Oxnard Faces Familiar Problems for 1996 : Government: City leaders’ goals include those set for ‘95--plus some new ones.

A year ago, city leaders said 1995 would be a time to confront difficult challenges.

Freeway intersections were intolerably congested. Advocates for the poor were demanding low-cost housing. The city needed more police officers, high-paying jobs and tax-rich retailers. The budget was tight.

Twelve months later, those challenges have proven difficult indeed: The goals Oxnard leaders have set for 1996 are essentially the same ones they had for 1995. And there are numerous new problems to deal with.

“For us in 1996, it’s still the same priorities: public safety and economic development,” said Councilman Andres Herrera. “We need to increase revenue, because that’s the only way we can expand services.”

The Esplanade, Oxnard’s largest shopping mall, will probably lose its two anchor stores, Sears and Robinsons-May, to the rival Buenaventura Mall. That would significantly impact the city’s sales-tax revenues--a critical part of its budget.

Oxnard leaders say they must either save the dying shopping complex by luring new anchor stores, rally behind plans for a new mall at the Oxnard Town Center or convince Ventura to share sales tax revenues between the cities.

“If we’re going to keep The Esplanade open as a shopping center, then we need to attract some major anchors quick,” said Councilman Bedford Pinkard. “If we don’t, it won’t stand much of a chance.”

Losing major department stores would be a particularly severe blow to a city that has already seen one of its largest employers pick up and move.

Nabisco recently moved its Grey Poupon and A-1 steak sauce operations to Maryland. The company sold its Oxnard plant to Nestle, which has not decided what to do with the site. More than 550 people worked at the plant before the shake-up.

City leaders said they must convince Nestle to become a strong force in Oxnard or find other companies to fill the void. Council members pointed to Haas Automation Inc.--a manufacturer of high-tech tools that recently announced plans to move to Oxnard--as a perfect example of the employers they want in their city. The firm is expected to bring 435 jobs, many of them high-paying, when it moves from Chatsworth to Oxnard in 1997.

“We need to continue putting out the message that we are a business-friendly city,” said Councilman Dean Maulhardt. “Not that we’re pushovers, but that were are easy to work with. I think [luring] Haas Automation sends that message to other companies.”

Keeping a lid on crime is a challenge Oxnard leaders will continue to face in 1996.

The city’s overall crime rate has steadily declined in recent years, a drop officials attribute to increased police staffing and resident involvement in Neighborhood Watch programs.

But despite spending more than 50% of its budget on public safety last year--the most ever set aside for this purpose--the city continued to have problems with gang-related killings. Four young people have been killed in Oxnard so far this year--three as a result of gang violence.

City leaders say they must rebuild Oxnard’s dilapidated youth programs and give young people positive alternatives to crime before it is too late.

A group of city officials, council members and community leaders is working on a youth master plan, or blueprint for the city’s youth programs that should be completed in 1996. Among the ideas being proposed is a plan to convert the old Oxnard library building next to City Hall into a youth center.

“My major concern for next year is that we complete the master plan and get it implemented,” said Pinkard, a retired Oxnard recreation official. “I can’t help but believe that good, sound programs and activities are going to help our young people.”

There are other new ideas and innovations to consider. The Oxnard City Council has assembled a committee to study whether to become a charter city--a city that has a mini-constitution all its own and is not always subject to the state Constitution’s laws for cities.

For example, if Oxnard became a charter city, the City Council could increase the number of council members beyond five, impose greater restrictions on campaign contributions, issue bonds and create assessment districts with less bureaucratic hassle, and give city funds to other organizations without violating state laws against gifts of public money.

The charter would probably be larger than the tiny, general document drafted by the city of San Marcos, but smaller than Los Angeles’ gargantuan, thousand-page opus, which is amended in seemingly every city election, according to Oxnard City Atty. Gary Gillig.

Oxnard leaders say they will decide whether to pursue a city charter, which must be approved by voters, when they receive feedback from residents and the committee. They expect the decision before the end of 1996.

“I think we need to take our time to develop a good charter,” said Oxnard Mayor Manuel Lopez. “It would give us more flexibility in revenue areas, but some other areas are more controversial.”

Oxnard continues to proceed with a streamlining plan devised by its City Council and City Manager Tom Frutchey. It includes a series of proposals to reduce bureaucracy and duplication of services while giving city workers more incentives and accountability for their actions.

Already nine city departments have been eliminated in favor of about 100 smaller programs encompassing everything from street sweeping to firefighting. About 50 city employees manage the programs. They report to the City Council and city manager for orders, and a handful of veteran city officials jokingly referred to as “the village elders” for counsel.

The “performance-based budgeting” system places more power with middle managers, who must find ways to save the city money by providing services more efficiently.

City leaders said the streamlining efforts of the past several years have put Oxnard back in a position to tackle long-standing problems such as the overburdened intersections around the Ventura Freeway and the increasing blight in south Oxnard.

However, some city officials say any more cutbacks would yield blood.

“Things are pretty streamlined as it is,” said one top Oxnard official, who asked not to be identified. “The council members say that the public has benefited from these cuts, but services have gotten worse in several cases. We have more money, but we paid a price for that.”

Meanwhile, the City Council’s proposal to build more housing for the poor remains in limbo.

The city spent $5.3 million last year to purchase a 40-acre parcel in northeast Oxnard for a low-income housing development.

But city leaders have yet to decide on a developer to build the houses--which will now be a mixture of rentals and for-sale properties, not all owner-occupied as originally proposed. Also, as council members have repeatedly said since last December, the houses will no longer be strictly for poor residents of the Oxnard Mobilehome Lodge--the group for which the project was originally conceived more than 10 years ago.

“We haven’t satisfied the needs of low-income people who work hard to buy a house but still can’t afford it,” Pinkard said.

Not least on the minds of city politicians, 1996 is an election year. City Clerk Daniel Martinez, City Treasurer Dale Belcher and council members Herrera and Pinkard as well as Mayor Lopez will all be up for reelection in November. All have pledged to run again and will probably face numerous challengers--particularly those on the council.

“This is part of me,” said Lopez, who has been an Oxnard councilman or mayor since 1978. “I’m definitely running.”