OXNARD : Veteran Planner Resigns in Protest

Edward H. Flores, a veteran Oxnard planning commissioner, has resigned his post in protest of a City Council decision he said would reduce the Planning Commission’s independence.

Flores, 66, was a planning commissioner for 10 years after serving 12 years on other citizen advisory boards. He decided to step down from the commission within hours after the Oxnard City Council tentatively decided Tuesday to reduce the commission from seven to five members on Jan. 25, and give each City Council member one appointment to the commission. Until now, commission members were appointed by the entire council.

In a letter to the council announcing his resignation, Flores said new commissioners would be obliged to represent the views of the council members who appoint them.

“In my opinion you are prostituting the future planning commissions to serve each one of you and not the citizens of Oxnard,” Flores said in his letter. “What you are asking now of future commissioners I could not in good conscience do.”

Oxnard Mayor Manuel Lopez on Friday said he regretted the decision of Flores, whom he nominated to the Planning Commission more than a decade ago. “I have a lot of admiration for him,” Lopez said.

But Lopez said the change in appointment procedure should not make commissioners less independent.

Even so, Lopez said he supported the change only because it was part of a larger plan to streamline the city’s selection of volunteers to the city’s advisory groups.

“To me, there is no advantage” in the change to the Planning Commission, Lopez said. “But in politics, you have to try to get along with the people you work with, and not make an issue of everything.”

The changes will go into effect Jan. 25 if the council gives final approval Tuesday.