for the Ormond Beach project, Maron said she voted to rezone the site for residential development because it previously had been zoned for industrial uses. She said her vote helps to assure that high-risk industries will not be built near the sensitive wetlands adjoining the beach.