tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57249308021694632122024-03-12T22:52:28.787-07:00Bill Fulton, former Mayor of VenturaBill Fulton, former Mayor of Ventura, California, discusses current city issues and explains his own positions on matters before the City CouncilBill Fultonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833863247431014699noreply@blogger.comBlogger142125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724930802169463212.post-80150203692137731042014-10-18T17:25:00.000-07:002014-10-18T17:25:12.450-07:00Vote Yes on Measures D and E
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ventura is a city of more than 100,000 people and 60,000
registered voters. Yet when I was first elected to the Ventura City Council 11
years ago, I received only 8,000 votes – and I won in a landslide.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In other words, I was the runaway winner in that election,
but only about 13% of Ventura’s registered voters cast their votes for me. Every
time I went out in the community, most of the people I talked to hadn’t voted
for me—<i>or </i>against me. Is it any
wonder that most Venturans didn’t feel connected to City Hall – no matter what
we did?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In a typical Ventura City Council election, only 25% to 35%
of registered voters cast ballots at all. But Measure D on the November ballot
can change that situation for the better, simply by switching the timing of the
election. If Measure D passes, municipal elections will be switched from odd
years to even years. They’ll coincide with state and national elections and
voter turnout will double – at least. (Measure E would make the same change for
Ventura Unified School Board elections.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That’s why I favor Measure D (and Measure E as well) and I
hope you will vote “yes” on both measures in the upcoming election.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I can tell you from personal experience that city government
doesn’t work when people don’t vote. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Much more than Congress or the state legislature, the city
government is a part of people’s daily lives. In Ventura, your city government
provides you with water and sewer service, runs the parks and recreation
programs, ensures your safety with police officers and firefighters, paves your
street, trims your street trees, and does lots of other things that you can
touch and feel on a daily basis. The city government is not an alien force, as
the federal government often seems. It is an extension of your life, your home,
and your neighborhood in a very intimate way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In order for the relationship between Ventura’s residents
and City Hall to work well, people have to feel invested in their government –
that they have helped to shape it and that they are partners with each other
and with City Hall in helping to ensure that every resident has what they want
and need. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But if people don’t vote, then they’re not invested. They
may view themselves as “customers” of the city – “buying” water or recreation
programs or tree trimming. As such they won’t be afraid to complain when
something goes wrong. But they won’t view themselves as “citizens”
participating in the process of creating the municipal government that provides
them with the services they need.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I wish it didn’t matter when Ventura’s elections were held.
I wish all Ventura’s residents would vote in the municipal elections. But
that’s not what happens. Here’s what statistics on the Ventura County Registrar
of Voters web site tell us:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">-- In the last three even-year elections (2008,
2010, 2012) combined, voter turnout has been 74%.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">-- In the last three odd-year elections (2009,
2011, 2013) combined, voter turnout has been 27%.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The main argument against Measure D is that our local issues
will get lost in the shuffle of big state and national elections. I think it’s
pretty clear that this assertion isn’t true. <i>Every other city in Ventura County </i>holds even-year municipal
elections. They’re lively affairs and they get a lot of publicity. They don’t
get lost in the shuffle.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Governing a city is a covenant between the voters and the
elected officials. If people don’t vote, it’s hard for the elected officials to
honor that covenant – or even know what that covenant includes. Please
strengthen this covenant between the people of Ventura and their elected
officials by voting in favor of Measures D and E this fall.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">-- <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">William Fulton, a former Mayor and City Councilmember in
Ventura, is now Director of the Kinder Institute for Urban Research at Rice University.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment--><div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Fulton is a member of the Ventura (Calif.) City Council.</div>Bill Fultonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833863247431014699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724930802169463212.post-53752520072857192152013-05-19T08:17:00.000-07:002013-05-19T08:21:23.090-07:00Updating the Infill Strategy in Ventura<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">On Monday,
the Ventura City Council is scheduled to begin discussing possible changes to
the city’s long-standing "infill first" growth policies. It’s a good
time for this discussion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Our
general plan was adopted eight years ago, conditions have changed significantly,
the real estate market is beginning to come back, and the city is getting ready
to embark on a process to update that general plan.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #1a1a1a; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">The one
thing that has not changed is Ventura’s commitment to slow, careful growth in
an infill context. Dating back to the Seize The Future Community Vision in the
late ’90s, the people of Ventura had made it clear:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #1a1a1a;">They
don’t want the city to grow outward. Instead, they want high-quality new
development in selected locations, especially in the downtown and along
commercial corridors, that strengthens both our economy and our quality of
life.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #1a1a1a;">So the
City Council should approach revisions to the infill first approach carefully,
using a scalpel to make revisions rather than a meat ax that will improve the
quality of infill development and make it easier for developers to do the right
thing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #1a1a1a;">Here are
some things the city council should consider:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">1. Consider a "tiered" approach to allowable
project size if a developer offers community benefits.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #1a1a1a;">Some
communities permit larger projects in exchange for additional community
benefits — affordable housing, open space, neighborhood amenities, and the
like. Ventura should consider this approach, though the city should proceed
carefully to ensure that the community benefit requirements are clear and
consistently applied.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">2. Conduct pre-screens on large projects but do so
selectively.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #1a1a1a;">Pre-screens
— the practice of requiring front-loaded review of development concepts by the
Planning Commission and the City Council — are politically tempting but
burdensome on both developers and the city’s staff.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 13.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #1a1a1a;">Ventura
should use the pre-screen approach selectively — for example, when a developer
is requesting a general plan change, a zone change, a significant variance or a
large project in exchange for community benefits. Pre-screen requirements
should be made as simple as possible to reduce the burden on developers and
staff while at the same time providing the city with the information necessary
to make a good decision.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">3. Adopt a single parking standard — indeed, a single set
of standards — for multifamily housing projects.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #1a1a1a;">Current
development standards assume a difference in quality between ownership
condominium projects and rental apartment projects. These standards are
outdated, because the whole idea that you can dictate whether housing will be
rental or ownership is outdated.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #1a1a1a;">All over
Ventura, for example, condominiums and single-family homes approved as
ownership units are now being rented out. The city should establish one set of
development standards for all multifamily projects, regardless of whether they
are expected to be owned or rented.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #1a1a1a;">In
particular, a single set of parking standards should be adopted that falls
somewhere in between the current standard for rental apartments and the current
standard for condominiums.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #1a1a1a;">The
standard could be different in different parts of the city depending on how
much off-site parking is available. For example, the pool of unused parking in
the downtown is very large and therefore standards there could be different.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #1a1a1a;">4. Adopt more fine-grained approach to design of projects
adjacent to existing single-family neighborhoods.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #1a1a1a;">The
controversy over the Island View project in Montalvo has renewed concerns that
Ventura’s current codes do not protect single-family homes from large adjacent
projects. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #1a1a1a;">Rather than simply cutting densities, the city should adopt a
fine-grained design approach in these locations to protect view corridors and
privacy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #1a1a1a;">A good
model is the Midtown Corridors Code, adopted in 2007, which requires additional
setbacks, varying heights and consideration of view corridors and privacy in
approving multistory projects along Main Street and Thompson Boulevard. In the
future, Ventura will be faced with increasing challenges as it seeks to improve
its economy and provide housing for residents even as it runs out of
undeveloped land.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #1a1a1a;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #1a1a1a;">The
infill first approach is a vital tool in maintaining this balance in a healthy
way. By revising the city’s infill first policies with care, Ventura can ensure
a healthy and prosperous future as a community.</span></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--><div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Fulton is a member of the Ventura (Calif.) City Council.</div>Bill Fultonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833863247431014699noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724930802169463212.post-72985027414782403122012-09-13T09:37:00.000-07:002014-10-18T17:29:58.576-07:00Thanking Rick Cole ... and moving forward<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Back in August, as I was sitting on a float waiting for the Ventura County Fair Parade to start, I saw Rick Cole, the Ventura city manager, riding his bike down Main Street, returning home after meeting a friend for breakfast at a local (and locally owned) restaurant. Here, I decided, was a guy who had truly embraced Ventura as his town.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Rick's moving on now to become the parish administrator of Mission San Buenaventura. That's a good thing for Ventura. Like so many of his predecessors, including Ed McCombs and John Baker, Rick cares so much about the town that he wants to stay and help Ventura even though his tenure as city manager is over. But as the City Council contemplates who should replace him, it's probably a good time to reflect back on his accomplishments -- and consider how Rick's record can inform the council's deliberations in choosing a successor.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br />Rick came to Ventura as city manager in 2004, right at the height of the real estate boom. He came in with an unusual background -- he had served three terms on the Pasadena City Council and then stepped into the city manager's job in Azusa with no previous experience. In both cities he’d compiled a noteworthy record of leading successful revitalization efforts. It was an unusual time in Ventura and we needed Rick's special skills. <br />
<br />
In his first couple of years in Ventura, Rick intervened in the approval process of a few development projects to make them better and he drove the long-delayed General Plan update over the goal line in 2005 -- something nobody had been able to do in the previous four years. Faced with an almost complete turnover of department heads, he did a great job of recruiting top-notch folks -- Pat Miller as police chief, Jay Panzica as chief financial officer, Elena Brokaw as community services director. All this may seem like ancient history now, but it was a pretty significant set of achievements at the time.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">When the economy began to weaken, Ventura faced a whole new set of issues that we hadn't contemplated when we recruited Rick. But he handled the situation as well as or better than any other city manager in the county. He foresaw the severity of the economic crisis quickly and pushed us in 2009 to make deep cuts. He resisted the temptation to paper over problems with financial gimmicks or dip into reserves to keep things going. And he collaboratively negotiated the most aggressive union givebacks in the county. As a result, in 2010 and 2011, when other cities were teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, Ventura had stabilized -- and we even saw our credit rating go up!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Meanwhile, he continued to bring in great department heads such as Jeff Lambert in community development and had the foresight to move our water and sewer utility into a separate department (with another great director, Shana Epstein). He negotiated a franchise renewal with Southern California, Edison, created innovative partnerships with community groups on projects like Grant Park and ArtWalk, got the trestle bridge painted and even squeezed a few more cops out of this year's budget. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">And he saved the city a lot of money while accomplishing all these things. Rick made about $170,000 a year as city manager -- a lot for most people, but at least $50,000 less than most of his peers (and more than $100,000 less than Ed Sotelo in Oxnard). He never took a raise, accepted a 5% pay cut for a while, and volunteered to pay his 7% share of his pension cost. He was making less money when he left this fall than his predecessor made when she left at the end of 2003.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">The city got a great deal when Johnny Johnson agreed to serve as interim city manager for free -- kudos to Mayor Mike Tracy for that -- but let's be clear: replacing Rick will cost the city a lot of money. They'll have to hire a recruiter and then pay the new city manager $40,000 to $60,000 a year more than Rick was making.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Not everybody liked Rick's style. He could sometimes seem like a blue-sky guy -- remote and even arrogant -- and a lot of folks would have preferred a more hands-on style. But I always thought it was perfectly appropriate for the city manager to keep the big picture in mind, focus on the important items like painting the trestle bridge, and hire great department heads to get things done on the ground.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">And I think that's an important point for the city council to keep in mind in selecting a new city manager. Those of us who have been elected to the council always want the city manager to be detail-oriented. But in a place like Ventura -- with seven strong-minded individuals on the council -- the city manager is always under pressure to make the individual councilmembers happy by focusing on the details that matter to them that day. That doesn't always reflect what the majority of the city council wants -- or what even what most voters want. It's always better -- not to say consistent with the city charter -- for the city manager to focus on doing what the council has voted in public on Monday night to do, rather than what seven councilmembers tell him to do in private meetings every day.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;">Rick Cole wasn't a perfect city manager. But he was great for Ventura because he knew how to balance the big picture and the little details and he tried hard to stick to what the whole council had voted on, not what individual councilmembers were trying to get him to do. Yes, maybe Ventura needs somebody a little more hands-on these days. But the council would do well to look for somebody who also embodies Rick's sense of balance and his commitment to implementing the policy of the council, not the agendas of individual councilmembers.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif;"></span><br /><div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Fulton is a member of the Ventura (Calif.) City Council.</div>Bill Fultonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833863247431014699noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724930802169463212.post-9970125014038813442011-12-06T22:45:00.000-08:002011-12-06T22:51:22.765-08:00Thank You, Ventura<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left" align="left">Saturday was a fabulous day here in Ventura. First of all, it was a gorgeous day, and I had a wonderful run along the beach in the afternoon. Then there was the Holiday Street Fair – a longtime tradition we at the city have successfully turned over to the Downtown Ventura Partnership and other private sponsors. Just after sundown, I joined Santa Claus, Father Tom from the Mission – and a huge throng of people – in lighting up the Mission’s two Christmas trees, which by the way are the tallest Christmas trees in the United States. Then we all adjourned to the intersection of Main and California, where fake snow fell while we all danced and City Hall flashed with revolving, dramatic colors.<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left" align="left">In other words, it was a great day to be the Mayor of this town. And all through it I kept thinking to myself something I have thought so many times over the years: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">This town can do things that other towns just can’t do!</i></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left" align="left">It’s been easy to forget this during our recent hard times, when a lot of people have been focused on what we can’t do or aren’t doing or can’t afford to do. But as I stepped down as Mayor and a member of the City Council on Monday night, I wasn’t thinking about what we can’t do. I was thinking about all the things we can do – and all the things we do successfully on a regular basis. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left" align="left">I guess I could say a lot of the usual things that politicians say when they leave office – thanks for the privilege of serving, I am proud of what we accomplished, I’m humbled by all of this. (Actually, I did say all these things Monday night.) But what I really want to say is this: I’m the luckiest guy in the world because I got to be on the Ventura City Council for eight years and I got to be Mayor of Ventura for two years.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left" align="left">Things have been really tough in the last couple of years, so I think it’s important to understand what the situation was back in 2003, when I first ran for the City Council. We were in the middle of a divisive public debate over what to do about the Serra Cross, located on what was then city property in Grant Park. We had just lived through a divisive election over a very large proposed development project in the hillsides. Indeed, we had just been through three bruising decades of divisive growth battles, which had led to numerous ballot initiatives, wild swings back and forth in our political leadership, and the premature retirement or defeat of any number of councilmembers over the previous decade. Oh, yes, and by the way the City budget had been running in the red for the previous three years.