Flynn Tenure Attacked and Touted

Ask Supervisor John Flynn’s three opponents in the March 26 election why they are running against the veteran incumbent, and you will get essentially the same answer:

“He’s been there too long,” Arlene Fraser says.

“He’s lost touch with the voters,” Enrique Petris says.

“We need new blood,” Angel Diaz says.

But Flynn says his opponents are wrong on all counts. He said his two decades as a county official represent his greatest strength, the very reason why voters should support him.

“I know how to get things done,” he says. “And I’m accessible.”

Other than his long tenure, Flynn’s opponents have no single compelling issue with which to challenge him. They also have nowhere near the money or the name recognition that the supervisor enjoys.

Still, Flynn, a tenacious campaigner, is not taking the race lightly.

When told that Fraser has knocked on more than 1,000 doors in the Oxnard-based 5th District, Flynn makes a point that he has pounded on nearly 10,000.

“She can’t walk as fast as I can,” he said as he raced up and down a neighborhood in his district recently.

Fraser, however, is undeterred. This is the second time the Silver Strand Beach resident has opposed Flynn.

And while she lost her 1992 bid, she is encouraged by her showing in that election. A virtual unknown, Fraser managed to pick up about 33% of the vote, which she attributes to voter dissatisfaction with Flynn.

“If I had only gotten 100 votes or 1,000, I probably would not have felt as confident about running again,” she said.

Fraser, who holds a bachelor’s degree in special education, said one of her priorities if elected would be to work more aggressively to establish a four-year public university in the county. She said a university, which would be in the 5th District, would help boost the economy by attracting more jobs.

“We need to rally the business community to lobby for a university,” said Fraser, a longtime fund-raiser for the Oxnard Elementary School District. “I feel I can be a strong leader in this area because I’m strong in education.”

Flynn, a former junior high school teacher, said county officials are doing all they can to move the university proposal along. He said the county has already spent money on flood-control improvements around the university site.

“I’ve been working with the university people all along,” he said.

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Meanwhile, Petris and Diaz acknowledge they are longshot candidates. Neither has raised more than $1,000 for their campaigns. They said they are running primarily to give voters a choice.

“I don’t have much resources,” said Petris, a purchasing analyst at the Port Hueneme Navy base. “It’s basically only me. I’m doing it like a crusade. I hope I can at least bring my ideas out. At least I’m trying.”

Petris said he wants to call attention to the need for more food and shelter programs for the homeless and needy.

“There’s a lot of people paying lip service to the homelessness, but they don’t follow through,” he said.

Diaz, a safety administrator at Kaiser Aluminum, said he too is running a small, grass-roots campaign that is focusing on cleaning up the environment and cutting government spending.

“I’m not afraid to step on toes,” he said. “There are no special interests donating to me. I will be working for the people.”

As for the incumbent, Flynn said he would like to spend his next term working to bring more jobs to the county’s two Navy bases, oversee construction of a new gymnasium in El Rio as well as redevelopment of the Channel Islands Harbor. Flynn said he has already invested too much time and work on these and other projects to quit now.

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“I work hard,” he said. “I haven’t grown lazy. I put a lot of energy into the job.”

Of the three challengers in the race, only Fraser is in sharp disagreement with Flynn over one of the most volatile issues of the election season.

Fraser does not support the Ventura County Medical Center’s plan to build a $51-million outpatient clinic. The project has prompted neighboring Community Memorial Hospital to sue the county and to put Measure X on the March ballot to try and derail the clinic plan.

Community Memorial officials fear the project will be used to compete for private patients. They argue that the clinic is unnecessary and that county taxpayers could end up footing the entire bill if state and federal construction money dries up.

County officials say the clinic is not part of a competitive expansion plan. They say the project is a consolidation of five off-site clinics that would save the county about $1 million a year on rent.

As for the financing, county officials say no new taxes are needed for the project, which would be paid through hospital revenues and state and federal grant money. They say the grant money has already been authorized and there is little chance--if any--that the investment would be lost.

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Fraser disagrees, saying the county is relying too heavily on the grant money, which is expected to cover more than half of the clinic’s costs.

“I’m not in favor of putting tax dollars at risk,” Fraser said. “Besides, once you start something like this, the money has a way of going off into different areas.”

Flynn is adamant in his support of the clinic. He said the project would not only save the county money in the long run, but that it is desperately needed to replace outdated and unsafe buildings.

“It’s a good project,” he said. “We’re not adding any beds and this is not going to require any new taxes. If we can get that message out, I think voters will support it.”

Both Diaz and Petris support the project, though Diaz said supervisors should have taken the issue to voters before approving the financing plan.

“Instead of creating all of these problems, they should have asked the public what they wanted first,” he said.

Another issue where candidates differ is what to do with the west county’s trash. With Bailard Landfill in Oxnard scheduled to close this summer, a number of options are being considered.

Fraser said sending more trash to the Simi Valley Landfill would be the ideal solution. The landfill operator has agreed to take more west county trash at reduced rates if it can get long-term guarantees on tonnage from area cities.

“We need to find a way to use what’s already here,” Fraser said.

But the Simi Valley Landfill has run into opposition from several cities because of the exclusive nature of the trash contracts it is proposing. Some cities say this would give the landfill a monopoly on trash.

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For this reason, Flynn said he has decided to support another option--the expansion of the Toland Road Landfill in Santa Paula. This is an about-face for Flynn, who said last year there was no need for a new west county landfill or to expand Toland.

Flynn says now that new recycling technologies alone cannot solve all of the west county’s trash problems, some landfill space is therefore needed.

“I’ve changed my mind on Toland,” he said. “It’s a flip-flop.”

Petris said he also supports the Toland Road Landfill expansion. Diaz said he would favor either enlarging the landfill or building a new dump in Weldon Canyon north of Ventura. The Weldon proposal will appear on the March 26 ballot.

Although he faces three challengers, Flynn acknowledges that he himself can be his own worst enemy at times.

Representing a district that has the largest population of welfare recipients in the county, Flynn surprised and upset some constituents last year when he spoke approvingly of Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s views on welfare reform.

“I don’t necessarily like what he’s doing now,” Flynn says. “But he did open up the door and a lot of fresh air blew in. He gave us a chance to come up with our own welfare plan.”

Other criticism directed at Flynn is that he is a “headline grabber,” a politician obsessed with seeing his name in the paper. The supervisor said it is part of his job to talk to the press.

“How else can I speak to my constituents?” he says. “How else would they know what I’m doing?”

Still, Flynn admits to some faults. He says he has a short temper and sometimes says things that he later wishes he hadn’t.

“I have probably made every elected official in the county and the cities mad at me at one time or another,” he says, with a chuckle and a hint of pride.

Indeed, Flynn drew the ire of his critics last June for his verbal attack of Supervisor Maggie Kildee on the day she announced she would not seek reelection.

“I have not been an ally of Maggie Kildee,” Flynn said at the time. “I have tried to find an angel in everyone’s eyes. With her, I have never seen it.”

Although he has never apologized to Kildee, Flynn said he now regrets the remarks.

“I think we have personality conflicts because politicians more than any other part of the population have giant egos,” he said. “I’m no exception.”