Woman Council Member in Port Hueneme Signals Season of Change

Before the Port Hueneme City Council meets again, there will be a small but significant change in the council chambers.

No longer will the name plaques read “Councilman.” By Wednesday, when real estate agent Toni Young is sworn in, newly minted plaques will read “Council member.”

“I’m thrilled about it, personally,” said Young, 40, the first woman elected to the five-member council in 33 years. “ ‘Council member’ is what they should have read all along.”

Besides bringing Port Hueneme into line with all nine other city governments in Ventura County--all of which have had female council members for years--Young’s election signals other changes for the tiny seaside city.

She is adamantly opposed to the council’s approving any new taxes, even if it means cutting city services. That is in marked contrast to past council philosophy of improving the city’s image and services through whatever means necessary, including the recent creation of a beach assessment district.

And some say she will add a badly needed dissenting viewpoint on a council whose style typically has been to vote unanimously after little or no public discussion on staff-generated proposals.

“She can be feisty,” said Bonnie Williams, who has known Young for six years. “If she disagrees with something, she will let it be known. She will not let some man sway her if she thinks she is right.”

Young said that breaking the gender barrier was a consideration in her decision to run for council. The last woman to serve on the council, Mildred Gadker, resigned in 1959, said City Clerk Karen Jackson.

Since then, what distinguished the council for the city of 20,000 was its homogeneity--all five current members are white men in their 60s and 70s, military veterans active in civic affairs before running for office.

“It was time for a new viewpoint,” Young said. “My gender definitely gives me a different perspective on life.”

Longtime Councilman Dorill B. Wright agrees.

“Men generally are more tied up in their profession, while the ladies have been more involved in education and providing social services to the community,” Wright said. “I think she’s going to have a number of ideas relative to what the city could do to provide more moderately priced housing.”

Young said she is interested in increasing the city’s affordable-housing stock but has other priorities for the short term. Her priority for the upcoming years is to block any new taxes the council may consider while balancing the budget, Young said.

She also wants to increase citizen contact with municipal government by holding office hours each month in City Hall. Anyone who has a question about any aspect of city government--from paying a bill to inquiring about development policies--may drop in without an appointment, she said.

Young said she is particularly concerned about the amount the city is paying--approximately $500,000, she said--to landscape medians and keep its parks and beaches clean. She said she will explore ways they can be maintained more cost-effectively, and advocates paving over the medians--considered a distinctive feature of Port Hueneme--if budget conditions become dire.

The one area where she retreats from her no-new-taxes stance is the Police Department. She said she recently reported a drive-by shooting near her middle-class neighborhood and feels the city cannot compromise on police services, even if revenues continue to fall behind costs.

To ensure that the city can continue to support its 20-officer department--where costs have been trimmed $150,000 for the upcoming year--Young recommends asking citizens to vote on a ballot measure that would allow the city to enact a property tax override. The measure requires approval by two-thirds of voters, a margin Young believes represents “a strong will of the people.”

Young’s influence on the city’s proposal to build a 143-space recreational vehicle park at the southeast end of Hueneme Beach is likely to be limited. The four other council members have already stated strong support for the project and are not likely to alter their stance, officials say.

Although she campaigned on a platform of opposition to the project--and received much of her electoral support from the park’s most vocal critics--Young recognizes her limited ability to change the city’s course.

“I can’t tell them, ‘Don’t do it,’ ” Young said. “But I will encourage them to stop fighting the opposition so much.”

A California native, Young moved up and down the state with her husband, Otto, while he was serving in the Navy. The couple settled in Port Hueneme 11 years ago to rear their three children, James, 20; Josephine, 16; and Jennifer, 11.

Young held a series of jobs--from driving a school bus to selling Tupperware--before becoming a real estate agent in 1988. Besides working part time and shuttling her children to various activities, Young has served as president of the local Optimist Club chapter and in a naval wives’ club.

Her first brush with politics came two years ago, when she finished fifth in a field of nine for a seat on the Hueneme school board. She said she likes campaigning so much that she is considering a future run for the county Board of Supervisors. A true optimist, she believes it will be “fun” being a council member.

“I just have a feeling it’s all going to turn out just fine and be a lot of fun.”

Although she is an abortion-rights advocate and describes herself as “somewhat a feminist,” Young is a Republican and did not vote for either Dianne Feinstein or Barbara Boxer, both Democrats, in the recent elections.

“I look at each race individually, but I tend to lean toward the Republican philosophy,” she said.

Her own election success has spurred a little consciousness-raising in her own home, Young said. Although she has long assured her youngest daughter, Jennifer, that she could one day grow up to be President, the adolescent rejected the prospect as “too scary,” Young said.

After her election, however, Jennifer had a different perspective, Young said. “She came to me and said, ‘Now that you’ve done this, Mom, maybe I can be President.’ ”