Bennett Lists Agenda at Swearing-In Ceremony

As three supervisors were sworn in Tuesday, the year’s first county Board of Supervisors meeting saw its members bathe in the available spotlight long enough to outline their top priorities for 2001 and try to set an amicable tone.

In office less than five minutes, slow-growth advocate Steve Bennett dove into his agenda: strengthening the budget, ending the hospital war, reforming the campaign finance system and controlling urban sprawl.

He’ll do it all, Bennett said, by playing nice with his colleagues.

“I certainly hope I can be hard on the issues and soft on the people,” he said, also vowing to “never criticize another board member in public.”

Bennett’s words were met with a partial standing ovation after he was sworn in to replace retiring Susan Lacey in the 1st District.

John K. Flynn and Kathy Long were also sworn in Tuesday, Flynn for his seventh term and Long for her second.

The supervisors offered warm greetings to their new colleague.

“This is Steve Bennett’s day,” Flynn said. “We are very proud to have you on the board.”

Flynn and Long then echoed some of Bennett’s priorities, including the budget and the contentious relationship between the county’s public and private hospitals.

Board members also voted to make Supervisor Frank Schillo the new chairman to replace Long, whose term as chairwoman expired Tuesday.

In his acceptance speech, Schillo rattled off his own to-do list that included asking supervisors to find a new chief administrative officer who could be hired with a unanimous vote. Interim Chief Administrative Officer Harry Hufford’s term expires in April.

Schillo pushed further, urging the board to consider outlining a formal set of goals for the county.

“If we establish goals,” he said, “then we are held accountable by the public to accomplish those goals. And we’ll probably get a lot more done.”

Flynn, celebrating 25 years on the board this month, was named vice chairman.

The meeting’s morning session was standing-room only, including Ventura Police Chief Mike Tracy, County Sheriff Bob Brooks and County Fire Chief Bob Roper, to congratulate the new board.

A bevy of Bennett’s supporters crowded outside the boardroom for a brief reception and followed the new supervisor inside to watch his first day on the job.

“I think he’ll make a good steward,” said Keith York of Ventura. “He comes with a fresh approach to the city and county management that considers the ecological affects of his decision.”

“He’s strong enough to take a strong position on the things he believes in,” added John McCarter, a Ventura city fire engineer. “The county will benefit with him as a member.”

Bennett and the rest of the board handled their first minor controversy of the year Tuesday, a recommendation from Schillo and Supervisor Judy Mikels to appoint former public works director Art Goulet as a citizen representative to the Ventura County Transportation Commission.

During public comments, some criticized Goulet’s nomination, saying the man who oversaw the county’s road and building projects for 22 years was too much of a bureaucrat to represent the public.

“Many of us feel that Mr. Goulet would be more devoted to covering our lovely county with wider and more roads to the exclusion of alternate means of transportation,” Ventura resident Lillian Goldstein said.

Schillo supported Goulet, saying his experience is a bonus that gives him an intricate understanding of transportation issues.

Fellow supervisors, however, pushed the issue back two weeks and ordered Hufford’s office to devise a more formal process for filling the slot instead of relying on recommendations from fellow supervisors.