3 Candidates for Supervisor’s Seat Face Off in Debate

Three candidates seeking the Ventura-area supervisor’s seat faced off Wednesday night in a spirited debate that featured several testy exchanges.

Participants outlined their views on county finances, mental health services, farmland protection and the influence of campaign contributions.

While candidates Steve Bennett, Rosa Lee Measures and Jim Monahan found consensus on several issues--all three agreed that the county should spend the estimated $10 million in tobacco settlement dollars received annually on health care programs and that separate funding is needed for such things as child care, parks and libraries--they showed sharp differences on others.

Bennett, co-author of the county’s SOAR farmland protection ordinance, defended the law as a valuable way to “save paradise” while allowing exceptions for building projects with popular support.

But Monahan, a longtime Ventura councilman, said the building restrictions imposed by SOAR, which requires a public vote before farmland can be developed, could make it difficult for the county to retain high-paying employers.

“This is a problem,” said Monahan, who owns a Ventura welding shop. “I don’t know how we are going to get people to come to this county . . . if they have to go through this process.”

When Measures and Monahan made statements portraying themselves as supportive of SOAR, Bennett pulled out minutes from previous Ventura City Council meetings that recorded votes he says show that both are opposed to the growth-control laws.

Measures told Bennett that her past positions are no longer relevant because she “has no intention of trying to overturn SOAR” now that it has won broad support at the polls.

Bennett produced other City Council minutes that he says show that Measures and Monahan were also hostile to a campaign finance law that he wrote while he was their colleague on the council.

When they tried to protest, Bennett shot back: “You did vote against it and we have some clear documents on that.”

But Bennett was not the only one throwing barbs. At the start of the hourlong debate, Monahan dramatically pulled out a large picture of Barry Hammitt, chief of the county’s largest employee union, and placed it on the debaters’ table.

Hammitt is the unofficial fourth candidate in the race, Monahan told his challengers and an audience of 50 at the Wedgewood Banquet Center in Ventura, because “he runs the county government . . . and he already has Steve Bennett in his pocket.”

Bennett, who received a $500 donation and the endorsement of Hammitt’s Service Employees International Union, did not immediately address Monahan’s accusation. But after the debate, he called it a stunt designed to draw attention to Monahan.

“There is no evidence of what he is saying,” Bennett said.

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Monahan, who said public safety is one of his principal issues, came out in favor of commercial use of the military airstrips at Point Mugu, but said he would only pursue such an expansion if the Navy first expressed interest in a partnership.

But he stressed that he does not support the expansion of community airports in Camarillo and Oxnard because of the possible impact on surrounding neighborhoods.

While Bennett agreed with Monahan on the airport issue, Measures said she would reserve an opinion until after further review of the subject.

All three praised a proposal by Supervisor Frank Schillo to use at least a portion of tobacco settlement dollars to expand treatment and housing for the county’s indigent mentally ill. That plan is expected to use up about $4 million a year.

Bennett said he would support diverting another portion of the tobacco dollars to help the county solve the immediate $5-million budget shortfall it faces as the result of audits and lawsuits involving the county’s Behavioral Health Department.

Measures, who repeatedly stressed her background in banking and philanthropy, asked Bennett how he would show “leadership and consensus-building” in areas outside of environmental concerns. Bennett said he commits most of his free time to environmental concerns, but also has played an active role in his education job.

Measures countered that voters need a leader who is more broad-based in an elected office that deals not only with land-use issues, but health, welfare and public safety.

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The three are vying to replace Supervisor Susan Lacey, who is retiring after 20 years in office. The candidates know each other well from years spent on the Ventura council. Bennett and Measures each served one term, while Monahan is in his sixth term as a councilman.

In the nonpartisan race, Republicans Measures and Monahan face Bennett, a Democrat, in a district with a slight majority of Democrats, 41% to 39%. Voters from Ventura, Montalvo, Saticoy and portions of Ojai make the District 1 seat the second most ethnically diverse after Oxnard’s District 5.

Bennett, who announced his candidacy 10 months ago, is far ahead in amassing a campaign chest, raising $62,000 so far. Monahan and Measures, who jumped into the race later, have raised $24,000 and $23,000, respectively.

If none of the candidates receives more than 50% of the vote in the March 7 primary, there will be a runoff between the top two vote-getters in November.