7 Join the Race for 3 Ventura Council Seats
A banker, a lawyer, a businessman, two community activists and two planning experts have qualified to run for three seats on the Ventura City Council in November, the city clerk’s office said Wednesday.
Only one incumbent, former county planner Carl Morehouse, will be on the ballot Nov. 4. Mayor Ray DiGuilio and Councilman Jim Friedman decided not to seek reelection.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. Aug. 15, 2003 For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday August 15, 2003 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 43 words Type of Material: Correction
Ventura candidate -- An article in some editions of the California section Thursday about the Ventura City Council election in November incorrectly referred to Councilman Carl Morehouse as a former county planner. Morehouse, who is running for reelection, remains in his county job.
The council will tackle several key issues in the next four years, including the hiring of a city manager, hillside development, traffic and dealing with repercussions of the state budget crisis.
Others vying for a spot on the seven-member council are land-use expert Bill Fulton, banker Edward Summers, attorney Bernard Lehrer, businessman Mike Osborn and community activists Brian Lee Rencher and Christie Weir.
Fulton, 47, a nationally recognized urban planning expert, has said he wants to protect the city’s hillsides from development, ensure that the city continues to deliver basic services, encourage neighborhoods to play a larger role in decisions that affect them and stress safety and sound economic planning
Lehrer, 79, who runs a private personal injury practice in Los Angeles, said he would represent the interests of senior citizens and wanted to help ease traffic congestion and overcrowding on local streets and highways. Lehrer led a successful campaign last year to ban people from feeding squirrels and seabirds along the Ventura Promenade.
Morehouse, 51, first elected to office in 1999, has stressed his experience on the City Council.
Osborn, 54, who has run unsuccessfully for City Council twice, said he supported improved fiscal responsibility and public safety. Osborn is a service manager at a local car dealership and works as a public policy consultant on the side, he said.
Rencher, 43, is a local activist who has run unsuccessfully for a council seat six times.
Summers, 49, works for Affinity Bank in Ventura and is chairman of the Ventura County Economic Development Assn.
Weir, a writer, is leading a drive to raise money to buy the Grant Park cross that the city plans to sell to avoid a suit over separation of church and state.
Weir, Summers and Rencher could not be reached for comment.
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