Ventura Council Ignores the Public

Ventura City Council meetings are a farce for any citizen to attend and vent at, for the council does not care nor consider their input, so why waste one’s time and effort?

Take Mayor Jack Tingstrom. His only desire is to keep order and get the meeting over as quickly as possible by limiting every public speaker’s time regardless of its importance.

The other council members give more importance to their statements than to those who elected them for they are permitted to speak endlessly, repetitively and uninterrupted.

At a recent meeting, one member even used visual aids to support the need that staff mandatorily include the effect on school crowding when new homes are added to a school area. I believe staff members are remiss if they do not integrate and report such findings when equating the effect of such a change on a neighborhood. This discussion should have been settled in committee and the public’s time not wasted on such an obvious conclusion.

It appears that this board has lost its way as it continues to ignore us while making decisions in spite of us, such as the downtown movie house. Did they ever evaluate if we wanted this? I never heard any such discussion!

Let’s recall their actions at election time when we do count!

LEONA WEBER

Ventura