McWherter Won’t Seek Reelection to Council : Ventura: The 18-year veteran reverses an earlier decision. He cites a desire to spend more time with his family.

John McWherter, the Ventura City Council’s elder statesman, said Monday that he will step down from the post he has held for nearly 18 years when his term expires in December.

McWherter, whose statement Monday reversed an earlier announcement of his intention to seek reelection, cited a desire for more time with his family as the sole reason for his decision to leave the council.

McWherter said he decided to retire after a recent trip to visit his great-grandchildren in Georgia.

“We had to come back after seeing them for only three days because I had to go to a council meeting,” he said. “I decided that there are many other things in life than the City Council.”

The retirement of McWherter, a moderate voice on the council, could open the door for a stronger slow-growth candidate if the 1991 election follows the pattern set in 1989. In that year, voters elected three newcomers who ran on slow-growth platforms and returned to office veteran Councilman Jim Monahan, the strongest business supporter on the council.

Three seats on the seven-member council will be open in December. Mayor Richard Francis and Councilman Donald Villeneuve have not said whether they will run for reelection.

McWherter, 76, considers himself one of the original slow-growth advocates in the city. His proudest achievement, he said, was his part in controlling growth as a member of the 1974 council.

“If we had continued growing at the rate we had in 1973, we would have more than 200,000 people in the city today,” McWherter said. “We stopped runaway growth, and we were able to preserve our way of life in Ventura.”

Francis and Councilman Todd Collart both praised McWherter for his historical perspective and hard work on the council throughout his tenure.

“He is moderate and reasonable and has always listened to all the input,” Collart said.

“Any time you lose that much experience, it’s a setback,” Francis said. “He understands the issues and he votes his conscience, and you can’t ask more of a council member than that.”

Pat Ellison, who served on the council from 1974 to 1982, praised McWherter for his work to control growth in the early ‘70s but said he has become less environmentally oriented since then.

“Anyone who looks at the (increased) traffic in Ventura cannot believe that he is for slow growth now,” Ellison said.

McWherter, a partner in a civil and mechanical engineering firm, first ran for election in 1973. Out of a field of 35 candidates running for five seats, McWherter finished sixth.

When the new council convened in January, 1974, a member of the existing council resigned and the remaining members appointed McWherter to fill an unexpired two-year term.

McWherter was the fourth and crucial vote for such progressive policies on the 1974 council as slow growth, establishing new parks, planting trees, adding low-income housing to the city and preserving historic landmarks, Ellison said.

McWherter was elected four times to four-year terms after his 1974 appointment.

“I wouldn’t change any of my time on the council for the world,” he said. “All nine separate councils and 21 council members have been wonderful.”

McWherter said he takes with him a host of good memories and two main regrets: the fact that the city has not yet imported water from a state pipeline to serve its residents, and the city’s loss of the proposed four-year California State University at Taylor Ranch just west of the city limits.

The state university system decided not to build at Taylor Ranch after community opposition developed and the City Council became divided on the issue.

“That was a catastrophe that the university wasn’t built at Taylor Ranch,” he said. “Eventually that area is going to develop, and to have a public institution with 300 acres of buffer between the river and the university would have been ideal.”

McWherter said the city must connect to a state water pipeline to serve its existing residents. Critics of the project, including some City Council members, contend that the extra water will only feed growth.

But even those who often take opposing views on the council had no criticism for McWherter.

“I’ve never considered him a slow-growth advocate,” said Councilman Gary Tuttle, who was elected in 1989. “But he is such a pleasant man. He is proof that people can be on different sides of issues and still like each other.”

Monahan, a 14-year council member, called McWherter a peacemaker.

“He has always tried to bring sides together,” Monahan said. He believes that McWherter’s decision to leave was partially motivated by the sometimes rancorous nature of council meetings since the 1989 election.

“I think he may be disappointed in this council, as am I,” Monahan said.