Challenges for Fillmore

Which way, Fillmore? With three of its five City Council seats up for grabs in November, the city is ripe for a spirited campaign to decide its direction.

The timing couldn’t be better.

This Santa Clara Valley farm town of 13,000 earned widespread respect when it responded to heavy damage from the 1994 Northridge earthquake by thoughtfully rethinking and rebuilding its shattered downtown. Now, with this portion of its past reassembled, Fillmore faces several crucial issues that will shape its future.

Chief among them:

* Newhall Ranch. As the Ventura County city closest to the site of this sprawling community of 70,000 people just across the Los Angeles County line, Fillmore will be dramatically affected if the controversial project goes through. In February the City Council voted to drop out of a county lawsuit seeking to block or scale down the project. That raised questions about how vigorously Fillmore would object if Newhall should attempt to build on the 15,000 acres of farmland it owns on the Ventura County side of the line. Would Newhall Ranch be a godsend or a death sentence for Fillmore? That is a legitimate issue for local residents to debate and on which to build City Council campaigns.

* Farmland preservation. Petition drives have begun in Fillmore and Santa Paula to place Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources initiatives on the November ballot. If passed, the SOAR measures would require a public vote before farmland or open space outside of designated borders could be rezoned for development. The success or failure of the SOAR efforts, and of negotiations with the county and other cities to create and strengthen greenbelt agreements, would do much to shape Fillmore’s future. Both should be prominent campaign issues.

* Latino representation. Neighboring Santa Paula has been sued by the federal government over its at-large election system, which the lawsuit contends results in inadequate minority representation on the City Council. Like Santa Paula, Fillmore’s population is about 59% Latino yet it too has only one Latino council member. Can Fillmore change that without a federal order? Should it?

Who will lead Fillmore in these challenging times?

Someone other than the people who have led it for the past several years. Four-term Councilman Roger Campbell and Councilman Scott Lee both have announced that they will not run for reelection in November.

Mayor Pro Tem Mike McMahan resigned midway through his term when he and his wife moved to a home they inherited in Piru--nearby but out of the city. To provide some continuity, the council last week appointed former Councilwoman Linda Brewster serve the remaining two years of McMahan’s term.

In addition, Mayor Evaristo Barajas faces reelection.

Fillmore residents who care about their city’s future will never have a better opportunity to make a difference. Now is the time to register to vote, learn about local and regional issues and either run for office themselves or seek out like-minded candidates and offer support.

Fillmore is facing a range of issues that will shape its future.

For residents, there has never been a better opportunity to make a difference.