ELECTIONS / VENTURA CITY COUNCIL : Dozen File for Race; Deadline Extended

A dozen candidates for the Ventura City Council filed election papers by the Friday filing deadline, which City Clerk Barbara Kam said was “an average turnout” for the four council seats up for grabs in November.

More candidates may emerge next week because the filing deadline was automatically extended until Wednesday when incumbent Councilwoman Cathy Bean did not file papers to run for reelection. Under the new deadline, candidates will have until 5 p.m. on Wednesday to turn in their papers.

Councilmen James Monahan, Todd Collart and Gary Tuttle declared their candidacies for reelection to the seven-member council. Ventura council members serve four-year terms.

So far the field of challengers includes: Nancy Cloutier, publisher and editor of the Ventura County & Coast Reporter; Neil Demers-Grey, a writer and gay rights activist; Charles Kistner, a political consultant; Dick Massa, who owns a medical supply company; Rosa Lee Measures, a financial planner; Clark Owens, a real estate broker; Brian Lee Rencher, a Ventura College student; Kenneth Schmitz, a certified public accountant, and Carol Dean Williams, a local activist.

City officials expect a few more candidates to file candidacy papers next week because it has been widely known that Councilwoman Bean would not seek a second term.

Furthermore, a number of people have taken out candidacy papers but have not filed them with the city clerk. They are: Gregory Bailey, a manager of a wire rope company; Steve Bennett, a Nordhoff High School teacher; Marilyn Miller, a planner; Gary Warren, a manufacturing manager, and Virginia Weber, who is self-employed.

Candidates must be registered voters in Ventura and get between 20 and 30 signatures of registered voters in the city.

Of the candidates who filed, two are women. No minority members have come forward, and candidates range in age from 28 to 61.

Although the filing deadline will officially mark the beginning of the campaign, people have been publicly announcing their candidacies since January.

Some candidates have begun raising funds, making speeches and walking precincts. Political action groups are also raising money and preparing to interview candidates before making endorsements.

Most of the candidates are from the business community and are calling for reduced business regulations in the city. Steve Bennett, who ran an unsuccessful write-in campaign in 1991, is the only potential challenger who has emerged from the environmental community so far.

Local political activists predicted that the usual issues of growth and water will be overshadowed by concerns about jobs and the poor economy. Chamber of Commerce officials said the proposed expansion of the Buenaventura Mall and the revitalization of downtown would be themes in the election, as well as how candidates can best lure more business to Ventura.

“It’s going to be jobs, jobs, jobs,” said Bob Alviani, vice president at First Interstate Bank and chairman of the chamber’s political action committee.

Kam predicted that voter turnout would be low because the Nov. 2 election is being held during an odd-numbered year and no local issues have cropped up to galvanize voters.

The issues will probably be “water, safety issues, managing what resources we have,” said Kam, who has been city clerk for 22 years. “There has been no overwhelming ballyhoo over one thing or another. The names and faces change, but the issues stay the same.”