</p>In those days, City Hall had a reputation for being opaque, not transparent, and not very responsive. In fact, one of the reasons I ran was because at that time it seemed to me that the only way to have true influence over the City’s direction was to be one of the seven members of the City Council. Paradoxically, I wanted to become one of those seven people in order to change that situation.We’ve tackled all those problems pretty successfully. And we’ve done it by staying focused on the fact that, at City Hall, everything we do is related to one of three overarching goals: <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-align:left; text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;tab-stops:list .5in" align="left"><span style="font-family:Wingdings;mso-fareast-font-family:Wingdings;mso-bidi-font-family:Wingdings;" ><span style="mso-list:Ignore"><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""></span></span></span>-- Enduring prosperity<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-align:left; text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;tab-stops:list .5in" align="left"><span style="font-family:Wingdings;mso-fareast-font-family:Wingdings;mso-bidi-font-family:Wingdings;" ><span style="mso-list:Ignore"><span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""></span></span></span>-- A high quality of life</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-align:left; text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;tab-stops:list .5in" align="left">-- A strong sense of community </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left" align="left"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left" align="left">It’s been <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">very </i>hard to keep focused on those three things with the economic downturn and the resulting budget difficulties in the last two or three years. But I think that we have accomplished two important things in the last two to four years. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left" align="left"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left" align="left">First, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">we’ve laid the foundation for future prosperity. </i></b>As I have said many times, to be successful in the long run, all cities must constantly evolve economically. Ventura is no exception. Our traditional reliance on oil, agriculture, government, and a few other sectors will continue to provide a base of employment but will not carry us through to another generation of true prosperity. So we must constantly work at helping our businesses grow and encourage new high-growth businesses to locate in Ventura. We’ve laid a very good foundation for that – not just with out tech effort and our incubator, but by becoming more business-friendly without compromising our quality of life. We have restored positive relations with our Chamber of Commerce. We helped push through the $350 million expansion of Community Memorial Hospital. We’ve cleaned up our permitting processes. And, perhaps most important, we’ve just about eradicated the decades-old idea that Ventura is anti-business. This foundation will help us tremendously in the years ahead.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left" align="left"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left" align="left">And second, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">we’ve learned how to work together as a community to get things done. </i></b>In the old days, if you wanted to get something done in Ventura, the path to success was simple: You lobbied the City Council until you got four votes committing the City to take the lead on the project and pay for the whole thing. But that’s not a sustainable model for the future – not financially, certainly, but also not in community-building terms. Communities succeed not because the city government takes everything on and pays for it, but because a broad coalition of people, organizations, and institutions work together to get things done in a timely, high-quality, and cost-efficient manner. That’s what’s happening in the partnership between the City and the Ventura Botanical Gardens to improve Grant Park. It’s also what’s happening in the partnership between the City and Ventura Unified to open up school land on the Westside for parks and recreational use. This will have to be the model for getting things done in the future – and we’ve laid the foundation for it in the last two years.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left" align="left"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left" align="left">Shortly after he was seated on Monday night, Mayor Tracy said that the city’s highest priority right now is to make sure that the public has confidence in the city’s ability to deliver basic services – police, fire, parks, street maintenance, and so forth. He’s right. We’ve balanced the budget and laid the foundation for the future, but the quality of our services has taken a hit in the process and now it’s time to show the people that we can still deliver the basics in a high-quality way. It’ll be a challenge, but I think Mike’s exactly the right Mayor for this moment, because he knows how to focus on the basics and make sure these things get done well. He’ll do a great job. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left" align="left"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left" align="left">I’m comfortable with my decision to step down, because a successful community is not the result of one person’s actions, or even seven people’s actions. It’s the result of thousands of people waking up every day and committing themselves to make a town great – not just politicians and government employees, but volunteers and people who work for nonprofit organizations and PTO presidents and even all the people who go to work in private businesses every, generating the revenue and the profits that give us the prosperity we need to continue to be successful. Indeed, a successful community is a multi-generational effort, as stewardship of the community is handed down over time. As the word "stewardship" implies, no one truly <span style="font-style: italic;">owns</span> a community’s success; we are all merely stewards of that success. We must learn how to create success every day and then hand it down to the next generation of leaders. It is important know how to pass the baton knowledgeably, gracefully – and before you wear out you welcome.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left" align="left"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left" align="left">From my new vantage point in our nation’s capital, I will do the best I can – in any way I can -- to help Ventura move forward with enduring prosperity, a high quality of life, and a stronger sense of community. I always loved doing this in my travels around the country before I was elected, and proudly do so in the future. In other words, wherever I am, I will continue to be one of those thousand of people who wakes up every day and works<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>to make Ventura a better place.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left" align="left"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left" align="left">And no matter who is Mayor, I still think I’m the luckiest guy in the world because this town and my colleagues on the City Council had enough confidence in me to allow me to serve as Mayor for the last two years. I love this town. Thank you, Ventura.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left" align="left"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:left" align="left"> </p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Fulton is a member of the Ventura (Calif.) City Council.</div>Bill Fultonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833863247431014699noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724930802169463212.post-46899244636681656252011-11-29T23:53:00.000-08:002011-11-30T00:26:14.196-08:00The Next Chapter For Me<span style="font-size:100%;">Over the next few months, I will transition to spending most of my time serving as Vice President, Policy & Programs, for <a href="http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/">Smart Growth America</a> in Washington, D.C. Smart Growth America is a national organization that advocates for better urban planning and smarter transportation investments. I'll spend most of my time assisting state and local governments around the country update and improve their policies.<br /><br />But I will continue to be active here in California. I will continue to serve as a Principal (on a part-time basis), Shareholder, and Board member at <a href="http://www.planningcenter.com/#/talkshop/">The Planning Center | DC&E</a>, working primarily on Transfer of Development Rights programs nationwide and high-profile projects in California, and I'll continue to serve as a Senior Fellow at the <a href="http://www.usc.edu/schools/price/">Price School of Planning, Policy & Development at USC</a> (which was just endowed thanks to a generous gift of $50 million from the Price family).<br /><br />I'll be spending most of my time here in Ventura until March or so, and after that I will spend most of my time in Washington, D.C. I expect to be back on a regular basis, probably once or twice a month. This is a hard decision for me, because I love Ventura so much. I have loved it since I first moved here 25 years ago, and I have to say I am enjoying every minute I spend here now. It's where my family was raised, and it is where I have experienced most of the really important moments in my life.<br /><br />Going forward, I'll do everything I can to help Ventura continue to be a great place to live and work. I plan to retain my property here, and I expect to be in town once or twice a month. I will continue to work as much as possible on many issues important to Ventura -- the 2016 anniversary effort, our effort to build a thriving technology sector here, public transportation, access for the disabled, conserving our land, and building a sustainable future for Ventura in all ways.<br /><br />In addition, I hope I'll back to playing a role I used to play before I was elected -- advance scout and cheerleader for Ventura. In D.C. and throughout the nation, I will continue to promote what I love about Ventura and look for opportunities to bring expertise, resources, and opportunity to our wonderful community.<br /><br />I hope to chat with all of you more in the next couple of months as I begin to make this transition. Believe me, every day in Ventura is precious to me -- as it always has been!<br /><br /></span><div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Fulton is a member of the Ventura (Calif.) City Council.</div>Bill Fultonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833863247431014699noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724930802169463212.post-60145165179849631442011-11-22T22:28:00.000-08:002011-11-22T22:32:24.076-08:00Giving Thanks for Our Faith Community -- And Helping Them Prevent HomelessnessTonight I’m giving thanks for Ventura’s amazing faith community. I just returned home from the annual Thanksgiving Service put on by the Ventura Interfaith Ministerial Association, which I’m proud to say was hosted this year by my congregation, Temple Beth Torah.<br /><br />Every year, VIMA – a group of ministers from a wide variety of faiths – holds an interfaith service on the Tuesday night before Thanksgiving at a different congregation around town. It’s a truly remarkable service – beautiful and heartfelt and caring. In other words, a lot like Ventura.<br /><br />As each minister and each choir came to our <span style="font-style: italic;">bimah</span> at Temple Beth Torah to present a prayer of gratitude derived from their own faith, I remembered the times I visited so many of their churches and congregations over my two years as mayor. I went everywhere – from Evangelical Christian churches all the way to Hindu and Buddhist temples – and I am amazing at the range of our religious institutions, their commitment to our community, and the progress they have made in working together.<br /><br />Tonight, in addition to our own Rabbi Lisa Hochberg-Miller, the service representatives from Seventh-Day Adventists, Mormons, Disciples of Christ, United Church of Christ, Bhuddist temples, the Baha’i Community, Methodists, Unitarian Universalists, and Methodists – as well as Captain Bill Finley from the Salvation Army, Rev. Rob Orth from Project Understanding, and Rev. Curtis Hotchkiss from Community Memorial Hospital. We prayed, worshipped and gave thanks in a half-dozen different languages.<br /><br />In a world where religious observance, all too often, fosters divisiveness and hatred, tonight’s service was remarkable. All the more remarkable, however, is the community work that all these organizations do together, especially in feeding and housing the homeless and helping people in need. One of the most amazing things these organizations do together is help to support and run the Ventura Homeless Prevention Fund – a nationally recognized program that raises money privately to help keep families out of homelessness when they are at risk.<br /><br />At a time when it’s easy to be cynical about how our charitable and tax dollars are used – and where we are all too accustomed to laying out money for good causes and not getting results – the Homeless Prevention Fund is amazing. Many families of modest means are always a paycheck or two away from homelessness, and often one single event – a broken-down car, a medical problem – can strain a family’s finances so much that they are out on the street. The Homeless Prevention Fund provides money to families at risk to keep them in their homes.<br /><br />And it’s a great value. Once a family is homeless, getting them housed and back on their feet can cost, quite literally, tens of thousands of dollars. But the average cost of helping them through their emergency so that they can stay in the home is about $750. It’s a great investment in our community.<br /><br />Tonight’s appeal was to provide funds for the Homeless Prevention Fund. Bill Finley from the Salvation Army – a remarkable, passionate, articulate, and effective leader in our community – made the appeal. I won’t try to repeat what he said here, but he claimed he couldn’t sing and therefore read a lot of song lyrics of his smartphone. The net effect was that he emptied my pocket.<br /><br />And this Thanksgiving, I’d suggest you should let the Homeless Prevention Fund empty your pocket too. It’s easy – just go to <a href="http://www.vsstf.org/contributors/contributors.htm">this web site</a>, and follow the directions to donate online. Or you can write a check to the United Way of Ventura County, with a note that you want to support the Ventura Homeless Prevention Fund, and mail it to the United Way at 1317 Del Norte Road, Suite 100, Camarillo, CA 93010.<br /><br />To me, the most enjoyable thing about tonight’s service was seeing how much fun our diverse interfaith ministers have together. As a Jew and a Scot, I was blown away at the sight of Pastor Jim Ayars of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church playing the bagpipes while standing on our bimah at Temple Beth Torah. I just love this town, and I love the way the people in our community use their faith in a positive way to make Ventura a better place. That’s what I am giving thanks for this week.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Fulton is a member of the Ventura (Calif.) City Council.</div>Bill Fultonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833863247431014699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724930802169463212.post-78125711960155155922011-11-21T10:02:00.000-08:002011-11-21T10:06:34.258-08:00Artists, Don't Ever Sell Yourselves Short<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:donotoptimizeforbrowser/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-style: italic;">Here's an adapted version of the speech I gave at the Mayor's Arts Awards last Thursday night:</span><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">It’s been my privilege twice to present these awards to outstanding contributors to the arts here in Ventura. You’d think by now we would be past calling ourselves “California’s New Art City,” though I have to admit I’m a bit hesitant to call ourselves “California’s Old Art City”. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">After all these years, we’ve begun to make a real impact in the arts – and the arts have begun to make a real impact on Ventura in more ways than I can count. As I prepare to leave office, my message to the artists and their supporters in this town is pretty simple:</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-style: italic;">Don’t ever sell yourself short. </span><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">I know that’s a funny thing to say, but artists have a tendency to sell themselves short – and then get mad because other people also sell them short. But don’t forget all the different ways that the arts help us.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">In the business of running our city, we try to do three things. We try to create prosperity for our community. We try to improve the quality of life for people in Ventura. And we try to improve our sense of community and our sense of place. Everything we do is about one (or more) of these three goals; and the arts are vital in accomplishing all three.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">We tend to speak generally about how the arts are good for residents of Ventura because the arts have the power to inspire and fulfill us; and we speak even more sweepingly about how the arts helps the economy because of the number of paintings and tickets so, and the spinoff effect, and so forth. But I want to take a moment to make these things more real.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Everytime somebody comes into contact with the arts, you are touching them – and you are changing and improving our community.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Every time a child creates something in school, and realizes that they can create, and gains confidence as a result, that’s you at work.</p>Every time somebody is moved and gains new insight into themselves and the world by experiencing art, that’s you at work. <p class="MsoNormal">Every time somebody is inspired by a piece of public art to renew their commitment to our community, that’s you at work. It doesn't matter whether commitment is a commitment to the arts -- it can be any renewed commitment to our community.<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Every time somebody comes up with an idea for a business or a product, and uses creative thinking skills to figure out how to make that business or product a success, that’s you at work.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Every time somebody decides to move their business to Ventura – or keep it here – or expand it here – because the quality of life and the things Ventura has to offer are important, that’s you at work.</p>All these are examples of you at working helping us to achieve our three basic goals: prosperity, quality of life, and sense of community. So don’t ever sell yourself short. Don’t ever stop reminding yourselves – and reminding us – that the arts work every day, in every venue, to help us achieve our most basic goals as a community. <p class="MsoNormal">Thanks to all of you for what you have done. It has been my privilege to serve this community for the last eight years on the City Council and for the last two as Mayor. I hope I can continue to work with you in enhancing the arts – and leveraging the power of the arts to achieve our other community goals – for many years to come.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Fulton is a member of the Ventura (Calif.) City Council.</div>Bill Fultonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833863247431014699noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724930802169463212.post-50026864181479830512011-11-13T15:56:00.000-08:002011-11-20T14:45:57.257-08:00Let's Make Ventura "One Big Accelerator"<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:donotoptimizeforbrowser/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">In eight years on the City Council, the one phrase I have heard more than any other is “economic development”. This means a different things to different people – jobs, tax revenue, easier permitting for businesses --but to me it has always meant creating a prosperity that can endure and benefit us all.<br /></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">I spent Friday and Saturday participating in the economic development discussions at the National League of Cities annual conference in Phoenix. I focused on the sessions dealing with growing small businesses and helping entrepreneurs. I talked about Ventura’s experience in trying to nurture high-tech businesses, but I heard a lot from other cities and experts about what’s working and what’s not</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">There were a lot of people there telling their stories – people from Boston and Scottsdale and New York and all over the country. They mostly told stories about how cities can work with universities and others to foster the expansion of what are sometimes called “high-potential” businesses in their communities using incubators and “accelerators” (business centers designed to accelerate the growth of businesses once they are incubated). And the lessons were pretty clear: know what you’re trying to accomplish; make strong connections with your local universities; build an “ecosystem” of necessary services around the business sector you’re trying to grow; and, perhaps most important, be persistent and patient, because it takes a long time. </p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"> In Ventura, we have placed a lot of chips on nurturing tech businesses in <a href="http://www.v2tc.com/">the incubator </a>we have created beyond City Hall. We targeted Internet startups for the incubator – companies that build things like online advertising auctions, geographical locators, and the like – because we knew that’s a business sector with very high growth potential that had a presence in neighboring cities, especially Carpinteria and Santa Barbara. We targeted ‘Net-based companies because they can raise large amounts of Ventura capital (many of the companies in the incubator have raised millions) and because each one has the potential to grow very, very fast. So far, we’re successful. There are currently 14 companies in the incubator with about 50 jobs altogether. But if even one of these companies because a big success, that will mean hundreds of jobs and lots of opportunities for vendors and suppliers in Ventura.