ELECTIONS / OXNARD CITY COUNCIL : Some Candidates’ Views Are Scorned by Forum Audience

Candidates for the Oxnard City Council expressed divergent and sometimes unpopular views on issues confronting the city during a forum Thursday, touching on the topics of redevelopment, affordable housing and the city’s chronic budget shortfalls.

The forum at the Oxnard Hilton drew an audience of about 70 people, who listened as moderators asked the panel of 10 council candidates and two mayoral candidates a series of prepared questions. Eleven candidates are vying for three City Council seats in the Nov. 8 election.

On Thursday, most of the participants said they would work to create jobs, increase public safety, and balance the city’s budget.

“We need jobs, jobs, jobs,” said council candidate John C. Zaragoza.

Few of the candidates, however, offered details on ways to tackle those problems.

Some candidates’ positions on longstanding Oxnard issues elicited groans and hissing from the audience.

Oscar Karrin, a retired caterer, said Oxnard’s efforts to redevelop its downtown are “a waste of time,” because older small businesses cannot compete with the city’s larger, more recent stores along the Ventura Freeway.

“The city made downtown into a desert by bringing in Wal-Mart and all the big chains,” said Karrin, 78.

William Winter, 38, a columnist for a San Diego-based Filipino newsletter, said Oxnard should not bother to create affordable housing for its low-income residents.

“I don’t believe in the affordable-housing concept,” Winter said. “I believe in having people work, pay their bills and earn their money.”

Leticia Alvarez, a 34-year-old USC student, said Oxnard is wasting its money supporting efforts to save Ventura County’s military bases because she believes they will be closed by federal officials in Washington anyway.

Fred Schwartz, 70, said he wants to implement his plan to start a farming commune in Oxnard, modeled after the Amish, to contain the city’s homeless population.

“Homeless people that are drunk, whatever, I have a plan to eliminate them,” Schwartz said.

Incumbent Tom Holden, 39, reiterated his main theme of cutting Oxnard’s bureaucracy instead of public services.

“What we need to do is maintain quality services,” Holden said. “The only way a business does this in tough times is to do things more efficiently.”

Fred A. Judy, 54, had previously been critical of the Oxnard City Council and politicians in general. But he said at Thursday’s forum that he has been studying the council’s positions and thinks the city is on the right track.

Other council candidates at the forum included Deborah De Moss, Dean Maulhardt and Roy Lockwood. Manuel Lopez, running for his second straight mayoral term, and Charles Olsen, a write-in candidate for mayor, also attended.

Lawrence Paul Stein, who supports the construction of high-rise public housing along the Ventura Freeway, was the only one of the 11 Oxnard City Council candidates not to show.

Before the early morning question-and-answer session, the candidates ate breakfast and networked with city business leaders.

The forum was sponsored by the Oxnard Chamber of Commerce and was moderated by the Government Relations Committee and the League of Women Voters of Ventura County.

The Baldwin Co., a developer that wants to build 5,000 homes at Ormond Beach, helped pay for the event.