ELECTIONS / FILLMORE CITY COUNCIL : Sole Challenger Praises 3 Incumbents in Low-Key, Friendly Campaign

Earlier this year, Tom Robertson dropped into Roger Campbell’s auto repair shop to tell Campbell he planned to run for the Fillmore City Council this November.

He didn’t have any problems with the current council, Robertson told his old friend. But it just wasn’t right that the three incumbents up for reelection had no opposition.

The irony was that Campbell is one of those incumbents.

But Campbell isn’t upset with Robertson.

He agreed that the incumbents need at least one challenger, “even though he may kick me out of office.”

Charles (Tom) Robertson is the only person running against Campbell and council members Scott Lee and Michael McMahan in the Nov. 3 election.

The candidates say they believe that there are no contentious challengers this year because the public is generally satisfied with the current council.

Campbell said the friendly, low-key election is far different from the sometimes nasty campaigns of 1984, when he was first elected, and other recent years.

The difference now is that the public sees that the council works well together and has had several notable achievements, Campbell and the other incumbents said.

Lee, a teacher at Rio Mesa High School in Oxnard and first elected to the council in 1988, cited the panel’s success in funding a downtown beautification project that added planters and storefront awnings.

McMahan, who is also finishing his first four-year term and is now serving as mayor, pointed out that the council has brought a 156-acre industrial park nearly to completion.

The park, which will hold about 100 business tenants, is expected to be completed in a few months, said McMahan, who owns an oil field service company.

Campbell cited the city’s recent purchase of 13 acres of old railroad property, which officials hope to develop into a tourist attraction. Part of the land has already been leased to a company that runs trains for dinner trips and movie-making.

Robertson didn’t dispute these achievements.

“They’re a good council,” he said.

He agrees with Lee, McMahan and Campbell that some of the main challenges facing Fillmore will be attracting new businesses, coping with expected state financial cutbacks and keeping a lid on crime and gang activity.

But, Robertson said, he has the time to give something back to the city where he has lived his entire life.

Robertson works three 24-hour shifts a week as assistant fire chief for Point Mugu Naval Air Weapons Station and plans to retire from that job in 14 months.

He ran once before: In 1990, he was one of six candidates who vied for two council seats.

Although he didn’t campaign at all, he placed fourth in the field of six.

This time he’s put up posters, advertised in newspapers and campaigned door-to-door on just about every street in the city.

And he’s sure he’ll win.

“I have no doubts,” he said. “I don’t know who I’m going to push out. I feel sorry for the one I do push out because they’ve been doing a good job.”

Despite the candidates’ views that the public is generally satisfied with the current council, Robertson and Campbell said they are concerned that no Latinos are running.

Although Latinos make up 59% of Fillmore’s population of 12,400, there have been no Latino council members since Ernie Morales decided not to run for reelection in 1984.

Richard Gonzales, who owns Richard’s Meat Market, said he had considered running for the council, but politics and business don’t always mix well in a small town such as Fillmore.

He recalled that when he campaigned several years ago for a school bond initiative, some people opposed to the measure stopped shopping at his market.

Those customers have never come back, Gonzales said.

Robertson said he sympathizes with merchants who shy away from local politics.

Business in Fillmore runs on word-of-mouth, Robertson said, and the word spreads quickly when residents object to something an elected official has done.

“People take things to heart,” he said.