COUNTYWIDE : Senior Legislature Election to Be Held

The California Senior Legislature, a senior citizens advisory group modeled after the state Legislature, will hold an election Tuesday to fill three seats from among five Ventura County residents.

The Senior Legislature was born in 1980 after the regular Legislature was inundated with legislative requests from senior groups throughout the state, said M. L. Strohbehn, 75, of Ojai, who has been a member of the Senior Assembly since 1983 and is running unopposed for his seat.

“We needed to have our voices funneled through one organization, so we could get a consensus on the issues,” Strohbehn said.

The organization is a nonpartisan grass-roots organization that mirrors the regular Legislature, with 80 members in the Assembly and 40 members in the Senate.

Members of the Senior Legislature, who must be registered voters 60 years or older, are elected by their peers.

The Senior Legislature meets in Sacramento for five days every fall, taking over the Capitol while the regular members are in recess.

Every member of the organization may write a proposal by May 31 that targets a particular senior concern.

That proposal goes through the regular legislative process and is reviewed by the legislative counsel for issues of redundancy and constitutionality, Strohbehn said.

“All of those issues written by the legislative counsel are then presented to us in a book about 2 inches thick,” Strohbehn said.

About half of the 120 proposals are passed by the Senior Legislature and ranked in importance.

The top 10 proposals are then worked on throughout the year by 20 members of the Senior Legislature and the state Commission on Aging in an effort to get the regular state legislators to author bills that will become law.

“We’ve turned 65 of our proposals into law in the past 10 years,” Strohbehn said.

Voters will have the opportunity to elect one senior senator from a field of three.

They are: incumbent Joseph Gaynes of Camarillo, James Giles of Ventura and J. C. Gills of Port Hueneme.

Strohbehn is running for one of the two open Senior Assembly seats, and Maxine Culp of Ventura is running for the other.

Elections will be held on Tuesday at senior centers and other sites throughout the county where senior meals are served. Polls will be open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

SENIOR ELECTIONS

Polling places:

* Camarillo

Camarillo Senior Center

1605 E. Burnley St.

Leisure Village Assn., Lanai Room

12000 Leisure Village Drive

* Conejo Valley

Goebel Senior Center

110 S. Conejo School Road

Borchard Community Center

190 Reino Road

* Fillmore

Fillmore Senior Center

533 Santa Clara Ave.

* Moorpark

Senior Center

799 Moorpark Ave.

* Oak View

Oak View Baptist Church

Golden Age Clubroom

195 Mahoney Ave.

* Ojai

Little House Senior Center

111 W. Santa Ana St.

* Oxnard

Wilson Senior Center

350 N. C St.

Colonia Senior Center

126B Amelia Court

Ventura County Council on Aging

Senior Center, 4917 S. Rose Ave.

* Piru

Piru Senior Center office

802 N. Orchard St.

* Port Hueneme

Senior Center

550 Park Ave.

* Santa Paula

Senior Center

530 W. Main St.

* Simi Valley

Simi Valley Senior Center

3900 Avenida Simi

* Ventura

Santa Clara Center

420 E. Santa Clara St.

Seventh-day Adventist Church

6300 Telephone Road

Avenue Adult Center

550 N. Ventura Ave.