Monahan’s Conduct His Achilles Heel in Council Race, Critics Say : Ventura: Incumbent drove drunk and backed Nick Starr. But supporters admire his conservative politics and blunt style.

When Councilman James Monahan was first elected to the Ventura City Council 16 years ago, he won by three votes after demanding a recount.

In his last election, four years ago, Monahan again narrowly kept his seat after spending almost $35,000 on his campaign.

The 58-year-old welding contractor is running for his fifth term, and his campaign manager calls it a tough race. Monahan and two other incumbent councilmen will face 11 challengers on the November ballot.

This time, his detractors say, Monahan is particularly vulnerable because of his conduct in recent years.

They point out that he was convicted of drunk driving in 1990; he embarrassed the council by promoting as port commissioner a friend who failed to disclose his conviction on bribery charges, and he pushed for approval of an RV park that later awarded him a $40,000 welding contract during park construction.

But even his critics acknowledge that Monahan is a political survivor and a savvy campaigner who knows how to stitch together enough supporters to hang on to his seat.

“He is a good politician in that he knows what he has to do to get elected,” said former Ventura Mayor Richard Francis, who frequently quarreled with Monahan on the seven-member council.

Indeed, some of Monahan’s sharpest critics are current or former council members. They complain bitterly that he undercuts the serious council work by a tendency to play to discontented residents in an attempt to curry their favor.

His public posturing often puts him on the losing side of votes, and fellow council members say he seems to prefer grandstanding rather than working out realistic compromises.

But that approach delights his followers, who appreciate his firm stances on every controversial issue and blunt delivery of his conservative, pro-business views.

“I’m a known quantity. I’m not one of those wishy-washy, walk-the-fence types,” Monahan said. “I’ve taken my share of abuse over the years, and that doesn’t bother me.”

Monahan said he doesn’t think he’ll have any trouble staying in office, since voters are closer to his views than they were during the height of the slow-growth movement.

Yet his campaign manager, Bob Pollioni, is more cautious. He thinks it’s going to be a hard race. “I think being an incumbent is a handicap,” Pollioni said. “With 14 people running, you’re going to divide up the votes so much.”

So far in this campaign, Monahan has held one fund-raiser, mailed out two pamphlets and amassed more than $10,000 in his campaign war chest. Pollioni said he expects to spend about $35,000 to $40,000 on Monahan’s campaign.

To increase his base of support, the conservative Republican has been courting the police and fire unions, Ventura Keys residents and mobile-home park renters. In past races, he has counted on them for support, with additional votes from the business community and the oil and agricultural industries.

He said he is running on his biggest accomplishments, which he lists as establishing the city’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, supporting the construction of the police and fire headquarters building, the Ventura Avenue Senior Center, City Hall West and the wooden statue of Father Junipero Serra.

On the issues, Monahan said he supports limited growth as outlined in the city’s Comprehensive Plan, but voted along with the rest of the council in June to adopt a measure that could push the city’s population over the plan’s limits.

He wants the city to build a state water pipeline rather than a desalination plant, even though residents favored a desalination plant 55% to 45% in an advisory vote last November.

He also supports building a convention center at the Ventura County Fairgrounds, even though in 1988 voters rejected by a vote of 63% to 37% a proposal for the city to lend $9.4 million to help build the facility.

“There’s never been a piece of concrete he didn’t like,” Francis said. “The reason he ran for office was so he could help his friends. You’re elected to carry a viewpoint of those around you, those with whom you associate.”

Monahan denies that he sought office to help specific friends and said his professional relationships are beyond reproach. “Conflict of interest is always an issue that you have to be aware of,” Monahan said. “But nobody can buy my vote. It’s not for sale.”

But as a small-business owner with 10 part-time employees, he said, he is unabashedly pro-business: “We need to make this city more friendly to businesses.”

Monahan advocates lowering traffic-mitigation fees, business-license taxes and other fees that developers face.

Monahan said he may retire after a fifth term, but he is running again because “there are some things I still want to accomplish--mainly a better business climate.”

Don Villeneuve, another former council member who has often clashed with Monahan, finds Monahan’s saga frustrating. “I’m absolutely amazed that the people in this community have been so blind to elect him four times.”

Villeneuve says since the last election, it has been reported that Monahan apparently violated state law by not disclosing nearly $40,000 his company received for work on an RV park in the Ventura River bottom. Monahan championed the project on the council, although experts had warned that the park would be flooded. That came to pass in February, 1992, and dozens of recreational vehicles were damaged.

“He voted and lobbied heavily for the city putting in the RV park,” Villeneuve said, “and then it turns out he made money in the construction.”

Monahan defended his actions, saying that at the time he was not good friends with the park’s owner and that he competed for the job against other firms.

“There was a bidding process and I was the low bid,” he said.

Monahan noted that by being a council member, his position prevents his firm, American Welding Co., from bidding on city contracts. That rule has cost him considerable business, he said.

Last year his company grossed about $200,000, he said, a weak showing. “A good year is over $1 million,” Monahan said. “We haven’t done that since 1983.”

