Supervisors Agree to Accept Mexican IDs

Ventura County supervisors unanimously agreed Tuesday to accept a Mexican-issued identification card as valid ID for residents conducting business at county government offices.

“It really makes me proud of the board to see this vote,” said board Chairman John Flynn, who brought the proposal to his colleagues. Flynn’s Oxnard-based district has the county’s largest immigrant population.

Mexican Consul Fernando Gamboa of the Oxnard consulate said acceptance of the card, called a matricula consular, is vital because officials are looking more closely at identification cards since last year’s terrorist attacks.

Ventura County supervisors also unanimously agreed Tuesday to lower -- to 20% -- the percentage of in-home care providers who must agree to be represented by a labor group before a union can begin collective bargaining.

Barry Hammitt, leader of Service Employees International Union Local 998 had argued the county’s earlier requirement of 30% was too high because home workers are a hard-to-reach group.

Bruce Stenslie, a Human Services Agency director, recommended that supervisors agree to the change so the union can begin negotiating wages and benefits for the estimated 1,600 workers affected countywide.