City Criticized for Printing Notices in Spanish Paper

In the eyes of Jere Robings, the City Council’s decision was an affront to the spirit of the state Constitution and an insult to English-speaking Americans everywhere.

What’s riling the president of the Ventura County Alliance of Taxpayers? Oxnard has chosen to publish all legal notices in Vida, a weekly Spanish-language newspaper.

Although Vida prints the notices in English as required by law, Robings contends that the “average citizen” doesn’t see them, since no one picks up a newspaper they can’t read.

“They might as well print [them] in the Des Moines Register,” said Robings, who claims he has received numerous complaints from Oxnard residents about the notices. “It’s, in my opinion, a way to keep the public out of the loop.”

City officials disagree. Vida, a free newspaper with a 12-year history in Oxnard, offered the lowest bid, meets all legal requirements and claims a weekly circulation of 25,000. It can be found at restaurants, coffeehouses and public buildings throughout the city.

“I don’t know what the problem could be,” Councilman Andres Herrera said. “If you look at the average population of Oxnard, why wouldn’t they be picking Vida up?”

Cities are required to publish legal notices informing residents about public hearings, zoning changes and other issues facing municipal governments.

Vida Publisher Manuel M. Munoz said he doesn’t understand the sudden hullabaloo over Oxnard’s decision to contract with his newspaper, which mainly carries a smorgasbord of news on local sports, music and social events for Latinos.

When Vida beat out other newspapers to land the deal in June, not a single person complained, he said.

And in case anyone has not heard about its new attraction, Vida now mentions it carries the notices on the front page of every issue.

“If people don’t like that we publish the notices, I can’t understand why,” Munoz said. “Our newspaper is all over Oxnard--in gas stations, in public buildings. It’s everywhere, and it’s free. I don’t understand what the complaints are about.”

Don Facciano, executive director of the Oxnard Chamber of Commerce, said he understands why Oxnard chose to publish its public notices in Vida: It was the cheapest bid, and the city is looking for every way possible to save money.

But he is concerned that residents and business people may not learn about issues they might care about because they don’t read Vida.

“With any legal notice, you should try and publish it in as wide a market as possible,” Facciano said. “It would be good to publish notices in both the Spanish and English papers to make sure everyone knows about it. But it’s a question of economics.”

Jim Merrill, chairman of the Tierra Vista neighborhood council in South Oxnard, said he did not know the city published all legal notices in Vida.

“I think it’s a good idea to publish notices in a Spanish-language paper,” Merrill said. “But if it’s the only publication, it seems to me that [Oxnard] is missing a large part of the community. The city may be complying with the letter of the law, but probably not the spirit of the law.”

That, Robings, says, is exactly his point. English is California’s official language, legal notices have to be published in English, and he does not believe that publishing legal notices in a Spanish-language paper such as Vida conforms with the intentions of the state constitution’s English requirement.

“There’s not much of a point if you publish notices in a Spanish-language newspaper,” Robings said. “That’s an insult to the public. Not too many people are going to seek out a foreign language paper.”

Herrera counters that those who care about public notices will turn to Vida, and those who don’t won’t even notice.

Furthermore, he said public notices are aimed at all Oxnard residents. Because many residents speak Spanish, he said, Vida is as good a newspaper as any to get the word out about city business.

“I don’t know what taxpayers this guy [Robings] is representing,” Herrera said. “Whether [Oxnard residents] speak, read or write English, they are tax-paying citizens and they deserve access to legal notices.”