</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">So what I learned in Phoenix is that we have a long way to go. Yet I was encouraged by what I learned.</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">From Boston – where Mayor Ray Mennino is setting up an <a href="http://www.innovationdistrict.org/">“innovation district” </a> – I learned that connections not just to science-based colleges but colleges focused on entrepreneurship are important. Babson College, a leading entrepreneurship college based in the suburbs, is setting up an operation in Boston at Mennino’s innovation center. There’s a lesson here. We already have a strong relationship with UCSB, where the engineering school spins<span style="display: block;" id="formatbar_Buttons"><span onmouseover="ButtonHoverOn(this);" onmouseout="ButtonHoverOff(this);" onmouseup="" onmousedown="CheckFormatting(event);FormatbarButton('richeditorframe', this, 8);ButtonMouseDown(this);" class=" down" style="display: block;" id="formatbar_CreateLink" title="Link"><img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif" alt="Link" class="gl_link" border="0" /></span></span> off a lot of startups. But we need to strengthen our relationship with Pepperdine, which has a great entrepreneurship program. Hey, Pepperdine, want to set up a branch here in Ventura?</p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">From Arizona – where the City of Scottsdale decided to collaborate with Arizona State on an incubator/accelerator called<a href="http://www.scottsdaleaz.gov/ASUScottsdale"> SkySong</a> ] -- I learned that you have to be patient even in the face of political criticism. SkySong’s been criticized for creating “only” 700-some-odd jobs so far, rather than the 10,000 promised. But as one of Skysong’s leaders said on Saturday, this is a long-term play. It takes 10 or 20 years to pay off – but if you do it right, it pays off for decades. (By the way, there's a really good urban revitalization story with SkySong. It's located on Scottsdale's old "auto row," and after flirting with both a Wal-Mart and an arena, Scottsdale did a deal with ASU.<br /></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">Everywhere at the conference I learned that social media is important. The entrepreneurs in these growth sectors are mostly young, and they know how to use the Internet. After all, most of the startups in Ventura are Internet-based companies. I’m very proud of the fact that NetProspex <a href="http://www.netprospex.com/np/system/files/NetProspex_SocialBusinessReport_Summer2011.pdf%5D">recently ranked Ventura</a> as the 4<sup>th</sup> most social-media-savvy business city in America – behind only New York, San Jose, and San Francisco. This means we ranked ahead of places like Seattle, San Diego and Austin. I can’t exactly explain why this is – my theory is that it has something to do with surf-town folks who seem mellow but are really pretty intensely interconnected – but it shows you that this is one really important part of the strategy that we are really on top of. </p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">So going forward, what do you we need to do? There’s so much, but here are a few things:</p><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:Wingdings;" ><span style=""><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; font-family: trebuchet ms;">Keep strengthening our university partnerships</span><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">, so that UCSB, Pepperdine, Cal State Channel Islands, Ventura College, and others all play a role in our effort – and recognize that what we’re doing helps them too.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; font-family: trebuchet ms;">Keep building the ecosystem of services that these entrepreneurs need.</span><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;"> That means making sure that angel investors, venture capitalists, intellectual property lawyers, and others know Ventura and want to do business here. It also means connecting these growing companies to local vendors, so that the economic benefits of their expansion stay local; and with local real estate brokers and landlords, so the companies themselves will stay in town.</span><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:donotoptimizeforbrowser/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;" > </span><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; line-height: normal; font-family: trebuchet ms;" align="left"><span style="font-size:100%;"><b><i>Make sure these companies have the infrastructure they need</i></b></span><span style=";font-size:100%;" >. Right now our biggest problem is that our fiberoptic telecommunications network is spotty and doesn’t even reach the incubator. Ironic for an Internet-based economic development strategy! We must keep working with the telecom companies to bring good fiber to the places we need it.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left; line-height: normal; font-family: trebuchet ms;" align="left"><span style=";font-size:100%;" >In other words, <b><i>we need to make all of </i></b></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><b face="georgia"><i>Ventura</i></b><b face="georgia"><i> into an accelerator.</i></b></span><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">So often, economic development is about the short-term win – luring in the big plant that will immediately provide jobs, grabbing the big retail store that will immediately throw off sales tax revenue. These short-term wins are important, but having worked in economic development for almost 25 years I have to say they often don’t last. The plant closes, the store moves – all for reasons the community has no control over. </p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">But our high-growth tech effort is different. In Ventura, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create an enduring prosperity that will last us many decades. We can nurture locally based businesses that have vast growth potential. We can create hundreds – maybe thousands – of great jobs for people who live here. We can create a huge amount of new activity for local businesses who will serve the tech companies. We will create the consumer demand that will drive retail sales – and sales tax revenuf or our city. We can generate the wealth we need to endow our community and our civic life for many years to come. </p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal"> </p> <p style="font-family: trebuchet ms;" class="MsoNormal">We can do all this. But it takes patience, persistence, and focus – day after day, month after month, year after year. But I am convinced that the payoff is worth all the effort required to make this effort work. So let’s make all of Ventura an accelerator for our tech businesses. It’ll help every business, ever household, and every civic institution in town.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Fulton is a member of the Ventura (Calif.) City Council.</div>Bill Fultonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833863247431014699noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724930802169463212.post-47807873262735308252011-11-09T13:17:00.000-08:002011-11-09T13:29:28.179-08:00A Victory For The Practical -- Not The Ideological<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:donotoptimizeforbrowser/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal">Yesterday, Ventura’s voters proved once again that they’re practical, not ideological, and they’re more interested in constructive solutions than angry rants.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">The solid winners in yesterday’s election were my longtime council colleagues Christy Weir and Carl Morehouse and newcomer Cheryl Heitmann, whom I was proud to endorse. Ken Cozzens finished a strong fourth.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Sometimes there seemed to be a fair amount of shrill rhetoric in this campaign -- reflecting the polarization nationally. The Tea Party and others on the right tried to paint the incumbents and Cheryl as free-spending liberals who are in the pockets of the unions, whereas some Democrats and others on the left pounded on the idea that electing Carla Bonney and Bill Knox would mean the Tea Party would take over the City Council.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">A lot of this was exaggerated. In fact, Christy and Carl have taken a very hard line with the unions in the last two years, and Bill Knox – although he is very fiscally conservative – is not quite a Tea Party guy. But in the end it didn’t matter. Christy, Carl, and Cheryl all ran positive campaigns that resonated with the voters. As <a href="http://www.facebook.com/VenturaTalk">VenturaTalk.com</a> pointed out, the VCStar's online comments may be vitriolic, but clearly the commenters are not in the majority.<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Though they often disagree with each other, Christy and Carl both presented themselves as experienced folks who know and care about our community but nevertheless have experience making hard-nosed decisions. Cheryl drew upon her community college board experience and her experience as executive director of the Ventura Music Festival to emphasize her skill at bringing people together and creating innovative partnerships. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">The next few years will be tough ones for the city and these are the skills we will need on the City Council to face up to the challenges.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">One of the big lessons from this election – a lesson that has been proven over and over again here in Ventura – is that if you are on the far right or the far left, you can’t win just with your political base. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>You have to have crossover appeal to those practical, moderate voters – Republicans, Democrats, and independents – who are not zealously ideological. These are the folks who hold the balance of power here in Ventura. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">It’s telling, for example, that Tea Party favorite Carla Bonney and union favorite Danny Carrillo got almost exactly the same number of votes. They each got about 3,500 votes, which means about 23% of the voters who cast ballots voted for them. In other words, each one carried their base – on the political right for Carla and on the political left for Danny – but they couldn’t cross over. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">As I say, these are not new lessons. The Bonney campaign discovered – as the Camille Harris campaign learned in 2009 – that there is a difference between standing in front of Lowe’s getting people to sign a petition and getting people to cast their ballot for you. The Carrillo campaign learned – as Jerry Martin’s union-based campaign learned in 2007 and 2009 – that you can’t get elected in this town with union backing alone.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Knox, who finished fifth, also fell into this "no-crossover" trap. Bill is an extreme fiscal conservative – too extreme for me – but he’s also an genuine community-oriented guy. Unfortunately for him, the community-oriented aspect of Bill did not come across in the campaign and he wasn’t really the serious contender that many people thought he would be. Cozzens, on the other hand, is well known in town and had broad appeal -- more from the right than from the left, but still -- and that's why he did well.<br /></p>The bottom line was that most voters ruled out the extremes on the left or right and were left to choose among the four who had crossover appeal – Heitmann, Morehouse, Weir, and Cozzens. The first three were bunched together at the top, with Cozzens doing well in the fourth spot. Which just goes to show you once again: Here in Ventura, if you leave it up to the voters, they’ll usually make the right decision.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Fulton is a member of the Ventura (Calif.) City Council.</div>Bill Fultonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833863247431014699noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724930802169463212.post-49689132031544019712011-11-05T12:22:00.001-07:002011-11-05T12:38:06.507-07:00Five Things to Think About When Voting on Tuesday -- and Three Candidates To Support<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:donotoptimizeforbrowser/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal">Tuesday is Election Day in Ventura. Your vote is really important in this election. Because we have off-year elections, turnout is low – about half what it is in other elections. That means your vote counts twice as much. Don't let somebody else decide who will sit on your City Council.<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">There are 11 candidates running for three seats on the city council. I am endorsing my council colleagues Christy Weir and Carl Morehouse for re-election and Cheryl Heitman for the seat I am vacating. The other 8 candidates are, in alphabetical order, Ed Alamillo, Marty Armstong, Melody Joy Baker, Carla Bonney, Danny Carrillo, Ken Cozzens, Bill Knox, and Brian Lee Rencher. (They appear in a different order on the ballot.) Most of these folks are probably familiar to you by now.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Before I explain why I have endorsed Christy, Carl, and Cheryl, let me talk a little about the things I think all of us as voters should take into account when we fill out our ballots. So here are my five commandments about voting.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">First, don’t throw your vote away on somebody who isn’t going to win because you want to register a protest</i>. People often do this because they are mad or because they want to send a message. This impulse is understandable, but what you’re really doing is letting somebody else decide who is going to be on the City Council. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Second, don’t vote for somebody because you know their name or they’re a nice guy or a familiar face.</i> These are qualifications for a good neighbor, but they are not qualifications for a good city Council member. Vote for people you think are capable of understanding the issues and making good decisions.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Third, don’t vote for candidates who have a narrow or extreme agenda</i>. Particularly in Ventura, which is a politically diverse city, good governance involves balancing lots of different interests to create an enduring consensus. Somebody with a narrow or extreme agenda may make a lot of noise, but he or she is likely to be ineffective at best.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Fourth, don’t vote for candidates who tell you that everything will be fine and you don’t have to sacrifice anything. </i>It’s always tempting for politicians to say this, but it’s never true. Especially in this prolonged economic downturn, we have all had to sacrifice something – and these sacrifices will likely have to continue. Better to have councilmembers who understand this than councilmembers who deny it in order to be popular.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">And fifth, please vote for candidates who can make tough decisions and stick with them. </i>This economic downturn has lasted far longer and has had a much more lasting impact than any of us could have imagined three or four years ago. No matter what we do, it will be many years before we have as much revenue as we had in 2007 or 2008. This means we have to keep making tough decisions about what public services are most important, how to pay for them, and how to change things around so we can deliver them more cost-effectively. We cannot afford to have politicians looking for the easy way out on our City Council.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">I support Christy, Carl, and Cheryl because I believe they are all committed to Ventura; they all understand our community well; and they are willing to make the tough decisions. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">I’ve known and worked with all three of them for many years. Christy is tough-minded and community-oriented. Carl is hardworking and conscientious. Cheryl knows our community very well and understands how to bring people together. All are independent thinkers – exactly what we need in Ventura – and all will be able to make the tough decisions that will help us survive in the short term and improve our community in the long run. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Please vote on Tuesday. I hope you vote for Christy, Carl, and Cheryl, as I am doing. Please email me if you want to know more. </p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Fulton is a member of the Ventura (Calif.) City Council.</div>Bill Fultonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833863247431014699noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724930802169463212.post-50577312346096323112011-09-23T08:30:00.000-07:002011-09-23T08:38:24.633-07:00The Realities of Ventura's Compensation<p>A couple of weeks ago in a letter to the VC Reporter, Ventura resident Meryl Wamhoff <a href="http://vcreporter.com/cms/story/detail/just_another_liberal_reporter/9127/">lambasted the City</a> for a variety of supposed fiscal sins, including overcompensating executives, saddling Ventura taxpayers with the cost of Bell's egregious fiscal shenanigans, and not looking at ways to cut compensation in order to balance the budget. Unfortunately, Mr. Wamhoff's letter was incorrect on many counts. Here's the letter I wrote to the VCeporter (<a href="http://www.vcreporter.com/cms/story/detail/the_reality_of_the_compensation_situation/9182/">published this week</a>) in response:<br /></p><p><br /></p><p>To The Editor:<br /></p><p>Meryl Wamhoff’s letter lambasting reporter Shane Cohn for his perspective on government and taxes (“<a href="http://vcreporter.com/cms/story/detail/just_another_liberal_reporter/9127/">Just another liberal reporter…</a>,” Letters, Sept. 1) certainly brought a provocative viewpoint to your pages. Unfortunately, Wamhoff was inaccurate in the claims he made about the city of Ventura. (“<a href="http://ww2.vcreporter.com/cms/story/detail/a_tale_of_two_taxes/9072/">Tale of two taxes</a>,” News, 8/11)</p><p>First, Wamhoff claims the taxpayers in Ventura will be footing part of the bill for the outrageous pensions of two top city of Bell employees, each of whom worked in Ventura early in their careers. This is not true, partly because of a proactive approach by the city of Ventura.</p><p>Ventura, along with other cities the pair subsequently worked for, supported a bill in the Legislature — almost certain to be signed by the governor in the next few weeks — that will force Bell, not Ventura or other cities, to foot the bill for their inflated pensions.</p><p>As it turns out, CalPERS, the state retirement agency, has already taken action to slash the pensions that were estimated in early press accounts. Instead of getting $411,000 a year, former Bell Police Chief Randy Adams will receive $268,000 — admitted, still a huge number but far less than it otherwise would be. Former Bell Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia, who worked for Ventura in the 1980s, had her pension reduced from an estimated $250,000 per year to $43,000 per year.</p><p>Secondly, Wamhoff asserts that Ventura “overcompensates its public employees.” In fact, however, Ventura’s pay scales are much lower than surrounding jurisdictions, such as the cities of Oxnard and Thousand Oaks and Santa Barbara County. City Manager Rick Cole makes $172,000 a year in base salary, which is about $60,000 less than his counterparts in Camarillo, Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley, and $100,000 less than the city manager of Oxnard. City Attorney Ariel Calonne makes about $190,000 a year, which his $30,000-$40,000 less than most of his counterparts around the county. Both recently took a 7 percent pay cut to contribute to their pension costs. So Wamhoff is wrong in asserting that we “never once considered that the compensation packages for these bureaucrats are too generous.” It was the first thing we considered and we acted on it.</p><p>This same pay difference is true up and down the organization. I really appreciate the loyalty and dedication of our city employees, but we frequently lose them to Thousand Oaks, Oxnard and Santa Barbara County, all of which pay 10-20 percent more than Ventura does. Over time, this could cause Ventura to become a “farm team” for these other jurisdictions — something that will surely harm our city government’s ability to get the job done, and something I believe no one in Ventura wants.</p><p>Wamhoff is right to be concerned about the compensation and retirement obligations of government agencies these days. It is a major concern to all of us in public life. And I understand that if Wamhoff believes the compensation of <span style="font-style: italic;">all</span> government employees generally is too high, then he’s likely to think that Ventura pays too much no matter what the pay scale is. </p>It is wrong, however, to single out Ventura as an example of government’s financial problems, when we have worked much harder than other jurisdictions to be both moderate and fair in our approach to compensation and retirement.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Fulton is a member of the Ventura (Calif.) City Council.</div>Bill Fultonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833863247431014699noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724930802169463212.post-74537442005427202552011-09-21T13:30:00.000-07:002011-09-21T14:08:40.286-07:00City Council Candidate Forums Coming Up!<!