Campaign Focuses on Staying Course

Incumbent Scott Lee said he has spent exactly $2.62 in his attempt to win what he maintains will be his third and final term on the Fillmore City Council.

After running relatively slick campaigns--at least by this city’s standards--in past years, Mayor Roger Campbell has not printed up fliers explaining his political positions and plans to distribute around town only a third of the campaign signs he received for free from a Los Angeles sign maker, saying that 600 is “just too damn many.”

And with about three weeks to go until election day, organizers have just this week completed plans for an Oct. 23 forum to allow a face-off of the five candidates contesting three available four-year council seats.

That the campaign is “pretty low-key,” according to Chamber of Commerce President Janet Foy, is an understatement.

“The people are pretty satisfied with what’s going on,” Campbell said recently while conducting a smog test in his automobile repair shop. “The town has been doing quite well for several years. There’s no dissatisfaction with the present council. There’s no real issue to grab onto. Even the challengers aren’t out there beating the bushes saying we’re doing anything wrong.”

In fact, the three challengers to Lee and Campbell are not out there beating much of anything.

Neither pet supply store owner George Gonzalez, real estate broker Steve McKinnon nor businessman Evaristo Barajas say they would propose major changes in the council’s direction if elected. All three said their goal would be to ensure that the city of 12,000 retains its small-town flavor and slow-growth tourism focus.

*

Gonzalez, an amiable burly fellow with a bushy graying beard and ponytail who wears T-shirts, shorts and his disposition on his left arm--a tattoo that reads “Candy Man”--is content to let voters come to his tiny Orchard Street store to talk rather than going out to pound precincts.

“I’m not doing this for myself, I’m doing it for the people of Fillmore and the kids,” he said of his run for office. “I have my own views, but it doesn’t matter what my views are, because if I get elected to the City Council my job is to work for people.”

McKinnon concedes that one of his main campaign planks--his opposition to a strip-mining project near the city limit--vanished when the County Board of Supervisors voted against the proposal. Instead, if elected, he pledges to assist people with their concerns--he calls them “micro issues”--from his modest real estate office next door to City Hall.

“[Voters] don’t want someone to come in here with their own agenda,” he said. “There’s not a tremendous amount of issues. We have to keep the things we love about this community the same.”

Barajas agrees.

“I would like to keep Fillmore a nice, close community and not go wild on development,” said the 32-year city resident.

With Campbell and Lee expected to win reelection to their fourth and third terms, respectively, Gonzalez, McKinnon and Barajas will probably battle for the seat left vacant by outgoing Councilman Mike McMahan.

*

Of the trio of challengers, Barajas is seen as the favorite. As a political novice in 1994, Barajas made a surprisingly strong showing, falling short of unseating incumbent Don Gunderson by just 34 votes.

“I was virtually unknown in politics then, so that’s why it was a big surprise to everyone,” he said, adding that this time around he has a lot more support. “The reaction I’m getting from the public is a lot more positive from every side--Anglo, Hispanic.”

If there is a nascent issue for the city’s 5,035 registered voters, it is race.

A Latino has not held a City Council seat for the past 12 years, mainly because there have been few candidates since 16-year council veteran Ernie Morales chose not to seek reelection in 1984. Fillmore’s population is 59% Latino and 39% white, according to the 1990 census.

*

Both Barajas, a native of Mexico, and Gonzalez reject the idea that people should cast their ballots solely on the basis of a candidate’s ethnicity.

Nevertheless, a representation void exists, some say, pointing to the political frustrations of Chicano protesters who embarrassed many Fillmore residents during the recent homecoming of city native Joanne Kemp, wife of Republican vice presidential nominee Jack Kemp.

“I would like to see one of the Hispanic candidates get in,” said resident John Foy. “We are 60% Hispanic in the community and I think the views from an Hispanic candidate need to be voiced.”

Barajas believes he can be a bridge between the city’s numerical Latino majority and its politically dominant whites.

“I believe I can be a liaison in this community . . . between the different cultures,” he said. “We’ve got to really communicate better around here, we really do.”

Gonzalez identifies himself as “an American” rather than Latino, and said the manner in which the teenage protesters conducted themselves at the rally detracted from their message.

“We don’t need stuff to happen like that in Fillmore, because everybody gets along, and stuff like that just causes us problems,” he said.

But with a dearth of overt campaign issues, Campbell and Lee are emphasizing their experience and stressing the need for continuity.

*

Fillmore is steadily overcoming the perception that it is an isolated, backward community, Lee said. The almost total reshaping of its photogenic downtown since the 1994 Northridge earthquake has been as important to the morale of the community as it has been in promoting the city to nonresidents, he said.

