Supervisor Learns the Language of His Constituents

At an age when many people begin planning for retirement, Ventura County Supervisor John K. Flynn is pouring his energy into learning the native language of many local voters.

Nearing his 65th birthday and well into his third decade of local politics, Flynn again this year plunged into a full-immersion Spanish-language course taught in Mexico.

The getaway to semitropical Cuernavaca this summer and last also included some sightseeing and authentic Mexican cuisine. Yet far from relaxing, Flynn kept busy in the classroom, rolling his r’s and tackling such problems as verb conjugation.

With the gusto he has brought to the campaign trail, Flynn spends much of the day practicing Spanish.

“Me llamo John Flynn,” the ruddy politician said. “Yo soy supervisor.”

Of late, the gregarious former schoolteacher has showed off his bilingual ability in speeches and at board meetings.

“To get by in this community here, I need to speak Spanish,” said Flynn at his south Oxnard office last week. “I need to be able to speak with my constituents.”

The supervisor, now in his sixth four-year term, said his new passion was born of pragmatism.

The county has launched an experimental program in south Oxnard to help people move from welfare rolls into jobs. Another $4.5-million pilot program in south Oxnard aims to fight gangs and juvenile delinquency. Both programs are likely to involve Spanish speakers, Flynn explained.

“I want to make sure the community is involved,” Flynn said. “A lot of people are afraid of government agencies and officialdom. Spanish helps me communicate. I can remove that fear.”

Boning up on Spanish is not the only move Flynn has made to get closer to voters.

Earlier this year, he vacated his office in the Ventura County Government Center in east Ventura and moved to an office in largely Latino south Oxnard.

Conversation in the supervisor’s new office shifts between English and Spanish, as Flynn uses both languages to communicate with bilingual staff members. He takes phone calls from Spanish-speaking constituents, holding his own on subjects such as welfare and immigration.

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At community meetings on the new government programs, he speaks Spanish. While driving to work, Flynn listens to Spanish language tapes.

The supervisor, a Democrat, has always tried to reach out to minorities, said Catherine Serros-Myers, one of his aides.

“He’s the type of person who’s always been very sensitive to the diverse population of this area,” she said.

Added Francisco Dominguez, executive director of a Latino advocacy group, El Concilio: “What John is making people aware of is the change in demographics taking place. I don’t think he’s doing it for political reasons. It’s genuine, based on his history with Oxnard and the Latino community.”

Flynn’s decision to learn a new outreach tool is likely to bolster his popularity among local voters, said John Davies, a Santa Barbara-based political consultant.

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“John Flynn has been an incredible politician, and this is a perfect example of incumbency maintenance,” Davies said. “He’s seeing where the future is going and staying on top of it.”

Flynn was reelected as supervisor last year with an overwhelming majority of the vote. He does not face another election until the year 2000.

Flynn said he took two years of Spanish classes in high school, noting that it was more than four decades ago.

Although he said he has sprinkled a few Spanish phrases while chatting with Latino constituents over the years, the supervisor said his use of the language was mostly ornamental.

“Hola. Buenos dias. Que tal?” he said. “It was enough to get by in an artificial, superficial way. That’s not so good. I went to school to get past the superficiality.”

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So last year, Flynn threw himself into an 18-day immersion class at a private institute in Cuernavaca, a resort city about 40 miles southwest of Mexico City.

Flynn mixed vacationing and classroom study again last month, when he returned to Cuernavaca for a nine-day immersion course. He believes he now converses in Spanish on about the level of an eighth-grade native speaker.

The supervisor said he has paid for the trips out of his own pocket, with travel expenses and course fees totaling about $2,500. During both trips, Flynn has stayed in the home of a retired couple. His 27-year-old daughter, Sara, who must pass a language requirement to receive a sociology degree from UC Santa Barbara, went to Cuernavaca with him this summer to study.

Learning a foreign tongue is not without its pleasures, the supervisor said.

“I have to admit,” Flynn said, “it does something for your ego if you can communicate in someone else’s language.”