VENTURA : Candidate Stresses Recruiting Businesses

As part of her campaign for Ventura City Council, former banker and financial planner Rosa Lee Measures held a news conference Tuesday to talk about recruiting businesses to Ventura.

Measures, who is running on a pro-business platform, said the city needs “to get very aggressive” in luring new industries to Ventura. She said she advocates promoting tourism, expanding the Buenaventura Mall and reducing the number of permits a business is required to get.

Measures touted herself as being qualified to help recession-battered businesses.

“We need to take care of and retain the businesses we have,” said Measures, who offered few specific details in her short speech.

At the end of her news conference at the Pierpont Inn, Measures distributed a small colorful poster of some red poppies on a blue background that she will offer to merchants in the mid-town and downtown areas to put in their windows.

Most candidates pass out buttons and large signs, Measures said, but she wanted something unusual for her campaign.

“I need to differentiate myself from the other candidates,” Measures said, noting that 14 candidates are running for four seats this November.

The posters, printed at a cost of $1,500 for 500, were designed by Ventura artist Mary Michel, a friend of Measures. Michel said the poster was taken from an original serigraph she had done about six years ago, titled “Oriental Blossoms.”