--[if !mso]> <style> v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Here's information about all the City Council candidate forums:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">1.<span style="font-weight: bold;">Thursday, September 22: </span> Social Services Task Force, 6:30 pm, Ventura Church of Christ, 5401 Bryn Mawr.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">2.<span style="font-weight: bold;"> Wednesday, September 28:</span> Mobile Homeowners, 2 pm. Marina Mobile Home Park, 1215 Anchors Way Clubhouse<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> 3. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Wednesday, September 28:</span> Westside Community Council, 7 pm. EP Foster School, 20 Pleasant Place.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">4.<span style="font-weight: bold;"> Tuesday, October 4:</span> VCCOOL, 6 pm., WAV Gallery, 175 S. Ventura Ave.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">5. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Wednesday, October 5</span>: San Buenaventura Foundation for the Arts, 6:30 pm., Museum of Ventura County, 100 E. Main St.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">6. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Tuesday, October 11</span>: League of Women Voters, 7 pm, Poinsettia Pavilion, 3451 Foothill Road</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 10pt;">7. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Thursday, October 13:</span> Midtown Community Council, 7 pm, Grace Church (Cooper Hall) 65 s. Macmillan Ave.<br /></span></p><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"></span></i><i><span style="font-size:14.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial"></span></i><div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Fulton is a member of the Ventura (Calif.) City Council.</div>Bill Fultonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833863247431014699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724930802169463212.post-53934259465689724272011-09-18T13:12:00.000-07:002011-09-18T13:14:33.334-07:00The New CMH: Key To Our Quality of Life -- And Our Prosperity<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:donotoptimizeforbrowser/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal">A few weeks ago I came into the mayor’s office on a Monday morning and found a huge stack of pretty intimidating documents to sign. They were, of course, the papers authorizing the city to work with Community Memorial Hospital to sell $350 million in bonds – to be paid back by CMH’s revenues, not by the city’s taxpayers -- in order to finance the enormous expansion and upgrade now underway at the hospital’s site in Midtown.</p> If you’ve ever bought a house or a car, you know that nothing focuses the mind like signing your name to a bunch of documents. But when the bonds went on the market, they were sold in a matter of minutes and – as the mounds of dirt near the hospital attest – construction has begun. Last Wednesday night, I was proud to participate in a moving groundbreaking featuring 14 speakers – patients, doctors, nurses, volunteers, construction workers – whose lives have been changed by their association with CMH. The whole experience has reinforced for me the notion that CMH is a cornerstone of our community – not only our qualify of life but our prosperity as well. <p class="MsoNormal">The CMH expansion is probably the biggest construction project we will ever see in Ventura. (By contrast, the Pacific View Mall expansion back in 2000 was about $100 million.) It may also be the most important. Although the expansion was driven by state law requiring hospitals to retrofit their buildings for seismic safety, CMH has gone far beyond that goal. The expansion will actually allow CMH to serve as one of the most important drivers of our community’s prosperity and well-being for decades to come, in three different ways.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p> <ol style="margin-top:0in" start="1" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;tab-stops:list .5in"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal">High-quality medical care</b></li></ol> <p class="MsoNormal"> Between CMH and Ventura County Medical Center, we in Ventura already have extraordinarily high-quality medical care already. These two institutions have strong connections to great medical schools at UCLA and USC, and each specializes in different aspects of medical care. But the new CMH will be a huge leap beyond the status quo – private rooms, a 35-bed emergency room, a serene garden in which to walk and heal, and a state-of-the-art medical facility that will be as good as any of its size in the United States. Thanks to this expansion, all of us in Ventura can be assured of great medical care for the rest of our lives.</p> <p style="font-weight: bold;" class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p style="font-weight: bold;" class="MsoNormal">2. High-quality jobs</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> Obviously, CMH currently provides hundreds of good-paying jobs for people who live and work in Ventura – doctors, nurses, technicians of all kinds, and on and on. But the new CMH creates a whole net set of opportunities that hold the potential to create spinoff businesses and great jobs for decades to come. Over the past few years in Ventura, we have put a great deal of effort into pinpointing and focusing on growth sectors of the economy – most of which have an important technology components. For example, our Ventura Ventures Technology Center has focused on emerging web-oriented businesses spilling out of Santa Barbara. Another sector we must focus on is biotechnology, and the new CMH can help us become more competitive. The biotech sector in Ventura County is strong – after all, Amgen is the largest private company in the county and one of the largest biotech companies in the world – and we in Ventura are currently missing out on important spinoff opportunities there. By using part of the old hospital building to create wet lab space and other facilities for startups, CMH can help Ventura kickstart our biotech sector. CMH can also serve as a testbed for clinical trials – thus combining the best of research and clinical work, which are both required to develop and test new products, build companies, and create good jobs. This opportunity is often overlooked in talking about the CMH expansion, but I can’t emphasize how important it is to our community’s long-term prosperity.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p><ol style="margin-top: 0in; font-weight: bold;" start="3" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;tab-stops:list .5in">Midtown revitalization</li></ol> <p class="MsoNormal">CMH has long been an anchor in Midtown’s “Five Points” neighborhood, as the hospital’s employees and visitors have patronized businesses and thus helped the neighborhood economy. In planning for the new hospital, CMH has done an amazing job of collaborating with the city and the neighborhood to create an expansion that is sensitive to the neighborhood (there was no neighborhood opposition) and will strengthen Midtown’s business base. A new parking garage will be created collaboratively by the hospital to serve both CMH and businesses on Main Street. Most important, CMH will now serve not just as the economic anchor. . The new hospital will be oriented toward Main Street with a lovely plaza. CMH will surrender its Brent Street address and replace it with a Main Street address. A plaza and new pedestrian connections will link the hospital to Main Street. CMH has worked hard to help make Five Points in Ventura’s “Second Downtown” – a well-planned and pleasant employment district that will have strong retail businesses benefiting everyone in town.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal">I have to admit that when I was first elected to the City Council eight years ago, I didn’t think much about the importance of Community Memorial Hospital. Like most people, I thought about the effect it has had on my lives – the many emergency room visits, the times my mother was treated there (and eventually she passed away there), and so forth. But in world where competition for prosperity is tough, every community has to identify its greatest assets and learn how to make the most of them. CMH is one of our greatest assets – and I am very grateful to CEO Gary Wilde and everyone else for all the hard work they have put in. I wouldn’t have missed the groundbreaking for the world. And I hope to be there for the grand opening in a couple of years – so we can see just how much a better CMH means a better Ventura.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Fulton is a member of the Ventura (Calif.) City Council.</div>Bill Fultonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833863247431014699noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724930802169463212.post-7993583446839288252011-08-29T09:01:00.001-07:002011-08-29T09:04:30.889-07:00How to Make Sure We Keep Our Young Families in Ventura<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:donotoptimizeforbrowser/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal">A few weeks ago, I went out to Temple Beth Torah to observe a service honoring eight 16-year-olds who were finishing the Temple’s confirmation class. It was an emotional evening for me, because these kids are the last of the cohort I have known at the Temple for many years – the younger brothers and sisters of the kids who grew up with my college-age daughter.
<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">It is also, sadly, the kind of event that doesn’t occur nearly as much as it used here in Ventura. The truth is that, as much as we love Ventura as a family, the number of children – and young people generally – is on the decline. And as a community we are getting older. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, between 2000 and 2010:</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops:list .5in"><span style="font-family:Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family:Wingdings;mso-bidi-font-family:Wingdings"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">--<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span>The number of children age 0-9 in Ventura declined by 11%. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops:list .5in"><span style="font-family:Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family:Wingdings;mso-bidi-font-family:Wingdings"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">--<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span>The number of people between 30 and 50 – typically the parents of school-age children – declined by 10%.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops:list .5in"><span style="font-family:Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family:Wingdings;mso-bidi-font-family:Wingdings"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">--<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span>The number of people over the age of 50 increased by almost 30%</p> <p class="MsoNormal">To a certain extent, these statistics reflect a national and statewide trend toward a “graying” population. It’s also reflective of coastal cities throughout California, where the number of families and children is in decline.
<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">More than anything, however, it might simply suggest a lack of turnover in Ventura’s population. Our kids are growing up and moving away and the rest of us are just getting older and staying here. I’m a good example: In the 2000 Census, I was in the 30-50 age category with a child at home. Now I’m an over-50 empty nester. (At least I was until a few weeks ago, when my Boomerang Daughter returned home … but that’s another story.) We don’t move away when we retire, because we already live in a great place to retire; and since we control new development strictly there aren’t many opportunities for new families to move in. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">There was one bright spot in the Census: The number of people age 20-29 in Ventura went up 16%, a much higher figure than we saw statewide.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This is a wonderful twist on the longstanding trend of kids from Ventura going away to college and never coming back. I don’t know for sure, but I’d guess there are two reasons for this bright spot. The first is that kids who grew up in town are sticking around because they can now go to college locally, especially at Cal State Channel Islands. The second is that young people from elsewhere are drawn to Ventura by the lifestyle and the growing opportunity for interesting jobs in our emerging economic sectors such as high-tech.
<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Like Ventura, mature communities all over the country are struggling because they can’t keep the people they need to fill important jobs and to give the community a family-oriented vitality. But the rise of the twenty-somethings here in town gives us an opportunity to reverse the trend. If we can hang on to these folks over the next 10 years, then they’ll stay here a long time and raise their families here. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">But that’s not just going to happen. In order to keep our young families, we need to nurture the things that young families need – schools, jobs, and housing. We’ve already got the schools. Ventura Unified is an excellent school district with many choices – magnet and charter schools. We also have very good Catholic and Christian schools as well.
<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">As for jobs, we’re working hard on creating a whole new sector of jobs in the “new economy” – high-tech, web development, and related companies that can provide stable, long-term employment. That’s why I’m so encouraged about the fact that our twenty-something population is on the rise. I think they’re coming to town – or staying in town after college – to work in these emerging businesses. We must continue our efforts to grow these private-sector businesses so that young families will have stable jobs.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">That leaves housing. It’s true that, for the moment, housing in Ventura seems affordable. But it’s still expensive, especially compared with other places where young families might live. The median home price in Ventura in July was $327,000. That’s down 16% from last year, but it’s still way higher than the state average of $252,000 and more than double the cost of housing in the inland locations where young families typically move these days, like Bakersfield, the Inland Empire, and Las Vegas. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">In the long run, we will have to be aggressive in making sure that there is enough housing – and the right kind of housing – for our young families to buy. That probably means building more townhomes and large, high-quality condominiums, because the families won’t be able to afford single-family homes as we did. <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It also means building more move-down housing for seniors – not just assisted living, but smaller units for older folks in places like downtown, where you don’t have to drive much. Because part of the problem, of course, is that we older folks are sitting on our larger houses even though we don’t have families. More move-down housing will encourage longtime Venturans to move out of their houses and stay in town – and also free up single-family housing for young families to buy so that we don’t have to build more sprawl to keep them in town.
<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">In part, we can’t avoid the fact that we are an aging country, an aging state, and an aging city. We’re lucky that our health is better than our parents and we will be able to enjoy life – and also contribute to our community – far longer than they did. But Ventura remains – as it always has been – a great family town. We all need to work together to make sure that lots of people of all ages enjoy living here.</p> <div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Fulton is a member of the Ventura (Calif.) City Council.</div>Bill Fultonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833863247431014699noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724930802169463212.post-43127306438031045562011-08-25T21:16:00.000-07:002011-09-01T20:55:40.174-07:00Measure J Was Illegal -- And Too Extreme For VenturaBy now, everyone in town has heard that last Monday Judge Mark Borrell removed the parking initiative from Ventura’s local ballot in November.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>
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<br />The right to vote on public issues is important to us here in Ventura. Our city has a long history of citizen-driven ballot measures, including SOAR in 1995. Sometimes these initiatives have won, as SOAR did, and sometimes they have lost, as did the convoluted “view protection” initiative on the ballot in 2009.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>So it’s understandable that some people are mad that Measure J will not be on the ballot and will try to make the Judge’s ruling an issue in the City Council campaign this fall. At the same time a lot of people are relieved -- and look forward to a City Council campaign that focuses on more important issues than parking meters.
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<br />But before things heat up in the City Council race, I think it’s important to step back and understand two important points.
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<br />First, whether you like it or not, the right to vote on local issues is defined by state law. And in this case, Measure J clearly violated state law.
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<br />Second, no matter how you feel about the downtown parking meters, Measure J was a very extreme measure. In addition to removing the downtown meters, Measure J would have required 2/3 voter approval for any future attempt to charge for parking on city streets and any city-owned property.
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<br /><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">LEGAL VALIDITY OF THE INITIATIVE</b>
<br /></p>Let’s begin with the first question: Why did Judge Borrell removed Measure J from the ballot?
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<br />We in California revere the right to initiative (where citizens place legislation on the ballot) and referendum (where citizens seek to overturn a City Council action via the ballot). Yet the California Constitution doesn’t permit us to vote on everything. For example, we can vote on legislative changes (like changing zoning ordinance to prohibit liquor stores in certain parts of town) but we can’t vote on how a law is applied to individual situations (like whether or not to grant a conditional use permit to a particular liquor store). That’s not me talking. That’s what the California Constitution says and how the courts have interpreted it.
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<br />More to the point, Ventura’s voters do not have the right to adopt an ordinance that conflicts with state law, any more than the City Council does.
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<br />While it’s very unusual for a ballot initiative to be removed from the ballot before it is voted on, courts have consistently confirmed that if an initiative is obviously unlawful there is no point in holding an election.
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<br />Which is what happened with Measure J. Measure J was a ballot initiative that would have removed parking meters and required future on-street and off-street parking decisions to be decided by the voters, not the City Council.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>That directly contradicts California Vehicle Code Section 22508 which states that parking meter actions are only subject to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">referendum</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>– the right to veto City Council actions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>California law does not allow voters to make parking laws of their own by an <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">initiative</i>, because doing so would make it difficult for a city to respond to traffic problems in a timely fashion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The exclusion of parking meters from the initiative process was tested in court and has been settled law since the Sixties.
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<br />In short: Carla Bonney, the local Tea Party leader who has been Measure J’s main proponent, could have gathered signatures to challenge the City Council’s action to install the paking meters at the time the decision was made (via referendum). But she was prohibited by state law from writing her own initiative law to govern local parking regulations.
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<br />All this seemed very clear to our City Attorney and to a majority of the City Council, which concluded it had no other option than to test Measure J’s validity in court. The proponents, of course, claimed that the lawsuit was seeking to “thwart the will of the people”. Yet they never really addressed the fatal defect: that their initiative ran afoul of the law.
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<br />In her statements before the City Council, Bonney did not seem to know the difference between a referendum and an initiative. In her interpretation, any ballot measure was a referendum until it was placed on the ballot, at which time the measure would become an initiative. She also repeatedly dismissed the long-standing California case law that forbids parking initiatives simply because the cases were old.
