ELECTIONS OXNARD CITY COUNCIL : Contenders Emphasize Their Merits in Campaigns

The 12 candidates in the race for two Oxnard City Council seats have campaigned on their personal qualifications and on such issues as the city’s financial problems, its pace of growth and the need for more affordable housing in the city.

The challengers, ranging in occupation from a retired butcher to an accountant, seek to replace council members Manuel Lopez and Ann Johs, whose four-year terms expire in November. Both incumbents are seeking reelection on Tuesday.

In contrast to the mayor’s race, which has been laced with personal attacks and charges of political mudslinging, the council candidates have waged a subdued campaign.

Lopez, an optometrist who was raised in Oxnard, is seeking his fourth term in office.

Johs, who runs a music store in Oxnard, is seeking her second full term. She was elected in 1985 to fill the vacant seat of Councilman Tsujio Kato, who was recalled in 1984. Johs was reelected in 1986.

The challengers are Eleanor Branthoover, chairwoman of the city’s Inter-Neighborhood Council; Paul Chatman, a department store manager; Oscar Karrin, a retired butcher and caterer; Roy Lockwood, a retired fire chief; Richard Morrisset, an accountant and attorney; Bedford Pinkard, a city recreation supervisor and member of the Oxnard Union High School District Board of Trustees; Michael Plisky, a former councilman, and business and tax consultant; Robert Randolph, a retired refuse supervisor; Fred Schwartz, a retired aerospace engineer, and Scott Weiss, an accountant and founder of a slow-growth grass-roots organization.

The challengers have pushed their qualifications for the two seats by pointing out their respective experience with such community organizations as school boards, business groups and city advisory panels.

For example, Chatman said in a campaign statement that his “involvement as a member of Oxnard’s Ad Hoc Citizens Financial Advisory Committee has spurred my concern about growth, the lack of accountability and crime within the city.”

Plisky, who served four years on the council before he launched an unsuccessful bid for the mayor’s seat two years ago, said his experience on the council and his background in financial management give him the skills to be an effective council member.

In campaign statements and interviews, most of the challengers have characterized themselves as advocates for slow growth or controlled growth and have criticized the incumbents for Oxnard’s pace of development, which some describe as rampant.

The most extreme stand on the growth issue comes from Schwartz, who said he supports a no-growth policy. “In fact, if I could reverse growth, I would,” he said.

Lopez and Johs have both defended the city’s development policies. However, Johs voted against a recent development plan that allows for the construction of 3,900 housing units in the next five years, saying the plan allows too much growth. Lopez supported the plan, saying it will provide more affordable housing.

Last week, Weiss won a small victory in the campaign when he received the endorsement of Patagonia Inc., a Ventura clothing company whose support of slow-growth candidates has played a major role in successful city and county races.

The campaigns of Lopez and Chatman were also bolstered earlier this month when they won the endorsements of Oxnard’s police, firefighters and city employees associations.

Also at issue in the campaign are Oxnard’s financial problems, which have plagued the city for more than a year. During budget sessions in June, the City Council was forced to order deep cuts in services and personnel to avoid a $2.8-million deficit in the 1990-91 fiscal year.

To address the problem, Plisky said he would force developers to “pay the full cost of development to ensure financial stability for current city residents.”

Branthoover, whose resume includes involvement in a long list of community organizations, said the incumbents caused the financial crisis by giving developers “sweetheart deals which have cost us, the people, millions of dollars.”

Lopez has defended the city’s financial policies, saying Oxnard’s fiscal problems are due to a loss of funds from outside the city. For example, he cites the loss of about $600,000 in fines from convicted drunk drivers, which the county diverted from the city two years ago.

For the most part, incumbents and challengers agree that the city needs to provide more affordable housing for the city’s working-class residents. However, their opinions on how to achieve that range from a suggestion that the city build more mobile home parks to a proposal that no affordable housing be built without voter approval.

“The American dream of owning a home, for low- and moderate-income individuals, the younger generation, and poor and homeless, has long vanished in Oxnard,” said Lockwood, who is also running for a seat on the Oxnard Union High School District Board of Trustees.

Lopez has suggested that the city support construction of a housing project for farm workers, such as those built recently in Moorpark and Fillmore by the Cabrillo Economic Development Corp.

Karrin, an advocate for the rights of mobile home owners, has suggested that the city develop 20 parks for mobile homes. He said his proposal would solve the affordable-housing crunch and raise revenues through the operation of the parks.

Randolph, a Navy veteran, suggested in a statement that no affordable housing be built unless the means of financing such a project is approved and unless voters approve the location of the units.