“What I hope we have accomplished is a change of attitude, a change of spirit in our city, where now the people have pride in their city,” Lee said. “We really have to battle the stigma we’re a hot, dusty town.”

Campbell, whose aspirations for higher political office have been unsuccessful in recent years, said the political contacts he has cultivated are crucial for a small community with almost nonexistent political clout.

“You need to have somebody in every city who has the ability to call up elected officials and be able to get them on the phone, and I can do that,” he said.

All candidates agree that Fillmore’s business climate needs to be strengthened.

For instance, Barajas said he believes the council should ensure that economic activity along California 126 does not overshadow the strides Fillmore’s downtown has made. McKinnon would like to see clean industries occupying Fillmore’s largely vacant industrial park.

*

But Lee, a high school economics and social studies teacher, said the city must be realistic.

“We’re really having a hard time having an industrial business come to our city until [construction on California] 126 is complete,” he said. “We’re at a very big disadvantage for attracting industry for the next couple of years. . . . That’s not to say we’re not going to keep trying.”

Lee, Campbell and Barajas favor Measures G and H on the ballot that would make the positions of city clerk and city treasurer appointed rather than elective. McKinnon and Gonzalez support keeping them as elected positions.

Both four-year positions are held by municipal employees who hold other jobs to supplement the $25 monthly wage for each post. Neither office has ever had a contested election since the city’s 1914 incorporation, said City Clerk Noreen Withers.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Fillmore City Council

Five candidates are vying for three council seats Nov. 5. The city’s continuing redevelopment efforts in the wake of the devastating Northridge earthquake dominate the campaign. Councilman

Mike McMahan has opted not to run for a third term, while incumbents Roger Campbell and Scott Lee are seeking reelection.

Evaristo Barajas

Age: 41

Occupation: Real estate broker and accountant

Education: Bachelor’s degree in business economics from UC Santa Barbara

Background: Apart from his college years, Barajas has lived in Fillmore for 32 years. He is a 4-H club director, a member of the St. Francis of Assisi Church finance committee, a Little League coach and former grand knight with the Knights of Columbus. He is married and has three children.

Issues: Barajas believes the city should help provide jobs and activities for youths in an effort to keep juvenile crime under control. He advocates municipal policies that take the needs of senior citizens into account.

Roger Campbell

Age: 46

Occupation: Auto repair shop owner

Education: Attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

Background: The mayor of Fillmore, Campbell is seeking his fourth City Council term. He made an unsuccessful bid for a seat on the Board of Supervisors earlier this year and was narrowly defeated in the race for a state Senate seat in 1992. He is married and has two grown children.

Issues: Campbell is stressing continuity of leadership in his campaign as the city reemerges from the devastation of the 1994 Northridge earthquake. He favors finding municipal money for the north Fillmore police storefront, which next month will run out of the federal grant that enabled the city to open its doors. He supports attracting new businesses and industries to bolster the city’s low per capita sales tax revenues.

George Gonzalez Jr.

Age: 39

Occupation: Pet supply store owner

Education: 1976 Fillmore High School graduate

Background: Born and raised in the Santa Clara Valley, Gonzalez reopened his pet supply store last November after the 1994 Northridge earthquake put it out of business. He is divorced and has two children.

Issues: Gonzalez supports efforts to redevelop the city while retaining Fillmore’s small-town atmosphere. He wants to attract businesses to fill existing vacant commercial buildings in the city. Gonzalez favors increasing city-sponsored activities for children and building more parks.

Scott Lee

Age: 49

Occupation: Rio Mesa High School economics teacher

Education: Bachelor’s degree in economics from UC Santa Barbara and master’s degree in economics from Cal State Hayward

Background: A City Council member since 1988, Lee is running for what he said will be his third and final term. Named Fillmore Citizen of the Year in 1994, he is a director with the Fillmore-Piru Boys & Girls Club and Fillmore Historical Society. He is married and has three children.

Issues: A slow-growth advocate, Lee believes tourism should remain the city’s chief economic development strategy. He supports using city funding to keep open the north Fillmore police storefront that is credited with reducing neighborhood crime.

Steve McKinnon

Age: 35

Occupation: Realtor

Education: Attended Pierce College

Background: A 14-year Fillmore resident, he was active in Stop Mining in Rural Fillmore, which defeated a strip mine proposed 1 1/2 miles east of the city. He is a Scout leader and member of the Fillmore Santa Paula Realtors Assn. board of directors. He is married and has three children.

Issues: McKinnon stresses efforts to preserve Fillmore’s rural way of life through controlled growth and fighting the gravel mine. But he also believes the city should try to attract clean industries in addition to its tourism development efforts.