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<br />In court, the proponents argument was that the Vehicle Code didn’t apply to parking meters since they claimed the parking meters were not intended to control traffic. Instead, she argued that the City was really trying to create a “fee monopoly” with the paid parking system downtown. (I’m not sure how you create a monopoly by charging for 300 spaces when there are 2,000 nearby spaces that are free, but anyway, that was the argument.) It was a convoluted argument and Judge Borrell didn’t buy it. Instead, he followed the clear precedents of long-settled law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>
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<br />That’s why Measure J was removed from the ballot,
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<br /><p class="MsoNormal"></p><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">TOO</b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"> EXTREME FOR </b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">VENTURA</b>
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<br /></span>It seems to me that the legal defects in the initiative itself were related to the way the whole anti-meter movement morphed over time. The movement began with concern by some downtown merchants that their business would be hurt by the meters. By the time it reached the ballot, it had changed into an effort driven mostly by members of the local Tea Party who claimed that American freedoms were at risk.
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<br />When the paid parking first went in, I attended a couple of meetings of local merchants who were understandably fearful that their business would be hurt. These meetings were attended by about 15 merchants (out of the approximately 160 merchants downtown.) In response, the city made significant changes: removing some of the meters, reducing the hours that the paid parking was in effect, and providing thousands of one-hour-free coupons during the Christmas season. Although we discussed other possible changes, even the concerned merchants could not agree on which to implement.
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<br />Meanwhile, the City used the money from the meters to heavily beef up the police presence downtown – with impressive results. Since last fall, downtown crime is down 40%. Retail sales actually increased – by about 3% over the prior year, despite an ailing economy. When downtown merchants had a strong Christmas season, most of them stopped complaining about the meters.
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<br />From the beginning, however, members of the local Tea Party championed the parking meters as their political issue. Led by Carla Bonney and Gary Parker, who owned American Flag & Cutlery on Main Street, they claimed the parking meters constituted an illegal tax. As it became clear that downtown had not become “a ghost town” (as some claimed) but in fact was doing well, the entire argument against the meters shifted away from the impact on downtown merchants and toward a Tea Party crusade.
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<br />Indeed, when Carla, Gary, and Randall Richman (who's not a Tea Party guy) unveiled their initiative last spring, it went far beyond removal of the meters downtown. It would have required 2/3 voter approval anytime the City wished to charge for parking on any city street or city-owned property. This extreme provision had wide-reaching implications. It would make it nearly impossible for the City to build another parking garage downtown. It would make it very difficult for the City to partner with Community Memorial Hospital in building parking for the expanded hospital. Neighborhoods that hoped to use parking revenue to improve their parks, as at Marina Park, would be out of luck. Even neighborhoods that wanted residential permit parking, as around the hospital, would have to win a 2/3 citywide vote because the City charges $10 per year for the permits.
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<br />Carla and her team worked hard and collected over 10,000 signatures. Most of those were undoubtedly local residents concerned about downtown parking meters. But in order to secure the signatures, the signature-gatherers frequently used arguments that were just plain untrue (such as the idea that the City Council wanted to charge astronomical parking fees for everyone in town to park in front of their own house.) But the signature-gatherers rarely mentioned the 2/3 provision to voters.
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<br />Tea Party representatives began appearing before the City Council to claim that parking meters were just the beginning of a comprehensive plan to implement the United Nations’ Agenda 21 effort to promote on sustainable development, which they believe is a worldwide plot to undermine private property and threaten other freedoms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>(Tea Partiers around the nation have attacked local planning policies by using Agenda 21 as well.)
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<br />Once the initiative qualified for the ballot, it became quite clear that the whole effort had turned into e campaign by Tea Party activists to galvanize support for their political agenda.
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<br /><p class="MsoNormal"></p><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal">MY BOTTOM LINE</b>
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<br /></span>Much as I admire Carla’s tenaciousness and her impressive signature-gathering effort, I just never believed she and her supporters were really in touch with Ventura’s voters. Sure, people are skeptical of government – and rightfully so. But do folks around town really think that the City Council is planning to charge people astronomical prices to park in front of their own house? Or that we are part of a vast United Nations conspiracy to rob us of our freedoms because we charge for 300 parking spaces Downtown? I think voters are far more concerned about maintaining our vital public services so that Ventura will be safe, clean city that’s a great place to live.
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<br />This is a small town, and I can tell you from personal experience that Ventura’s voters – while cautious – are nevertheless practical. They like their elected officials to be local folks in touch with what’s really going on in town, not with some imagined, extreme threat. Venturans may be receptive to the fiscal conservatism of Tea Party folks – and with good reason -- but they don’t usually fall for hyperbole, half-truths, or overheated conspiracy theories.
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<br />I’m not running for re-election this fall, but it seems to me that the 11 people who are in the City Council race would do well to remember the lessons of the whole Measure J episode. Instead of focusing on the few issues we disagree on, let’s debate who can best move us forward on the 95% of things that we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">do </i>agree on. Let’s bear in mind that, while we live in a democracy, we are a nation, and a state, and a city of laws and we must respect those laws even when we don’t particularly like them. And in trying to make our community better, let’s focus on the practical steps that will move us forward – things that will, for example, reduce crime downtown – rather than getting sidetracked by the idea that parking meters in downtown Ventura are part of a United Nations plot to take over our community. <div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Fulton is a member of the Ventura (Calif.) City Council.</div>Bill Fultonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833863247431014699noreply@blogger.com32tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724930802169463212.post-50167491986967662302011-07-06T13:19:00.000-07:002011-07-06T14:28:43.836-07:00Why I've Decided Not To Run AgainEight years ago, I stood on the steps of City Hall and announced that I was running for the City Council. Today I am writing to let you know that I have decided to step down and not run for a third term this fall. It’s been a great ride – I love being on the City Council, and I especially love being Mayor. I am very grateful that you have given me the opportunity to serve you.<br /><br />When I made the decision to run eight years ago, it wasn’t because I wanted to be a career politician, either by “moving up the food chain” to higher office or “being somebody” locally by occupying a seat on the City Council forever. I ran because I wanted to work with the community on some very specific changes that I believed were needed to move Ventura in a positive direction – ensuring long-term prosperity, conserving our open space and improving our downtown and our neighborhoods, maintaining and improving public safety, and most of all opening up City Hall so that our city government could be more transparent and accountable to the people it serves.<br /><br />After two terms in office – including one stint as mayor and another as deputy mayor –I’m proud of the positive changes we have made. The “growth wars” of the ‘90s and early ‘00s are mostly behind us. We have far more stability in our city’s leadership than we used to. City Hall is, indeed, far more open and transparent than it used to be, and we are engaged in many more partnerships with the community at large.<br /><br />Most important, we’ve dealt responsibly with a major financial crisis – one that nobody anticipated when I first ran back in 2003. Although we have had to cut services more than I would have liked, we took swift, early action to maintain a balanced budget. That’s why we do not face the deep financial problems currently confronting many of our surrounding cities.<br /><br />I haven’t accomplished everything I set out to do, but I am proud to have done my share to help move things forward in many positive ways over the past eight years; and anyway no elected office-holder ever accomplishes every goal. It’s important to have experience and stability on the council, and during my time we’ve had both – a big change from the ‘90s and early ‘00s, when there was a lot of turnover. But I never intended to serve more than two terms, and I do sometimes worry that I will get stale in office.<br /><br />I have to admit that personal considerations play an important role in this decision. I had a rich and fulfilling life before politics – professional, civic, personal -- and I am looking forward to focusing more on all of those activities again. In particular, I believe it is necessary for me to focus far more attention on my personal health, especially the ongoing loss of my eyesight.<br /><br />As I revealed in a blog more than a year ago, I suffer from a condition known as retinitis pigmentosa, a deterioration of the retina that is gradually diminishing my peripheral vision and night vision. There is no way to know how quickly RP will rob anyone of their eyesight; and there is no treatment or cure. Anybody who has spent time with me in the last couple of years knows that this condition is becoming worse and that I am struggling to adjust to it. But the demands on my time as mayor have prevented me from focusing on how to make the transition to living life as a low-vision person. For my own well-being and the well-being of those I love, it is time for me to focus more fully on making this transition successfully.<br /><br />In many ways, it is hard to leave office at such a difficult time. Over the past few years, we have had to cut our service levels to a point that most of us on the council are not comfortable with. We have been extremely fiscally responsible – moreso than most of our neighbors – but we must begin the effort to restore and reinvent our services, so that we never again have to face the difficult choices we have had to make in the past few years. As the current chair of the Ventura County Transportation Commission, I am working on organizational and service changes for public transit that should benefit the county greatly, and I wish I could see them through. The same is true for libraries. Our libraries have taken a big hit in recent years, and I believe our current library planning process will yield great results. When the real estate market comes back, I believe we will begin to see fabulous new development projects downtown and elsewhere and it would be great to be on the Council when that finally occurs.<br /><br />But when you’re an incumbent, you can always come up with an excuse to run for office again. It’s much harder to look beyond the office you hold and envision the many other ways you might be able to help your community. In deciding whether to run again, I have thought long and hard about what role I might play once I leave office. Ventura has a long history of community service on the part of retired mayors and councilmembers and I look forward to joining my predecessors in playing that role. Beyond that, I believe that there are now unprecedented opportunities for everyone in the community – former mayor or not – to participate in moving our community forward.<br /><br />In the old days, a constituency that wanted something – a park, a transportation program, an arts program, a construction project -- simply lobbied the City Council, putting the City on the hook for organizing, planning, funding, and running the whole thing. We as a community can no longer afford to operate this way, and one of the great accomplishments of the last few years has been to partner with others in the community to move things forward. We have, for example, partnered with community nonprofits to keep the downtown senior center open, to plan the future of Grant Park, and to maintain and renew our beloved ArtWalk. The City and the community will be partnering frequently in the future. I hope to work with you in many of these efforts during my five remaining months as mayor -- and in the years ahead after I leave office.<br /><br />First and foremost is the effort to use our upcoming 150th anniversary in 2016 as a “target” to improve our community. As I suggested in my State of the City address in February, we are now in the process of creating a community-based committee to discuss what our community’s goals over the next five years should be and how we can achieve those goals.<br /><br />Beyond the 2016 effort, there are many other ongoing issues in our community that I am really interested in and hope to continue working on. These include our business incubator and Ventura’s “new economy”, transportation and public transit, arts and culture, planning and development, and arts, culture and libraries. And I think it’s a safe bet that I will become more active as and advocate for disabled persons – which, in my mind, is really just a way to advocate to eliminate physical barriers to mobility for all people.<br /><br />As I said above, no office-holder accomplishes everything he or she sets out to do, and any politician can always come up with an excuse to run again. I view my decision to step down not so much as an end to my involvement in Ventura, but simply as a transition into a different role where I can continue to help make our community better. I love Ventura more than ever, and I will continue to do everything I can to pursue the two goals for Ventura that I have always had – enduring prosperity and a high quality of life. Thanks for the opportunity to serve you on the City Council and as Mayor. I look forward to working with you as mayor between now and December – I promise I will put my foot to the floor to get things done – and I look forward to working with you for many more years to come.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Fulton is a member of the Ventura (Calif.) City Council.</div>Bill Fultonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833863247431014699noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724930802169463212.post-36163909984447634552011-06-06T08:48:00.000-07:002011-06-06T08:52:19.546-07:00Weekend Update: Why Ventura Is Special<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:donotoptimizeforbrowser/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal">In writing about what it’s like to be mayor, it seems like I often come back to one particular theme: Ventura’s remarkable ability to pull together and accomplish things in ways that other cities just can’t. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">So often I see this in action on the weekends. During the week, a mayor’s day is filled with meetings, conversations, gatherings that are very focused on specific issues. People come to you to complain about things or ask for things. But on weekends it’s different. That’s when I get to see Ventura at its best.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Last weekend (the weekend of June 4-5) was no exception.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">My Saturday began by heading down to the Westside – specifically, the large vacant lot on the corner of Ventura Avenue and Kellogg Street, where our city folks were working with the Westside Community Council, E.J. Harrison, and dozens of volunteers in doing a Westside cleanup day. It was a remarkable effort that brought our Westside community together in so many different ways.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Often when we do a “cleanup day” – as we have recently done at the baech, Downtown and in Midtown – it consists mostly of picking up trash, scraping gum off the sidewalk, and things like that. These efforts not only beautify the community but also help limit the flow of trash into the rivers and the ocean. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> The Westside effort was a little different – but with the same intent. With Harrison’s help, Westside volunteers and our folks set up dumpsters and recycling locations on the Kellogg site. Anybody who wanted to bring large items to dump could do so. The response was amazing. When the event started at 9 a.m., there was a line of cars around the block.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> Now, at first glance, the sight of a bunch of cars idling in a neighborhood on Saturday morning to dump off mattresses, refrigerators, and other such items might not seem like truly a community event. But it was truly amazing. First, there were dozens of people volunteering to help haul and sort the trash and recycling material. And second, the people who were bringing their stuff were really helping the neighborhood and the community. Not only were they cleaning out their garages (and, in some cases, their yards), but they were also properly disposing of items that might otherwise wind up on the street or in the riverbottom. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> In a world with so much “stuff,” it can be a constant battle to keep our city clean and beautiful. Just as important, however, is keeping trash out of the rivers and the ocean. Dumping trash in the riverbottom harms water quality – and also subjects the City and its taxpayers to possible fines from the Regional Water Quality Board of thousands of dollars a day. The Westside Cleanup Day built community pride and teamwork, made our city more attractive, and saved the taxpayers a lot of money.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> Then on Sunday morning, I went down to Figueroa Plaza – across from the Mission – to watch and participate in the filming of saxophonist Dave Koz’s new music video for his cover of the Burt Bacharach chesnut, “This Guy’s In Love With You.” It’s a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=578JiCelgy0">beautiful version</a> of this wonderful old song. The video is designed to support marriage equality, and a lot of people came from all over the state to support that cause. In the process, however, lots of folks <a href="http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/jun/05/saxophonist-dave-koz-uses-love-mob-and-music-to">participated in a fun community event</a> – as we all walked and swirled around Dave while he walked up Figueroa Plaza and lip-synched the song. Lots of folks said they had never been to Ventura before and would definitely come back; while many locals had a great time. Thanks so much to Dave and videomaker Graham Streeter for picking Ventura! <span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>And, oh yeah – thanks to legendary trumpeter Herb Alpert and his wife Lonnie Hall for stopping by to do a cameo!