There’s Plenty of Fight Left in Flynn : Politics: The county supervisor with the Irish temper has built a name for himself as a water expert and a friend of the poor.

About a decade before low-flow toilets and drought-resistant landscaping became the new Southern California buzzwords, John K. Flynn was worried about Ventura County’s water supply.

During his first term on the Board of Supervisors in the mid-1970s, Flynn helped organize a group of farmers, politicians and water authorities to keep seawater from seeping into the ground-water supply that is vital to farmers in the Oxnard Plain.

The efforts helped heal bruised feelings among farmers who were miffed at Flynn for supporting farm workers’ rights during heated labor strikes.

Since then, Flynn, a liberal Democrat and former teacher, has emerged as the foremost water authority among the supervisors and is considered by many water officials to be a leader in conservation efforts.

Board colleagues and friends say Flynn’s longtime support for farm workers’ rights demonstrates that he is more than a one-issue politician. They say he long has been a strong advocate for the poor and homeless.

However, friends and critics also say Flynn has a short temper. During his 14 years on the board, he often has clashed with board colleagues, constituents and other politicians, they say.

“Part of maturity is learning to control your short fuse,” said Ojai Mayor Nina Shelley, who has often clashed with Flynn over a proposal to extend the life of the Bailard Landfill near Oxnard. “If you are going to serve the people, you are going to have to keep that in control.”

Former Supervisor Madge Schaefer, one of Flynn’s harshest critics, said Flynn has a tendency to hold a grudge. “He throws tantrums and then storms off,” she said.

Flynn, the senior member of the board, acknowledges having a short fuse but said it hasn’t hurt his political career.

“If you look at my history, I have probably had a clash with everyone I’ve had a dealing with,” he said. “But I don’t think they hold it against me.”

Indeed, Flynn was unopposed during his last two campaigns for reelection. His district includes most of Oxnard, one of the poorest and most racially diverse cities in the county.

Friends say Flynn, the father of six children, has won over constituents--54% of whom are Latino and 16% of whom are Filipino, Asian or black--by the stands he takes on social issues, such as his support for the homeless and for minorities.

A blue-eyed, bespectacled man who boasts a strong Irish Catholic bloodline, Flynn, 58, was first elected to the board in 1973. He lost his first reelection bid in 1976 and has been reelected three times since.

He was born in Ojai in 1933, the son of an oil worker who labored at the oil-drilling facilities that once dotted Ventura Avenue in Ventura.

When he was about 2 years old, he moved along with his parents, two sisters and one brother to a ranch in northern Santa Barbara, where he lived throughout his high school years.

Flynn joined the Army when he was 19 and served in Korea. During his three-year military stint, he was assigned to military intelligence where his job was to break enemy codes.

After returning to Santa Barbara, he attended UC Santa Barbara, where he received a degree in social sciences. During his junior year, he married Diane Wilson at a ceremony at the Santa Barbara Mission.

After earning a master’s degree in American history from Cal State Northridge, Flynn became a teacher. He taught for 17 years, beginning at an elementary school in Port Hueneme and then moving on to Ventura High School and Oxnard Community College.

His interest in politics began in the early 1970s when he worked on the campaigns of various local officials, including state Sen. Gary K. Hart, a fellow Democrat from Santa Barbara.

“I suddenly decided, why should I do all this campaigning for other people?” Flynn said. “I’ll run myself.”

Since then, Flynn has headed a number of committees and commissions, including the Southern California Water Committee, which represents eight counties. In the early 1960s, he was on the board of directors for the local chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People. He was appointed by Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. in 1981 to the California Coastal Commission. He is currently president of the Southern California Assn. of Governments, a regional advisory board that studies issues such as transportation and housing.

Flynn was instrumental in getting funds to build the Freeman Diversion Improvement Project, which can divert and store about 55,000 acre-feet of water from the Santa Clara River.

This year, he formed a countywide task force of water managers and business and agricultural interests to find regional solutions to the county’s water crisis.

Some board colleagues say Flynn is a loner--more likely to tackle a county issue on his own than to join forces with other supervisors.

Flynn said he has few interests outside of his work and his family.

“My work is my real hobby,” he said. “I love work. I live to work. It sounds silly, but I can’t wait to get to work.”

One of Flynn’s biggest fans is the Rev. Jim Gilmer, director for Oxnard’s Zoe Christian Center for the homeless. He said Flynn was a vital supporter when the city of Oxnard tried to close the shelter because it stands next to a fertilizer plant where hazardous chemicals are stored.

“If it wasn’t for John Flynn, I’d say our organization’s doors would be closed,” Gilmer said.

Flynn spent most of last week in Washington, lobbying for funds for an independent living project for the mentally ill in Oxnard.

County Chief Administrator Richard Wittenberg said there have been many occasions when Flynn has called him on a weekend to ask for advice on helping a homeless family or a mentally ill person.

“He has deep and honest convictions that have a lot to do with his view of the world,” Wittenberg said. “He gets frustrated because the system is not responding to the homeless or the mentally ill.”

While most friends and critics believe Flynn has a heartfelt interest in aiding the poor and homeless, some say he tries to be a leader on too many issues. “You can’t take on everything and be good at it,” Shelley said.

Schaefer said one of her nastier spats with Flynn occurred three years ago when he told her that he was interested in running for the state Senate. Schaefer said she told a newspaper reporter about Flynn’s intentions, and when the article appeared in the newspaper, Flynn blew up at her and called her a liar.

But fellow Supervisor Maggie Erickson Kildee said of Flynn: “I don’t think he goes around looking for fights. But he’s outspoken, and he doesn’t mind taking someone on.”

Robert Serros, a teacher at Channel Islands High School who worked as Flynn’s top assistant for eight years, said Flynn “does have a very short fuse, but he is very dedicated to the work he does.”

Flynn’s biggest scrapes with board colleagues have occurred because of his opposition to a proposed jail near Santa Paula to ease overcrowding at the county facility, and to a plan to extend the life of the Bailard Landfill near Oxnard.

On the jail issue, Flynn believes the county should consider other alternatives to ease overcrowding, such as expanding the work furlough program and keeping convicts confined at home with electronic monitoring devices.

Flynn said that when he first opposed the jail project, other board members who supported the proposal retaliated by stonewalling proposals he made afterward. He said the other supervisors delayed appropriating funds for a mental health center that he strongly supported.

“They were pretty hard on me,” he said. “I would characterize it as vicious.”

Erickson Kildee said the jail was a volatile issue, but other board members did not try to punish Flynn. “I don’t think the board operates that way,” she said.

After a clash, Flynn usually tries to smooth over bruised feelings, she said. “We’d have a big battle or something, and the next thing I know he would be getting me coffee in the board room.”

On the landfill issue, Flynn believes the dump--which is in his district--should be closed. He said the Oxnard area has been home to the large dump for long enough.

Flynn said he worries because hazardous chemicals are leaking into the underground water beneath the landfill. But proponents of the landfill extension say that the water is only used to control dust from Bailard.

Oxnard Councilwoman Dorothy Maron, who supports the extension, has known Flynn for 30 years and has had several fights with him over the dump issue.

Even though they are old friends, Maron said, Flynn often has lost his temper with her. “Sometimes he smoothes things over with me, and sometimes he doesn’t,” she said.