Faces Are New, Issues Familiar as 6 Seek 2 Seats

The issues dominating this year’s Ojai City Council campaign are perennial, but for the first time in at least eight years, there are no incumbents among the candidates discussing them.

Mayor James Loebl, 69, an Ojai institution after 28 years of council service, is retiring.

Robert McKinney, 68, the retired general manager of the Casitas Municipal Water District, is also stepping down from his council seat after seven years.

Stepping into the fray are three Democrats, two Republicans and a Green Party member. Ojai’s 5,002 registered voters will select two from among them for the five-member panel, which pays $75 a month.

Even if the faces are different, the buzzwords that have long defined the rural enclave’s political arena--slow growth, quality of life, preserving the community’s village atmosphere--remain the same.

“Every election, it’s the same problems,” said self-described “green Democrat” Suza Francina as she flipped through yellowing newspaper clippings more than 30 years old at her home recently. “Traffic, growth . . . how can we keep our quality of life and open space?”

Those issues are expected to dominate the council’s agenda for the foreseeable future.

Ojai is in the midst of updating the traffic and growth elements of its General Plan--the blueprint that guides municipal development--for the first time since the late 1970s, said City Manager Andy Belknap. There is no sentiment in the county’s slowest-growing city for radical change.

Indeed, one of the few things growing in the community is the concern over the traffic that clogs Ojai Avenue; another is urban pressures on agriculture. So it is perhaps not surprising that most of the candidates are emphasizing those and related issues, although they each have a special issue to distinguish themselves from their counterparts.

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Democrat David Bury, the Planning Commission chairman and architect who has received the endorsement of four of five council members, said preserving Ojai’s quality of life is the major issue.

“It embodies the kinds of things most towns would like to strive for, but we’ve got it here right now,” he said. “I’m not necessarily looking at what’s wrong with Ojai. Ojai is a great town, and we’ve got to keep it that way.”

Democrat Ellen Hall, the executive director of the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy, said she and Bury have almost identical platforms. She is stressing air quality protection, agricultural viability and strip mall limitations to maintain Ojai’s small-town character.

She has received endorsements from two council members, Loebl and Nina Shelley.

Republican attorney Paul Blatz joins his counterparts in rejecting anything that threatens Ojai’s livability. And with the campaign slogan “Remembering yesterday, understanding today, affecting tomorrow,” he has tried to cover all the bases.

“This kind of village-like atmosphere is not conducive to shopping centers,” he said. “It’s imperative we protect the beauty of this valley, that we do not allow it to grow too fast and we do not bring industries into town that are not in tune with the environmental concerns of this valley.”

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But the other two candidates are downplaying such constant refrains.

Rhonda Short-Moore, a former planning commissioner who is reentering political life after several years away, rolls her eyes at the constant gushing over Ojai’s village atmosphere and the timeless Mayberry connotation that carries.

Not that she doesn’t share similar environmental concerns, said the Green Party member.

But the 20-year Ojai Valley resident believes the community has changed--for the worse.

“The ‘village,’ the ‘quality of life,’ they’re overused,” she said. “We have gangs in Ojai now, single parents, poor. It’s not an upper-middle-class, primarily-college-educated community anymore. . . . We need a stronger commitment from people.”

Registered Republican Brandon Chase, whose mother was the first woman elected to the City Council in the early 1970s, protests that his fellow candidates’ concentration on Ojai’s bucolic ambience obscures the human element.

“I think Ojai is made up of people, and to listen to the others, Ojai is special because of the buildings and the valley we live in,” he said. “That’s not to say those things aren’t important, but the missing link in those conversations seems to be people. . . . Every time you make a rule or regulation, it affects the people that you live with, and that has to be remembered.”

Chase concedes that his reluctance to talk about Ojai’s quality of life is partly an attempt to differentiate himself from his rivals.

Although growth and quality of life dominate most candidates’ discussions, each has a pet issue designed to draw voters’ attention.

Hall is focusing on improving services for Ojai’s youth.

The city spends only $8,710 out of its $500,000 recreation budget on programs for teenagers, she said.

“Our general crime rate is going down and our youth crime rate is going up,” she said, adding that adults sometimes seem to go out of their way to make lawbreakers of children. “They make skateboarding illegal everywhere--they invite kids to break the law.”

Blatz said he hears frustration from voters over the failure of city officials to listen to residents.

“My whole philosophy is, ‘Let’s increase the communication between the citizens of Ojai and the local city government,’ ” he said.

If elected, Blatz proposes that residents grade municipal officials on a quarterly report card, that community groups designate liaisons to council members and that people have the opportunity to send electronic messages to council members from the library.

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Short-Moore--a teacher who commutes to Port Hueneme--portrays herself as having more in common with the average Ojai resident than her fellow candidates. Except Hall, the others own businesses.

She favors establishing an employment office for the day laborers who congregate on Ojai Avenue.

“We would be treating people more humanely and with more respect,” she said.

Short-Moore, the only candidate who has announced her intention to spend less than $1,000 on the race, acknowledges that she is largely building name recognition for the future and has not run a particularly active campaign.

Chase, a former sheriff’s deputy, urges a tougher approach to juvenile crime.