</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Then, on Sunday afternoon, it was my privilege to attend the memorial service for Nick Haverland at Arroyo Verde Park. As everyone now knows, Nick was the promising 20-year-old kid – about to go off to Hawaii to study ethnobotany – who was killed by drunk driver on Telegraph Road a few weeks ago. I’ve <a href="http://fulton4ventura.blogspot.com/2011/05/thank-you-nick-haverland-we-will-always.html">written before</a> about how Nick’s tragic death has brought so many of us in our community together But Sunday’s memorial service – attended by hundreds of people despite the rain – told this story better than I ever could.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> Nick always said that nature was his religion, and so everybody said the rain was fine because Nick would have preferred it. There were several beautiful musical pieces, including a clarinet quartet from Cabrillo Middle School directed by Mario Boccali, who was Nick’s music instructor (and my daughter’s as well); in addition, Kyle McCormick, son of Jackson Brown bassist and producer Kevin McCormick, sang a moving song accompanied by his father. Then there were the eulogies and remembrances, from family friend Steve Svete, his aunts, and especially his friends Dylan Blossom and Henry Geerlings. Henry’s low-key, self-effacing talk was made all the more remarkable by the fact that he was the friend riding bikes with Nick when Nick was killed. (There’s <a href="http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/jun/05/venturas-nick-haverland-remembered-at-outdoor/">a beautiful photo</a> of Henry in front of a stunning image of Nick at Two Trees on the Star web site.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> I cannot hope, in these few words, to recreate the emotion and love that Nick’s memory brought to Arroyo Verde Park yesterday. All I can say is that it was the third event I attended over the weekend that reminded me why Ventura is such a special place. I truly believe most communities cannot accomplish the things we do here. As I was driving back from Nick’s memorial, I glanced eastward and saw Two Trees shrouded in a misty fog – a gorgeous sight – and remembered why everything we do is worth it.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Fulton is a member of the Ventura (Calif.) City Council.</div>Bill Fultonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833863247431014699noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724930802169463212.post-75433075718691774232011-05-23T13:11:00.001-07:002011-05-23T13:11:53.219-07:00All Aboard For East VenturaThe other day, I boarded Metrolink Train 119 to return home from Downtown Los Angeles. The train was bound for a place called “East Ventura”.<br /><br />Ever since Metrolink first came to Ventura a decade ago, the trains have stopped at a station in the Montalvo neighborhood, off of Victoria Avenue just north of Highway 101. This isn’t necessarily the best location in town for a Metrolink station. though it is an easy drive for 50,000 residents who live east of Victoria. But the truth of the matter is that the Montalvo rail siding was where the trains were stored overnight after they finished their run in Oxnard. So it made sense to take place where they were stored and turn it into a formal station. It’s also the starting point for a possible rail line through Santa Paula and Fillmore all the way to Santa Clarita.<br /><br />The station has always been called “Montalvo”. Montalvo is a venerated neighborhood in Ventura; some of it is inside the Ventura city limits and some is not. I’ve spent a lot of time in Montalvo over the years. I’ve thrown out the first pitch in the Montalvo Little League two years in a row, and I’ve had lots of friends who live in Ventura and/or teach at Montalvo Elementary School.<br /><br />So, while Montalvo is a very important neighborhood, the name really doesn’t convey a true sense of where the Ventura County Metrolink line goes. When you’re standing at Union Station in Downtown L.A. looking at the board, you see the names of the bigger cities that define Southern California: Riverside, San Bernardino, Anaheim, Santa Ana, Burbank, Glendale, Santa Clarita, Oxnard. You can take an Amtrak train to Ventura (the stop is at the Fairgrounds) but traditionally there was no way to decipher that if you got on the Montalvo train you were going anywhere near Ventura. Unless you knew where Montalvo was.<br /><br />A couple of months ago, in my capacity as Chair of the Ventura County Transportation Commission, I asked Metrolink to change the name of the station from “Montalvo” to “East Ventura”. That way, riders in Downtown L.A. know that they’re going to Ventura – but they also know they are not going to the “Ventura” stop on Amtrak, which of course is in a different location. Metrolink made this earlier this month. Right now, to avoid confusion, the boards at Union Station say: “East Ventura/Montalvo”.<br /><br />Things still aren’t perfect, of course. Ventura is still the only City in the entire Metrolink system – 130 stops – where Amtrak and Metrolink stop in different places. I’d love to see Metrolink come downtown to the Fairgrounds, but there are quite a number of logistical difficulties. For one thing, the East Ventura stop is essentially on different rail line, so Metrolink can’t just start at the Fairgrounds, stop at East Ventura, and move on to Oxnard. In addition, the rail line is single track throughout Ventura, meaning Metrolink would have to get to the Fairgrounds and back without running into conflicts with Amtrak or freight trains run by Union Pacific (which owns the tracks).<br /><br />Still, I’m hopeful. The City is just starting on a new phase of our study looking at the possibility of capping the 101 Freeway at California (the study is being paid for by the Southern California Association of Governments). We’re hopeful that if the freeway were ever capped, we could create double-tracking or a siding that would form the basis for a multi-modal transit center, where trains and buses come together in one location.<br /><br />For now, I’ll take whatever small victories I can get. And taking the train to East Ventura is definitely a win.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Fulton is a member of the Ventura (Calif.) City Council.</div>Bill Fultonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833863247431014699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724930802169463212.post-72396908749505491262011-05-23T13:02:00.000-07:002011-05-23T13:09:27.422-07:00Working Together With Our NeighborhoodsBack in the early ‘90s, a group of citizens in the neighborhood then known simply as “The Avenue” got together and decided that their neighborhood had not gotten enough attention over the years. So they formed a neighborhood organization to advocate for their community. They even gave their neighborhood a new name – the Westside – because they believed “The Avenue” had developed too many negative connotations over the years.<br /><br />Almost 20 years later, the Westside Community Council is still going strong in advocating for the Westside – and over the years City Hall has responded. Most recently, we have been working on a Community Plan for the Westside area that will – after some 15 years of uncertainly – make the rules clear for new development and also identify the priorities for public investment on the Westside (if and when we have the money to make those investments).<br /><br />And there are six other community councils in Ventura as well – representing Downtown, Midtown, Pierpont, the Harbor, the College District, and East Ventura. These are truly grassroots organizations.<br /><br />We have great neighborhoods in Ventura, but they’ve taken a beating as we have had to reduce services in the last few years. The Community Councils help to foster neighborhood pride and engage in grassroots activity to make these neighborhoods better. I’m proud to do whatever I can to support our Community Councils and make our neighborhoods better. I meet every couple of months with the chairs of these Councils, and we are planning Ventura’s first-ever Neighborhood Summit this summer.<br /><br />With the exception of the Downtown Ventura organization – created with the City’s help – these groups were formed by the people who live and work in their neighborhoods and they have crafted their own role. <br /><br />For example, the Midtown Ventura Community Council often reviews and comments on pending development projects in Midtown, and it was partly because of the Community Council that Community Memorial Hospital’s large expansion project is so neighborhood-oriented and passed with so much neighborhood support.<br /><br />The Pierpont Community Council has been at the forefront of the thorny sand removal issues that affect the Pierpont, and the College District Community Council was formed in response to many changes in the neighborhood, including spreading homeless issues and the loss of Wright Library. The College District organization has become an important venue for dialogue between Ventura College and surrounding neighborhoods.<br /><br />None of these organizations receive a penny from the City. We do try to help them as much as possible. For example, Police Department staff often attends Community Council meetings – a vital information exchange about crime and safety issues in the neighborhoods that helps neighbors know how to stay safe and helps the police learn what problems are occurring. Our transportation engineers, parks staff, and other folks often attend the meetings as well to provide information and also stay on top of neighborhood issues.<br /><br />And our Community Partnerships staff is working with the Community Councils to find private, philanthropic support for what we are calling a Neighborhood Improvements Matching Grant program. This program would allow for the City's various Community Councils to apply for matching grants to fund improvement projects in their districts. This would be a huge step forward in helping our neighborhoods help themselves to become better – and protect the neighborhoods that everyone in town loves.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Fulton is a member of the Ventura (Calif.) City Council.</div>Bill Fultonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833863247431014699noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724930802169463212.post-32154173171590470742011-05-15T12:47:00.000-07:002011-05-15T16:09:30.544-07:00Thank You, Nick Haverland ... We Will Always Miss YouFifteen or so years ago, when we decided to have some work done on our house, a contractor named Jim Haverland showed up to do the work. Jim was a friend of a friend. He turned out to be a terrific fellow – smart, knowledgeable, kind, low-key – and he and his wonderful wife Susan soon became our friends as well. Susan had a demanding corporate job in those days, so Jim took care of their boys. All summer he came to our house with Nick and Griff, then about 6 and 4, in tow. Every day they played in the yard with our daughter Sara, who was the same age as Nick, and they always played the same games. Hide and seek, because what little girl doesn’t want to be chased around by two little boys? And bug-hunting, because that’s what Nick loved to do.<br /><br />Over the years, the Haverlands became a permanent part of my life – one of those Ventura families you know fifteen different ways, through school and play activities and work and civic events. We remained friends through so many changes – the kids growing up, a divorce on our side, the tragic early death of siblings on both sides. After a while I became friends with a lot of parents from the Open Classroom School on the Blanche Reynolds Elementary School campus and in so doing met a much wider range of Jim and Susan’s friends, because Nick and Griff had both been Open Classroom students. My daughter Sara and Nick were one year apart at Foothill Technology High School.<br /><br />Jim still did contracting work for my former wife. Susan eventually left her corporate job and moved into community service jobs that brought she and I closer together in our professional lives. For several years she ran the Mixteco Project, aiding Oaxacan immigrants around the County. More recently she ran the County’s farmworker vanpooling project, and only about two weeks ago we had a meeting in the Mayor’s office to discuss how things were going. I brought her up to date on Sara, and she brought me up to date on the boys. Griff was almost done with high school and would be going to UC Santa Cruz. Nick – a personable boy whom everybody loved – was almost done with Ventura College and was planning to study ethnobotany at the University of Hawaii, Manoa, in the fall. He still loved hunting bugs.<br /><br />Everybody in Ventura now knows what happened to Nick Haverland Wednesday evening. Riding his bicycle with a friend along Telegraph Road in East Ventura, he was stuck by a car and killed. They were headed to a night class at Ventura College. When Nick was hit, the driver had already hit two other bicyclists and a car. Adding to the tragedy was the fact that the driver – who has pleaded not guilty to a charge of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated – was only a few blocks from his own house when the accident happened.<br /><br />Nick Haverland’s death has affected our community more deeply and profoundly than I would have imagined. Everybody has been talking about it and everybody, it seems, feels touched by it. I have lived through a number of tragedies in Ventura – the killing of of 21-year-old Jesse Strobel in Midtown in 1993, for example, and the crash of the Alaska Airlines Flight 261 into the ocean near Anacapa Island in 2000 – but I have never seen an outpouring like this.<br /><br />Even before the accident scene was cleared, the news about Nick flew around town, mostly by Facebook postings and by texts. The intersection of Telegraph and Mara, a typical suburban landscape near Juanamaria School, quickly became a shrine with flowers and candles and a white “ghost bike” memorial. On Thursday morning when I went to Poinsettia School to talk to fifth graders about what it’s like to be mayor, mostly they wanted to talk about Nick’s accident. Many of them had actually seen it occur, and many more had seen the news helicopters over their house. When Jim and Susan visited the scene a day or two after the accident, a Gold Coast bus made an unscheduled stop. Recognizing Jim and Susan as Nick's parents, the bus driver jumped out and hugged them and all the passengers prayed for them.<br /><br />As a typical guy, I “under-emoted” in the moment on Wednesday night, not sure what to feel or how to feel it. By Thursday, I was beginning to feel weighted down by grief. And by Friday, when I drove past the scene for the first time, as Mayor I began to wonder how we as a community could possibly find the right way to grieve this loss.<br /><br />There are a lot of reasons why Nick Haverland’s death hit home with so many people around town. The first, of course, is the Haverland family – a great family that everybody seemed to have a connection to, the kind of family, as I said, that you seem to know fifteen different ways. The second was the public nature of the accident. Nick was struck at quarter to seven on a beautiful May evening when it was still light out, close to Juanamaria School and the Albertson’s shopping center. Lots of people were out and about, and I am astonished at the number of people – and children – who actually witnessed the event or ran to the scene immediately after it happened. And finally, of course, was the nature of the incident – an apparently intoxicated driver who struck three bicyclists and one car in three different incidents in his own neighborhood, and who refused to – or couldn’t – get out of his car when the police confronted him. It is not just Jim and Susan and Griff and their friends who will have to grieve. So will the entire neighborhood and even our entire community.<br /><br />On Friday I went about my normal mayoral duties – chairing the monthly meeting of the County Transportation Commission in Camarillo, welcoming the state convention of the League of Women Voters to the Crowne Plaza, and attending the Chamber of Commerce’s Business Expo at the Four Points Sheraton. Even so, it didn’t seem like there was anything I could do as Jim and Susan’s friend to ease their pain (or mine, which was obviously nothing compared to theirs but still hurt a lot) and it didn’t seem like there was anything I could do as Mayor to help the community grieve.<br /><br />Then on Saturday, as I went on my mayoral rounds, I saw some amazing things that reminded me what a remarkable community we have – and how this remarkable community can pull together when people like the Haverlands need it. First I went to the American Cancer Society “Relay For Life” event at Buena High School, where dozens of teams and hundreds of people had congregated for a 24-hour fundraising walk to “fight back” against cancer. This is a national event, but it annually raises more than $200,000 – that’s right, <em>$200,000</em> – in Ventura alone. Then I went to Barranca Vista Park, where hundreds of families and dozens of vendors were out for the spring “Family Festival”. Then I went to Harbor Cove Beach down at the Harbor, where Ventura County squeaked out a first-ever victory over Amgen in the Corporate Games. And then I went to Jim and Susan’s house.<br /><br />We complain all the time about things we don’t like here in Ventura – we have too much growth or not enough; there aren’t enough police officers or we pay the police officers too much; there isn’t enough parking downtown or we hate the damned parking meters. But none of that matters very much compared to what we have. Most towns can’t do what we do every day, on a regular basis, in Ventura. Most towns can’t raise $200,000 in one day for to fight cancer. Most towns can’t put on a six-week corporate games event that draws dozens of teams from other cities, costs $700,000 to run, and yet pays for itself. And most towns can’t successfully pull together around even a beloved family like the Haverlands to help the family – and the community – grieve such an enormous loss.<br /><br />Yet Ventura can. It is this cohesiveness, this love, this sense of hometown-ness even in a city of more than 100,000 people, that makes our town special. As I made my rounds on Saturday, I finally began to feel that, as Mayor, I was doing what I should be doing to help our community grieve – and to honor the memory of Nick, such a wonderful kid and one whom practically everybody in Ventura loved. I was moving through a Saturday in Ventura both typical and extraordinary, participating in life-affirming acts all over town that sometimes seem routine to me but, in truth, are anything but.<br /><br />When I finally got to Jim and Susan’s house late Saturday afternoon, I was, as always, amazed by their love and their energy. A few other friends were there. They are obviously devastated by their loss and very emotional, yet they remain focused on the positive and truly caring for their friends, who obviously are hurting far less than they are.<br /><br />One of the reasons I always connected with Jim and Susan is that we were part of a cohort of folks who moved to Ventura back in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s for the specific purpose of raising our kids in a town with a high quality of life and a strong sense of community. We mostly didn’t know each other in advance, nor did we know a whole lot about Ventura when we arrived. But we all had the same sense of Ventura: It seemed like a town with a real sense of centeredness, a town that could sustain us, not just financially and socially but emotionally, through good times and bad. And as we connected with each other over the years, we did our best to contribute to this sense of what might be called emotional sustainability.<br /><br />Yes, we had jobs and ran businesses, mostly right here in town. And, yes, we coached soccer teams and worked on PTO boards and started nonprofits and, in at least one case, ran for the City Council. But we also tried our best to care for each other and our community. I guess you could call this “giving back,” but the truth of the matter is that we never really thought of it that way, because there was really no difference between “giving back” and just living our lives. It was all part of being Venturans.<br /><br />Late Saturday afternoon, as Susan and I leaned against the refrigerator in the Haverlands’ kitchen – a refrigerator filled with the usual photos and notes and schedules – it dawned on us both that this remarkable townwide quality had emerged even in the most devastating, tragic moment imaginable.