Ventura Council Calls for Resignation of Starr

The Ventura City Council passed a resolution Monday calling for the resignation of Ventura Port District Commissioner Robert (Nick) Starr because he did not disclose his role in a 24-year-old bribery case. But an attempt to begin an investigation of Starr failed because of the expense.

“This is better than nothing,” said Councilman Gary Tuttle, the first council member to push for Starr’s removal or resignation. Tuttle supported a proposal for a preliminary investigation of Starr, but the motion failed.

Starr was convicted in 1968 of bribe-taking while he was a Los Angeles Harbor commissioner. The conviction was later overturned, but Starr did not mention the case when the council appointed him in June.

Since the case came to light in late August, the council has been considering the ouster of the 59-year-old property manager, who has resisted pressure from some council members to resign.

“I’m not going to resign, they can pass any resolution they want,” Starr said before the meeting Monday. A resolution, a statement of the council’s position, cannot compel him to resign.

“This is a toothless tiger,” said Councilwoman Cathy Bean, who voted to pursue a preliminary investigation against Starr, of the resolution.

Starr said he expected the council to take the action it did.

“You don’t go and spend money to do a witch hunt,” said Starr, who had just returned from a vacation in Jamaica with Councilman James L. Monahan. Monahan is one of his supporters and was on the Appointment Recommendation Committee at the time Starr was named to his post.

In an interview earlier Monday, Monahan said that trying to remove Starr would have been a waste.

“We’ve never done this with any other appointment,” said Monahan, who has been on the council for 17 years, longer than any other council member. “If this was a big, high-paying position, I could understand. When the smoke clears, as the years go by, you will find that he will be a major contributor to the port activities.”

The council last week began backing away from trying to oust Starr after hearing that it could cost as much as $250,000. An outside lawyer would have been hired to investigate Starr because the city attorney’s office was advising the council about the removal proceedings, said City Atty. Peter D. Bulens.

Starr has said he will fight any attempt to remove him, and would take the city to court if such an attempt is made.

A preliminary investigation of Starr would have cost about $7,500, Bulens said.

“Nick Starr simply is not worth it,” Tuttle said earlier Monday. The council’s decision could cause some members of the five-member port commission to resign in protest.

Board Chairman Richard Hambleton and Commissioner William Crew have said in past interviews that they will leave if Starr stays. Hambleton did not have any comment on Monday, and Crew could not be reached.

Several council members Monday urged the commissioners to stay on.

Meanwhile, Starr said neither man had the interests of the port district at heart “to pull something like this.”

But both members have been on the commission too long, he said. “I think they need some new blood down there.”

When Starr was on the Los Angeles Harbor commission, he and another member were convicted of taking $6,500 in furniture from a developer seeking their votes on a $12-million construction project.

The case was overturned in 1970 because the jury was not properly instructed.