He would like to see increased cooperation between schools and authorities to deal with juvenile crime, along with close monitoring of repeat offenders.

“People have approached me who are afraid to send their kids to the junior high school, and that’s a first in my experience in Ojai,” he said.

For Bury, the issue is regionalism.

Ojai’s cherished isolation does not mean it is immune from such problems as air quality and encroaching urbanization, he says, and he advocates greater involvement with regional agencies.

“If we don’t recognize those forces and deal with them appropriately, we will become a victim of those forces,” he said.

Francina, who is making her second try in two years for a council seat, emphasizes traffic reduction. The Yoga Center owner, who has proposed an alternative solution to a planned stoplight at Montgomery Street and Ojai Avenue, practices what she preaches.

Francina no longer owns a car and is instead a driving force behind the program to scatter yellow bicycles around the city for the free use of residents and tourists.

“I am probably the only candidate that is squarely facing the traffic issue and equating it with the quality of life,” she said, while adding that she is not a one-issue candidate. “The best way to fight crime is to improve the quality of life. . . . Everything is connected.”

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Ojai City Council

Six candidates will compete Nov. 5 for two City Council seats left open when incumbents decided against seeking reelection. Balancing economic development with retaining Ojai’s rural atmosphere and reducing traffic are the race’s major issues. Mayor James Loebl, a City Council fixture since 1968, has decided not to run again. Mayor pro tem Robert McKinney, a council member since 1989, will also step down.

Paul Blatz

Age: 45

Occupation: Attorney

Education: Bachelor’s degree from George Washington University, law degree from Ventura College of Law

Background: A 12-year resident of Ojai, Blatz is a member of the Rotary Club and the Ojai Chamber of Commerce and Ventura County Bar Assn. He is also a member of Saticoy Country Club. He is married with one son.

Issues: Blatz advocates developing a partnership between the city and business community to improve the economy and boost tax revenue. He supports reopening City Hall on Fridays and opposes a traffic signal at Montgomery Street and Ojai Avenue. He proposes relocating the day laborers who gather on Ojai Avenue to wait for work to another “less objectionable” locale.

Brandon M. Chase

Age: 42

Occupation: Antique store owner

Education: Attended college

Background: An Oxnard native, Chase grew up in Ojai and is a retired senior deputy with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department. Earlier this year he sat on a committee that reviewed and revised Ventura County School Board policies. He is married with two daughters.

Issues: Chase supports policies conducive to small businesses and job creation. He advocates targeting substandard housing and offering such incentives as reduced permit fees and rapid permit approvals to rehabilitate homes. Chase believes increased cooperation among schools, parents and authorities is essential to combat juvenile crime.

Ellen Hall

Age: 54

Occupation: High school teacher and executive director of the nonprofit Ojai Valley Land Conservancy

Education: Bachelor’s degree in communications from Antioch University

Background: A 16-year city resident, Hall co-founded the conservancy in 1987. Under the auspices of the group, which works to preserve open space in the Ojai Valley, Hall has organized such community service projects as restoring the stream in Libbey Park. She is married with two children.

Issues: Hall believes “village planning” should be incorporated into the city’s general plan update this fall including mixed-use residential and commercial zoning to preserve Ojai’s small-town character. She believes Ojai must take a more active role in regional decision making to improve air quality and other issues of wider concern.

David Bury

Age: 44

Occupation: Architect

Education: Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University through an extension program, master’s in architecture from the University of New Mexico

Background: A nine-year Ojai resident who owns his own architecture company, Bury first came to Ojai in the 1960s while attending Ojai Valley School. He is chairman of the city’s Planning Commission and graduated from the United Way’s inaugural Ventura County Leadership Academy. He is married with two sons.

Issues: Bury describes himself as both pro-business and pro-environment. He believes government should promote economic development, while maintaining a stewardship over the environment and the Ojai Valley’s quality of life. He advocates developing tourism while creating jobs in the valley for residents.

Suza Francina

Age: 47

Occupation: Yoga center owner, health and environmental writer

Education: Received early childhood teaching credential from Ventura College

Background: A 40-year Ojai resident, Francina is making her second attempt at a council seat after an unsuccessful run in 1994. A well-known community activist, she is a founding member of the Ojai Bicycle Coalition and Ojai Traffic Calming Coalition. She is a single mother of two.

Issues: Francina is a vehement opponent of Caltrans’ plan for a signal light at Montgomery Street and Ojai Avenue and has proposed a “no signal” alternative that the state is studying. She advocates creating a diversified business base that would reduce traffic congestion and help maintain Ojai’s village-like atmosphere.

Rhonda Short-Moore

Age: 39

Occupation: Seventh-grade science teacher at Blackstock School in Port Hueneme

Education: Bachelor’s degree in liberal studies from Cal State Chico and a master’s degree in family environmental science from Cal State Northridge

Background: Short-Moore wants to reenter local government after spending five years on the Planning Commission and stepping down in 1991. She serves on the Casitas Municipal Water District advisory board studying whether to expand public uses for the reservoir. She is married with one son.

Issues: Short-Moore proposes the city reduce the valley’s traffic problems by developing a weekend trolley service from Ventura and give hiring priority for local jobs to residents. She supports designating a site for laborers to meet employers to decrease loitering on Ojai Avenue.