<br /><br />The circumstances of Nick’s death unfortunately meant that Jim and Susan’s grief was not completely private. They had spent several hours at the scene on Telegraph Road Wednesday night with television helicopters roaring overhead, and a photograph of the two of them embracing was published in the Star on Thursday morning (though they were not identified in the photo).<br /><br />You could interpret this lack of privacy as intrusive in the most private of moments. Yet, as it turned out, these public circumstances allowed Ventura to rally around the Haverlands in a way that they – and I – could never have imagined. It has brought their friends together around them, and it has even brought many people whom they don’t even know into their lives with a love and caring that they never imagined. It has even brought me closer to many people I love – not just Jim and Susan, but also my former wife, the wonderful graphic designer Vicki Torf, and other dear friends like Rosie Ornelas and Steve Svete and Mindy Lawrence and many others who developed close ties over the years to the Haverlands and to each other.<br /><br />We were right all those years ago when we moved to Ventura. It is a place that can help us and hold us and heal us, not just economically or socially but emotionally. In that sense, it is the most sustainable of cities.<br /><br />It is the greatest of tragedies, of course, that it took the death of a wonderful young kid like Nick Haverland to remind of us all this. After all, Nick reminded us of it every day just by being himself. And I am still worried about how our community will complete the grieving process. I am worried about the kids at Foothill, who knew so many people involved in the incident. I am worried about the kids at Juanamaria Elementary School, whose families witnessed and heard the incident and assisted our first responders. And I am worried about Jim and Susan and Griff, who will have to live with this tragic loss for the rest of their lives.<br /><br />But I know our community will continue to come together with the Haverlands to grieve for the family and for themselves. Jim and Susan and Griff are planning a celebration of Nick’s life sometime in the near future. I’m not sure where or when yet, but I will be there, as both friend and Mayor, to help the Haverlands and our community at large in the grieving process – so that we can honor Nick as he deserves to be honored, and we can once again rely upon and renew Ventura as a place capable of sustaining us all.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Fulton is a member of the Ventura (Calif.) City Council.</div>Bill Fultonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833863247431014699noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724930802169463212.post-36120794327927341192011-05-11T06:18:00.000-07:002011-05-11T06:21:21.805-07:00Unpermitted Second Units: A Big Step Forward<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:donotoptimizeforbrowser/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;Times New Roman"font-family:";font-size:12.0pt;" >On Monday night, the City Council took a major step forward – at last – toward legalizing “second dwelling units” that provide safe housing for their inhabitants but do not have city permits. In approving the second unit ordinances, we have at last provided a path for owners of unpermitted second units to comply with our city code and become, to use an awkward term, “legal”.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;Times New Roman"font-family:";font-size:12.0pt;" > This has not been an easy process and not everyone is completely happy with the outcome. I’ll get to some of those details a little later. But the important point is this: Previously, there was no way for the owner of an unpermitted second unit to legalize their situation unless they went through an expensive and time-consuming process. Now it will be much easier.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;Times New Roman"font-family:";font-size:12.0pt;" >The issue of unpermitted second units is not widespread, but obviously it is very important for those involved – and for the community at large. A second unit can provide a dignified place to live for an elderly or disabled relative or for an adult child who is ready to move out of the house. It can also provide an important source of income for people struggling to make the mortgage. These second units effectively expand our housing supply without really increasing our density.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;Times New Roman"font-family:";font-size:12.0pt;" >All older cities have lots of unpermitted second units, and </span><span style="line-height:115%;Times New Roman"font-family:";font-size:12.0pt;" >Ventura</span><span style="line-height:115%;Times New Roman"font-family:";font-size:12.0pt;" >’s problem may not be as widespread as you might think. In 2009, when we conducted an experiment in “pro-active” code enforcement for a few months, we found that – even in the older neighborhoods – only about 2-3% of properties have unpermitted second units. In other older cities where I have lived, practically <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">every </i>property had unpermitted units.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;Times New Roman"font-family:";font-size:12.0pt;" >The issue with unpermitted second units is safety. True, an unpermitted second unit might be a cozy 90-year-old carriage house that was built before zoning codes were even invented and has modern and safe electrical and plumbing systems. An unpermitted second unit might also be a garage that’s been rigged into a makeshift living unit, with refrigerator and microwave hooked up through extension cords and a toilet that discharges into the ground. The trick is recognizing – and acknowledging – the difference. And, of course, there’s a delicate balance between providing fair processes for people involved in a code enforcement action and protecting the vast majority of </span><span style="line-height:115%;Times New Roman"font-family:";font-size:12.0pt;" >Ventura</span><span style="line-height:115%;Times New Roman"font-family:";font-size:12.0pt;" > residents who go out of their way to abide by the codes and expect their neighbors to as well.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;Times New Roman"font-family:";font-size:12.0pt;" >About 18 months ago we appointed the “Safe Housing Collaborative,” a group of 13 citizens who were asked to involve the public in ways to improve the code enforcement process. They came back to us in February with a set of recommendations, and the ordinance adopted Monday was the result of direction we gave our staff at that time.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;Times New Roman"font-family:";font-size:12.0pt;" >The second unit ordinance we adopted Tuesday night represents an important stride forward. In order to qualify, a property owner needs to produce at least one piece of documentation – and, in the case of what might be called “indirect’ evidence, two pieces. For example, an old assessor’s record acknowledging the unit’s existence will suffice. Similarly, if you have a rent receipt and a utility bill, those two would suffice as well. You can substitute an owner’s affidavit for one of the two pieces of “indirect” evidence.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;Times New Roman"font-family:";font-size:12.0pt;" >You will, of course, have to comply with our building code; if you disagree with the determination of our Building Official, Andrew Stuffler, you’ll be able to appeal that decision to the Local Appeals Board, which under state law is the body that hears appeals from Andrew’s decision. If your unpermitted second unit went into service before 1987, you won’t have to worry about complying with our zoning ordinance. If the unit went into service after 1987 – the year the state began to require disclosure of unpermitted second units in property transactions – then, in theory, you’ll have to comply with our zoning rules for second units (setbacks, parking, and so forth). But you’ll be able to seek a kind of a variance from our Community Development Director, Jeff Lambert – the ordinances instructs him to grant variances liberally – and if you don’t like his decision you can appeal it just like a regular variance. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;Times New Roman"font-family:";font-size:12.0pt;" >Finally, if it turns out you have to pay hefty fees to legalize your unit – which is unlikely in most cases but possible in some -- we’ve instructed the staff to look into the possibility of having the City provide financing for the payments.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;Times New Roman"font-family:";font-size:12.0pt;" >Our new effort includes a couple of other, more general approaches that should make it easier for people to deal with code enforcement issues.</span></p><span style="line-height:115%;Times New Roman"font-family:";font-size:12.0pt;" >One is the “self-inspection” program, which will permit applicants working with their contractors to have a private inspector certify that a water heater or other small item complies with the code. (Improperly installed, water heaters can be big safety problems; but we’re trying to make getting permits less expensive.) The second is an expanded volunteer program, which will help our code enforcement folks resolve issues more quickly and also help permit applicants through the process.</span> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;Times New Roman"font-family:";font-size:12.0pt;" >Not everybody agreed with the decision we made on every single issue. Many of the Safe Housing Collaborative members came to meeting and asked us to make a number of changes from the staff recommendation. Some we did (a zoning appeals process, a financing program) and some we didn’t (eliminating the 1987 cutoff date). A few people were unhappy with the outcome, but I think it’s fair to say that most were not. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;Times New Roman"font-family:";font-size:12.0pt;" >Most everybody understands that we’ve made it code enforcement easier – especially legalizing unpermitted second units – and that this is a good start. And, like any new ordinance, this one is a bit of an experiment. We’ll monitor it to see how it goes and make changes if they’re warranted. But there was no point in delaying the ordinance because there was still disagreement about some issues. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="line-height:115%;Times New Roman"font-family:";font-size:12.0pt;" >As the old saying goes, you shouldn’t let the perfect stand in the way of the good. And the truth of the matter is that if you have an unpermitted second unit that poses no safety hazard, it will be easier to legalize your unit than it used to be. I’d say that’s good, even if the ordinance isn’t perfect. </span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Fulton is a member of the Ventura (Calif.) City Council.</div>Bill Fultonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833863247431014699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724930802169463212.post-21388069477190958502011-04-10T15:32:00.000-07:002011-04-10T15:34:28.127-07:00The Tough Slog To Increase Revenue<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:donotoptimizeforbrowser/> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal">In tough times, it’s always tempting to think that you can solve all your financial problems by finding some magical way to increase revenue. After all, spending money is always more fun than cutting the budget yet again. But the truth of the matter is that in this economy finding more revenue – especially in a way that doesn’t place an additional burden on our already overburdened taxpayers – is a tough slog.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Last week the City Council held a workshop where we discussed some of the possible ways we might generate more revenue. We talked about everything from “crash taxes” (charging out-of-town people involved in auto accidents) to selling or leasing city property as a way of raising cash to putting another proposed sales tax increase on the ballot. Not surprisingly, none of these ideas got much traction. But we did talk about range of other ideas – and, in the end, we voted to pursue a few things that seem worth a try, including:<br /></p> <ol style="margin-top: 0in;" start="1" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Hiring an outside firm to help us make sure all businesses in the city pay business license tax.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Conducting on audit of our hotel bed tax collections to ensure all hotels and motels (and vacation rentals) are collecting this tax.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Renegotiating city leases to increase revenue where possible.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Ramping up efforts to obtain private donations, especially for capital projects in parks and other public locations where naming opportunities exist.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Continuing to focus on making our Auto Center a stronger retail destination.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">Increasing our grant-writing capability.</li></ol> <p class="MsoNormal">The truth is that all these efforts won’t generate an enormous amount of money – at least not in the short run. Our best hope for an immediate pop is keeping a closer eye on compliance for business license tax and hotel bed tax.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">I know first-hand that many businesses don’t get business licenses – about 20 years ago, I was one of those business owners! And I’m confident that with more compliance, we can increase business license tax revenue by 10-20%. However, that would amount to somewhere between $150,000 and $300,000. That’s a good chunk that will help us, but it’s not going to solve all our problems.<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Similarly, it’s pretty clear that some smaller motels and vacation rentals don’t pay hotel bed tax. But most of the big hotels already pay, so we’re talking about a pretty small amount here too.<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The other efforts are probably longer term – but we can’t lose sight of them just because we’re hurting now. The Auto Center did well during the boom – at our peak, we had 13 dealerships and the same auto sales as Oxnard – but we’re hurting badly now, mostly because there’s no surrounding retail in Ventura as there is in Oxnard. Even so, most retailers are pulling back on expansion plans now, so it’s unlikely we’ll get anything soon. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">And you don’t get big philanthropic gifts for parks and public projects overnight. But we have two good examples in the Pier and the Community Park, both of which have raised more than $1 million in private donations. Just think how reassuring it is to know that if a storm damages the Pier, we have more than $1 million in private funds to draw upon and don’t have to take money away from some other City project! These kinds of donations are going to be really important in the next few years, because we are not going to have General Fund money for capital projects in the parks, as we have in the past.<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Although this wasn’t in the motion passed by the Council, I’m also a big advocate of promoting Business-to-Business (B2B) transactions as a way of generating more sales tax for the city. Every business in town buys lots of goods subject to sales tax. If they buy those goods in town, then we get more sales tax. If you look at a map of where our sales tax comes from, you’d be amazed to see how much comes out of the Market/McGrath area – supposedly an industrial area, but in reality a place where many businesses buy products from other businesses. That’s why I was so excited recently when the Chamber’s Young Professionals Group had a mixer that brought together the start-up businesses in our incubator with the young small business owners in town.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">And what about tax increases? After losing two sales tax measures recently – one in 2006 and one in 2009 – I have to say I think we’re done with that for now. There are a number of small measures that may have a chance of passage if they were combined into one ballot measure, including an entertainment ticket tax, an increase in the hotel bed tax, and maybe an increase in the Lighting and Landscaping District assessments. (Currently, you don’t pay enough in Lighting and Landscaping assessments to cover the cost of the streetlights, so we have to subsidize that with $400,000 from the General Fund.) But even all put together they won't raise that much money, and I don’t think our voters have any appetite for even these tax increases now.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Over the past three years, as we have struggled to reduce costs and increase revenues, we’ve heard literally hundreds of ideas. We’ve looked at them all, and implemented some of them. But, in general, I’ve found that every idea falls into one of four categories:<br /></p> <ol style="margin-top: 0in;" start="1" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="">We’re already doing it.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">It’s impossible to do for some reason (impractical, illegal).</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">It’s a great idea and we should do it right now, but it will only raise or save a little bit of money.</li><li class="MsoNormal" style="">It’s a great idea and it will raise or save a lot of money, but it will take a long time to do it and we won’t see much immediate benefit.</li></ol> <p class="MsoNormal">The business license and hotel bed tax compliance efforts fall into category #3. Everything else falls into category #4. My bottom line is this: We’ve done a good job of cutting when we’ve needed to cut during the downturn. Our services have taken a huge hit but we are solvent and shouldn’t have to cut much more. So now is the time to start laying the groundwork for more revenue when the economy begins to perk up. We’ll keep looking at small, painless ways to raise revenue – and we’ll keeping working on long-term efforts to stabilize and improve our revenue base by increasing business generally.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Fulton is a member of the Ventura (Calif.) City Council.</div>Bill Fultonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833863247431014699noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724930802169463212.post-6635944169032550212011-03-15T17:49:00.000-07:002011-03-15T17:50:32.442-07:00Building Ventura's Enduring Prosperity<em>Adapted from the Chamber of Commerce State of the City address:</em><br /><br />Over the past few weeks, I have talked a lot about the need for Ventura to build a new and enduring prosperity that will last a generation or more. Partly because of the current economic conditions, I’ve gotten a strong and positive response from people in Ventura on the need to rebuild prosperity.<br /><br />But I’ve also come to realize that prosperity means different things to different people. For a resident who’s a homeowner, it probably means a stable job with a stable income and rising home value. For a local retailer, it means more sales in the cash register. For a business owner, it means rising sales and profits. For the city, it means more revenue and therefore more ability to provide Venturans with the high quality of life they want and deserve.<br /><br />But to all of us, I think it means the process of building an enduring prosperity – a sense of economic well-being in our community that is durable, widely shared, and can help provide a stable income for most people, tax revenue to provide public services, and philanthropic wealth to endow the future. Achieving this kind of prosperity is not as easy as simply luring a retail store into town or subsidizing an auto dealer. It’s a long-term effort that requires both intensity and focus.<br /><br />I have spent most of my life trying to understand how cities work, and I can say one thing: whether they grow or increase in population or not, they never stay the same. To prosper – and to maintain a high quality of life – cities have to reinvent themselves economically again and again.