Council Focus Shifts in Ventura

The Ventura City Council is more likely to emphasize business issues and give a lower priority to environmental concerns as a result of Tuesday’s council race, politicians and environmentalists agreed Wednesday.

As a result, they said, a proposed desalination plant may be delayed or scuttled, and a long-term greenbelt agreement between Ventura and Oxnard may not be established.

Five of the seven members of the council now are pro-business--including Tuesday’s top vote-getter--former banker Rosa Lee Measures.

Councilman Jim Monahan, the council’s most outspoken pro-growth voice for years, was reelected. He and Measures join pro-business council members Jack Tingstrom, Tom Buford and Mayor Gregory L. Carson.

The environmental votes on the council will come from Nordhoff High School teacher Steve Bennett, who was newly elected, and incumbent Gary Tuttle, who was reelected.

In the next few years, the two factions are expected to square off over issues including economic revitalization, the proposed desalination plant, expansion of the Buenaventura Mall, a greenbelt agreement and the city’s policies on housing and growth.

Councilwoman Cathy Bean, who was elected on a slow-growth platform in 1989, predicts that the council will be more inclined to give tax breaks to developers and waive fees for companies promising to bring business to the city.

“They’re going to want to use city money for businesses,” Bean said. “The environmental issues will be gone.”

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Measures, who said she thinks a desalination plant is too expensive and doesn’t think the greenbelt is an issue, plans an aggressive approach to shifting the council toward attracting new businesses. She wants to hire a professional business recruiter within three months and favors giving tax breaks and other incentives to companies.

She also said she expects to be aligned most often with Monahan and Tingstrom on votes that concern business issues.

Ventura Chamber of Commerce President Guy Wysinger said he is optimistic that the new council will make business promotion a greater priority now that only two environmentalists are on the council.

“I think we have a better chance of the city regaining its vitality,” Wysinger said. Counting the new council votes, he said: “We obviously have the balance in our favor.”

Councilman Todd Collart’s defeat and Bean’s departure could deal significant blows to the environmental movement, activists say.

“I think the environmental issues will be forced to the back burner,” Tuttle said.

He said he expects the five-year review period for a greenbelt between Ventura and Oxnard would come under heavy attack by pro-business interests in the next few years. He said he also anticipates the stalling or scuttling of the proposed desalination plant.

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Roma Armbrust, an environmental activist in Ventura, said Tuttle and Bennett would do their best to represent environmental interests, but would obviously be outnumbered and may not be successful. “I would say that it would be an uphill fight,” Armbrust said.

Bennett said he also expects heated debates over the greenbelt and desalination plant.

Last November, Bennett helped lead a successful campaign to persuade voters to choose the desalination plant over building a pipeline to import water from Northern California. The advisory measure won 55% to 45%.

“I’m not ready to give up and say that at best it’s going to be 5 to 2 all the time,” Bennett said. “It’s possible that it could steamroll in that direction, but where I can’t win, I’ll work to hold the line.”

Bennett noted that residents voted in Measures first, with himself second. Monahan was third and Tuttle fourth, with less than 400 votes separating the incumbents.

“It’s not a clear mandate for business,” Bennett said. “It’s about as mixed as possible.”

City voters on Tuesday ousted Collart, who finished in eighth place.

Mayor Carson said he thought Collart--who was the top vote-getter in 1989--did not run as aggressive a campaign this time.

As for Collart, he said he didn’t know why he did so poorly at the polls. “I’m not going to second-guess myself,” he said. “I’ll chalk it up to being that the voters didn’t want me at this time.”

By contrast, Monahan this year gathered about 3,500 more votes than he did in 1989, when he was reelected by a narrow margin.

Monahan attributed his good showing to a better organized and aggressive campaign. He said he welcomes Measures to join the pro-business faction on the council.

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But council members don’t consistently vote in blocs, and Buford and Carson have frequently sided with the environmental members against Tingstrom and Monahan, who are the two most outspoken pro-business members.

Members call Carson and Buford the swing votes on the current council. After Measures and Bennett are sworn in Dec. 6, council members say they expect the two to continue acting as the moderate influences on the council.

“Buford and Carson are both the swing,” said Councilman Jack Tingstrom, who was elected on a pro-business slate in 1991. “They have to be persuaded by both sides.”

Buford said he does not expect the major issues before the council to change dramatically. “You don’t come in and throw everything out and say let’s start over. That is not responsible.”

Carson said he would be surprised if any drastic shifts occurred.

“It won’t radically change,” Carson said. “I think you’ll see some council members not blindly giving away the store, and some members wanting to blindly give away the store.”

Carson said he expects to continue to work with Buford and Tuttle to build a coalition to accomplish things. For now, he said, the three are the most influential of the council members.

“We’ll maintain control,” Carson said. “We have priorities of what we’re working on, and I don’t see that changing with two new members. We have two new people from different sides of the fence, and we will try to work together.”

Municipal Elections

City of Ventura City Council 100% Precincts Reporting: Votes (%) Rosa Lee Measures: 13,077 (16) Steve Bennett: 11,208 (14) Jim Monahan*: 9,427 (11) Gary Tuttle*: 9,043 (11) Clark Owens: 6,857 (8) Ken Schmitz: 6,699 (8) Nancy Cloutier: 6,634 (8) Todd Collart*: 5,864 (7) Virginia Weber: 4,991 (6) Dick Massa: 3,763 (5) Charles E. Kistner Jr.: 2,134 (3) Carroll Dean Williams: 1,538 (2) Neil Demers-Grey: 955 (1) Brian Lee Rencher: 466 (1)

Special Districts

Ventura Unified School District 100% Precincts Reporting: Votes (%) Cliff Rodrigues: 12,252 (22) John B. Walker*: 11,810 (21) Velma L. Lomax: 11,373 (20) Michael F. Shanahan: 11,030 (20) Michael B. Boggs: 6,765 (12) Jim Oliver: 3,346 (6)

Moorpark Unified School District 100% Precincts Reporting: Votes (%) Gary Cabriales: 2,450 (59) Helen Medeiros Taylor: 1,174 (28) Ted M. Green Sr.: 531 (13)

Oak Park Unified School District 100% Precincts Reporting: Votes (%) Wayne H. Blasman*: 1,118 (21) Jeri Fox: 927 (17) Robert H. Kahn*: 816 (15) Tami Lawler: 693 (13) Howard B. Levy: 656 (12) R. Kevin Ketchum: 631 (12) Wayne Sterling: 583 (11)

Ventura River Valley Municipal Advisory Council 100% Precincts Reporting: Votes (%) Thomas W. Jamison*: 1,648 (54) Kathy Sigafoos: 1,403 (46)

Oak Park Municipal Advisory Council 3 Elected 100% Precincts Reporting: Votes (%) Kent Behringer*: 1,306 (29) Ronald Stark*: 1,218 (27) J. Paul Fredericks: 1,035 (23) Barbara Bronson Gray*: 980 (22)

Measures

City of Ventura 100% Precincts Reporting: Votes (%)

U--Year-round schedule for Ventura schools. Yes: 11,086 (48) No: 11,999 (52)

Simi Valley 100% Precincts Reporting: Votes (%)

V--Allow WalMart to build discount store. Yes: 8,679 (46) No: 10,224 (54)

Santa Paula Union High School District 100% Precincts Reporting: Votes (%)

W--Annual $25 parcel tax to subsidize Blanchard Library. Requires Two-Thirds Vote Yes: 2,556 (69) No: 1,133 (31)