Other critics note his drunk-driving conviction in December, 1990, and that earlier this year Monahan vacationed in Jamaica with port Commissioner Nick Starr--as the rest of the council was calling for Starr’s resignation. The port official had been convicted of bribery charges, which was later overturned on appeal, and didn’t mention it to the council when he was appointed.

Monahan said he and Starr were part of a large charter group and he did not know Starr was on the trip until they bumped into each other on the island.

Councilwoman Cathy Bean, one of Starr’s most vociferous opponents, sighed: “God, it’s a small world, isn’t it?”

Starr said Monahan is a loyal friend. “He feels that I’ve done nothing improper,” said the commissioner, who is on Monahan’s fund-raising committee. “In any small town, you’re under more of a magnifying glass, and these things have been overemphasized, like the drunk driving thing. The drunk driving thing could happen to anybody.”

Monahan was sentenced to five days work release, three years probation and a $1,255 fine for the offense.

“It was very embarrassing. There was no favored treatment,” Monahan said. “I was on my way home from an Irish wake. A good friend of mine had died. . . . I really hadn’t had that much to drink.”

Monahan is reticent about his personal life, but says he is close to his four children and five grandchildren. He got divorced for the fourth time in 1989 and said he has cordial relationships with all of his ex-wives.

Monahan is a native Ventura resident who has stayed in the city most of his life.

His parents moved to the Ventura Avenue neighborhood in 1928 from Colorado and established American Welding, the only surviving welding firm on the Avenue. The company does underground pipeline work for fire departments, oil companies and government agencies.

Monahan attended St. Catherine School through the eighth grade, and went on to Ventura Junior High School and Ventura High.

At 19, he was drafted into the Army during the Korea War. He spent two years in Korea and Japan as a personnel manager for an Army transport unit.

After being honorably discharged, Monahan enrolled at Ventura College and graduated with an associate’s degree.

He spent a few years in Long Beach working as a salesman for Smith-Corona and returned to Ventura as his father was suffering with prostate cancer.

“My dad was bedridden for two years,” Monahan said. “He had been hiding it from us for about a year.”

Monahan took over the family business and has run the company ever since.

His friends acknowledge that his temper sometimes flares but say he is a generous and compassionate man who has stayed in politics because he loves the city.

“His Irish temper is something else, and he is the first to admit it,” said Carolyn Leavens, a rancher and Monahan supporter. “But the rest of the council really beats up on that guy. Jim has some rough edges, but I think his long, consistent common sense overrides the rest of it.”

Pat Clark, director of development at Ojai Valley School and a close friend, describes Monahan as “a really sweet guy, a very selfless person.”

Clark, who went to school with Monahan, said his Catholic education instilled a strong moral sense.

“I don’t think he would ever use that office to advance his friends,” she said.

Clark said Monahan does a lot of philanthropic work through such organizations as the Ventura Elks Lodge. He also repairs pots and pans for the retired nuns at St. Catherine by the Sea convent, she said.

Last week, Monahan said, a homeless, wheelchair-bound man came by his welding company and asked for help with his broken wheelchair. Monahan said he repaired it for free.

In May, Monahan received a citizens award from the Los Angeles Police Department for helping convict a hit-and-run drunk driver.

Monahan said he saw the drunk driver run over a pedestrian. He and police officers chased the man and caught him in Chinatown. At the trial, he was the only person who could identify the driver, he said.

Nan Drake, a former council member and a political ally, said Monahan is a favorite of the local business community and has Ventura’s best interests at heart.

“Politically, he’s very conservative,” she said. “He thinks if you leave business alone, it will thrive.”

Drake said his best political assets are consistency in his voting and a straightforward--even blunt--way of expressing his opinions.

However, that trait has irritated some council members who say Monahan is stubborn and difficult to work with.

In June, when the council adopted the 1993-94 budget, Monahan clashed with colleagues in an incident that reflects his political style.

Monahan cast the lone dissenting vote for the budget. He strongly objected to the police and Fire Department cuts, saying public safety would be affected.

Angry council members challenged him to find other budget cuts to offset police and fire reductions. So he proposed dipping into the city’s reserves by about $1.1 million--an idea other council members condemned as financially irresponsible. But it elicited enthusiastic approval from police and fire union officials.

Others on the council accused him of playing up to the unions to win votes in November. “You set all the rest of us up,” Tom Buford told him. “You’re making it look as though we don’t care about police and fire if we vote against it.”

Monahan denies he was grandstanding. He said his position reflected his support for public safety agencies.

As for being the odd man out, Monahan is unfazed by what council members and critics have to say. He points out that residents have enough confidence in him to continue electing him, and he thinks his current bid will be successful too.

James Monahan

Age: 58

Education: Graduated from Ventura College in 1958 with an associate’s degree.

Career: Owns American Welding Co. on Ventura Avenue. Took over family firm in 1959, when his father fell ill with prostate cancer.

Previous city posts: Elected to Ventura City Council in 1977. He served as deputy mayor from January, 1980, to January, 1982, and January, 1986, to December, 1987. He was mayor of Ventura from December, 1987, to December, 1989.

Family: Three daughters and a son, all in their 30s.

Hobbies: Barbecuing, camping and country-and-Western dancing. He is a member of the Ventura Chamber of Commerce and Elks Lodge.