<br /><br />Ventura has already reinvented itself many times -- from mission town to fishing town to agricultural center to oil boomtown to surf town government town – and we remain all these things to some extent today. But we cannot stand still. We must continue to forge ahead, reinvent ourselves – find enduring prosperity in the 21st Century global economy while retaining the small-town feel we all cherish.<br /><br />When I read over that line – that our little town has to find enduring prosperity in the 21st century global economy – it sounds kind of pompous. After all, we’re just Ventura! But every city, big or small, must find its place in the larger economy, whether that city is in California or Europe or South America or China. That is what we did when we were primarily an oil town, and that is what we did when we were primarily a citrus town. And that is what we must do now. <br /><br />We must identify our niche and aggressively pursue it, or else we risk the idea of having other people -- from other places -- define who we are.<br /><br />When most businesses and communities sit down to figure out their future, they chart out different scenarios. They begin what a “business as usual” or “default” scenario, and then they craft a “preferred” scenario. Then they figure out what’s required to get to the future they prefer -- rather than stumble into the future by default.<br /><br />I think we in Ventura are at a critical moment in understanding what our “default” future might be, and we must take steps collaboratively to counteract that “default” approach and, instead, build a future we really want.<br /><br />Because the “default” future for us is different from what we have always been. And by working together, we can create a better, more prosperous future that will help pay for our quality of life for many years to come.<br /><br />Throughout our history, Ventura has always had a proud history of producing things. Oil and citrus are the two most obvious examples, though there are others. The most important point, however, is that we produced things -- we exported them to the world -- and we reaped the benefits of wealth created here locally.<br /><br />This is not the future that is emerging for Ventura – at least if we do nothing. Our “default” or “business as usual” future does not revolve around producing. It revolves around consuming. Increasingly, the economic base of our community focuses on bringing people into our community – visitors, retirees, and commuters – who bring their money from somewhere else and spend it here.<br /><br />I want to emphasize that visitors, retirees, and commuters all play an important role here in Ventura. These are robust sectors of our economy. They are important to our local businesses. We value every one of them, and I will talk more in a few minutes about how we can best leverage their presence.<br /><br />But I want to emphasize that if our future in Ventura consists only of visitors, retirees, and commuters, then we will lose something very precious about Ventura, and we will be giving our future prosperity away on terms that we should not accept.<br /><br />The single most precious thing about Ventura is that it feels like a small town. This is a ridiculous thing to say, since we are a city of over 100,000 people. Yet we do feel this way, because we all see each other all the time. At work. At school. At the market. And at youth sports activities. Why? Because, far more than the average community, people who live in Ventura also work here. One of my greatest fear is that we will lose this small-town feel as more and more people commute OUT to other places in the morning and more and more people commute IN to Ventura FROM other places in the morning. This is happening more and more. You can feel it.<br /><br />If we continue with “business as usual,” eventually we will become almost exclusively a community where people who have made their money in other places live and visit. This is good in many ways, I don’t deny that, but it threatens our small-town feel. It will tend to create a two-tier economy with a lot of low-paid service workers, and it will turn Ventura into something we have never been before.<br /><br />And how do we maintain that small-town feel -- that precious balance? We do it by ensuring that Ventura is still a place where things are produced. A place where the jobs created are filled by people who live here, and a place where the wealth generated here stays here. A community that produces things will spin off related businesses, including suppliers, and will also create better-paying jobs, so there is less risk that a two-tier economy will emerge.<br /><br />So how do we here in little Ventura do that?<br /><br />Well, in the 19th Century, we rode the agricultural wave -- and produced food that was exported to the rest of the country and the world.<br /><br />In the 20th Century, we rode the oil wave -- and produced oil that was exported to the rest of the country and the world.<br /><br />The 21st Century, on the other hand, will be the century where creativity and innovation drive prosperity, especially here in the United States. We must find our place in this economy, and we must work aggressively and cooperatively to establish ourselves.<br /><br />Everything we are moving forward with right now on the economic front is focused on exactly this goal – and these efforts are tightly intertwined.<br /><br />Sometimes, hard-core business people in town criticize us for our commitment to arts and culture. But we’re in that game for a reason: Arts and culture are important as a way to connect to the fast-growing creative and innovation economies regionally and worldwide, which we in Ventura must be a part of in order to prosper in the future.<br /><br />The creative arts – performance, visual arts, graphic and architectural design, publishing, fashion -- represent one of the fastest-growing sectors of the American economy. No American city will be able to prosper in the future without nurturing these creative arts. The future of the creative arts in Ventura is virtually unlimited – and essential to our future in so many different ways<br /><br />Over the last year, we have increased our visibility in Hollywood with the Film Ventura! Initiative – kicked off last fall at our downtown movie complex. This effort has reminded us that we have an enormous supply of local film talent here in Ventura – actors, craftspeople, and even many writers and producers. Location shooting is fun to have, but we want high-value-added parts of the entertainment production process as well.<br /><br />We’ve also strengthened our connection with our most important local educational institution dealing with the creative arts, Brooks Institute. Hundreds of Brooks film and video students already live and work in Ventura, and I recently met with Brooks’s new president, Susan Kirkland, to reaffirm our mutual commitment to each other. Brooks is a critical component of Ventura’s creative economy – attracting talented young people to Ventura and helping us to attract regional and national attention.<br /><br />The creative economy is important to our future prosperity, but it will not sustain us all by itself. The creative economy is important to Ventura for a much bigger reason as well: It provides us with an important connection to the worldwide innovation economy. The creating of new products and new services – especially using the the Internet – today serves as the engine of the global economy.<br /><br />No city can prosper in the 21st Century without strong, local innovators. Innovators are themselves creative and they thrive on a lively and creative local community.<br /><br />That’s why our Ventura Ventures Technology Center on the 3d Floor of 505 Poli Street has been so successful. V2TC is now home to 19 startup companies and more than 50 employees.<br />The entrepreneurs located there are changing the way the world uses information – through online advertising, geographic location systems, online marketing, and many other innovative ideas. This is the 21st Century equivalent of citrus or oil production. These companies are inventing high-value-added products that will be used throughout the world and, in the process, creating good-paying jobs and wealth that will stay here in Ventura.<br /><br />They’re drawn to Ventura not just by this incubator but also by the high quality of life, the recreational opportunities, and the creative buzz in our downtown.<br /><br />The other day I got a Facebook message from one of our downtown restaurant owners, who said that although he was happy we had these fledgling businesses, he believes we need “real” companies that provide lots of jobs. He still feels the loss of Kinko’s, he said.<br /><br />I understand that concern. But what we’re trying to do at the incubator is work with these entrepreneurs to create the next business that will create 50, or 100, or 500, or 1,000 jobs – and keep all those jobs and all that wealth here in Ventura. And it will happen.<br /><br />We also know that businesses cannot succeed without startup capital. And local capital is especially important. If we can finance our innovative companies through local sources, then the resulting wealth will stay in our community, to be recycled into yet more business ventures and also providing the basis for local philanthropy.<br /><br />I’m grateful to our local banks and financial institutions for their commitment to our community. My business has a long relationship with Santa Barbara Bank & Trust. Just as important, however, is the fact that the angel investors and venture capitalists who help the startups and the fledging businesses that are creating and inventing new products have also discovered Ventura. Tech Coast Angels, an investor group, meets regularly in town now to hear “pitches”. The City has a partnership with DFJ Frontier, a venture capital firm, investing in businesses that could pay off here. And recently Peate Ventures – a venture capital firm from Westlake Village – moved to Downtown Ventura and has funded some of the incubator startups.<br /><br />I am very hopeful the expansion of Community Memorial Hospital will create new opportunities for entrepreneurial activity in the biomed field here in Ventura, as we are located so close to Amgen and other critical biomed players.<br /><br />This, then, must be our preferred scenario – for Ventura to continue to be a community that produces products and wealth for the rest of the world, just as we have been for 140 years, rather than a place like Santa Barbara, which – beautiful though it is -- simply consumes products and wealth gathered from elsewhere in the world. This kind of prosperity will bring better-paying jobs to Ventura. It will also ensure that the wealth generated here stays here – thus providing our community with an endowment for quality of life, just as the Bards and the Fosters once endowed our community with institutions and parks that we still enjoy every day.<br /><br />Now, you may have gotten the idea that I think we shouldn’t focus on visitors and retirees and commuters, and if you’re in the real estate business or the hospitality business that probably scares you. But that’s not really what I meant to convey. My point is not that we shouldn’t pursue those folks, but that we need to leverage their presence in helping to rebuild Ventura as a town that produces things.<br /><br />Every visitor and every retiree is a potential investor in some new business in Ventura. I’ve seen this time and time again – they come here and they like it, and the next thing you know they are moving their business here or creating a new one. That’s a great thing. And every commuter weary of driving to L.A. or Santa Barbara is a potential entrepreneur – eager to build their dreams here in Ventura and help us build ours.<br /><br />My point here is that we tend to view bringing these folks into town as an end in itself – a way to generate hotel bed nights or real estate sales. What we really need to do is view these efforts as an economic development tool – to help promote Ventura as a place where entrepreneurs and investors can find the ecosystem they need to thrive.<br /><br />And if you’re in a business-to-business service business – as so many Chamber members are – you’ll be winners if we’re successful too. Helping startups – and then helping them when their big – is an important task, and we must have all those support services in place to succeed. If our producer companies grow, we all win. Many people have good jobs. Our nonprofit and community organizations have lots of donors. And the city has enough tax revenue to provide the public safety, street paving, and other services everyone needs and wants.<br /><br />So let’s work together to build Ventura’s prosperity for another generation!<div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Fulton is a member of the Ventura (Calif.) City Council.</div>Bill Fultonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833863247431014699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724930802169463212.post-24151210844202848852011-02-21T11:47:00.000-08:002011-02-21T11:51:02.891-08:00Every Day Is Phil Marquez DayFor several years, my office was in the back of the Paddy’s building at Main Street and Ventura Avenue. This meant that several times a day, I walked past Phil Marquez’s barber shop – waving, peeking in, and generally speaking finding myself fascinated by this very old and beloved man who still put a pair of hair-cutting scissors into his hands every day no matter what.<br /><br />One day about a year and a half ago, I was riding my bike to work, and as I rode on the sidewalk past Phil’s shop (possibly a violation of the municipal code, which prohibits riding bikes on the sidewalk downtown), I suddenly encountered a car suddenly appeared in the driveway, headed out of the parking lot toward Main Street.<br /><br />I tried to stop but I couldn’t stop so quickly, so the bike fell over and I was thrown, bike shorts and all, into the bushes. I stood up ready to be really angry – after all, I may have been riding on the sidewalk in violation of the municipal code, but the car was driving the wrong way in a one-way driveway! I started to yell, and then …<br /><br />… and then I realized that it was Phil’s granddaughter dropping him off at work. She was driving the wrong way in the driveway so that the passenger’s side door would be right by Phil’s shop, thus minimizing the walk Phil had to make. Phil wasn’t moving very fast at this point; sometimes it would take him two hours to cut a head of hair. A few months later, Phil finally decided to give up cutting hair – after running his barber shop in the same location for 63 years.<br /><br />How could I be angry? I was only the deputy mayor. He was Phil Marquez.<br /><br />Last June, when we all celebrated Phil Marquez Day at the Bell Arts Factory, I told this story. Phil’s granddaughter was horrified to realize that she had forced the mayor (then the deputy mayor) to take a tumble, but Phil laughed uproariously – he thought the whole story was very funny. Which made the telling of the story even better. (You can see <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/amigos805/4689965461/">a picture </a>of Phil being serenaded by a barbershop quartet at this event -- and loving it! -- on flickr.)<br /><br />Phil died last Tuesday, February 15th, at the age of 95. I think it’s fair to say no one in Ventura was ever more beloved, and no one will ever be missed so much. I’m very proud that in his email summarizing Phil’s life, Moses Mora – our chronicler of life on the Westside – quoted what I said last June: "We can't go on forever proclaiming Phil Marquez Days, so let's just declare every day Phil Marquez Day."<br /><br />I was so moved by last June’s event that, not long ago, I asked my intern Marisol Luna to see if Phil could sign the poster Moses had created for the event. (Phil's signature was on the poster, but I wanted an original!) Marisol called Phil’s daughter, Barbara Marquez-O’Neil, who warned that – like the cutting of hair in recent years – the signing of the poster might take quite a long time. But Phil did sign it for me.<br /><br />When I called Barbara the other day to express my condolences, she told me that signing the poster was almost literally the last thing Phil ever did. I’ll get it framed now and keep it in my office forever, to make sure that every day will be Phil Marquez day.<br /><br />A Rosary for Phil will be held on Thursday, February 24, 2011, at 7 p.m. at the Old Mission in Downtown Ventura. A Memorial Mass will be held the next morning, Friday, February 25, at 10a.m., also at the Old Mission.<div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Fulton is a member of the Ventura (Calif.) City Council.</div>Bill Fultonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833863247431014699noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5724930802169463212.post-7321617307284043542011-02-13T09:08:00.000-08:002011-02-13T09:10:12.385-08:00The Way Forward ... To 2016<p><em>Mayor's State of the City Address, February 7, 2011</em> </p><p><br />On behalf of the City Council, I would like to welcome you to the City Council Chambers and thank you for attending tonight.<br /><br />After what all of us have been through in 2010, as your mayor, the message that comes to my mind is, “Whew!”<br /><br />We made it through a year when money was in short supply for everybody, when the political rhetoric everywhere became much more unforgiving, and, whether we liked it or not, when the choices before us were choices would have never before considered.<br /><br />But what’s remarkable is that despite all these travails, our spirit as a community has not been dampened. Ventura remains a place where people love to live their lives, run their businesses, and enjoy everyday life.<br /><br />We have made it through some very difficult times by working together, by making sacrifices by finding new ways to do things and by undertaking efforts that inspire us and lift our spirits.<br /><br />So I think it is worthwhile to acknowledge people and organizations who have helped us – both our City Government and our community – make it to where we are today.<br /><br />First, from our perspective here at City Hall, I want to reassure everybody that our city is in good financial shape. Our budget is balanced and has been all through this dark time.<br /><br />Now, let me hasten to add we don’t like the way we’ve balanced it. We’ve had to cut many important things and we know that our reduced level of services is not sustainable. We must find ways to bring our services back so we can maintain our city’s quality of life.<br /><br />But it’s important to note that we have not shirked from the tough choices. Other cities have papered over their problems and now they will face severe cuts. We have attacked the issue of declining revenue head-on – meaning that future cuts will not be nearly as painful as other cities will see. I want to thank our City Manager, Rick Cole, for his willingness to tackle the hard issues head-on; and our CFO, Jay Panzica, for leading us through these difficult financial times with clarity, simplicity, and goodwill. I also want to thank our line department heads – Elena Brokaw of Parks & Rec, Rick Raives of Public Works, Jeff Lambert of Community Development, and especially Police Chief Ken Corney and Fire Chief Kevin Rennie – for doing more with less under difficult circumstances.<br /><br />We also have our employees to thank. They have agreed to changes and reforms that will help make our future city budgets sustainable. One of my greatest concerns is that even when the economy recovers we will not be able to restore necessary services because of increased pension costs. But just this month our employees agreed to contribute to their own pensions, thus covering increased cost of pensions and they agreed to pension reform for future employees, which will save us a great deal in the long run.<br /><br />These changes require sacrifice on the part of our employees but will help our city to focus – revenues increase – on restoring those services that we desperately need to bring back. I would like to thank the Ventura Police Officers Association and the Service Employees International Union for their help. I also would like to thank the Ventura City Fire Fighters Association for their support and look forward to working with them on a contract Finally, I’d like to thank our Human Resources Director, Jenny Roney, for guiding us through these tough negotiations.<br />Making these changes has required change in the way we do business. It’s always easy here at City Hall to think that we can solve all problems – and pay for them too. And because we meet in public and on television every week, it’s also easy for others to appear before us and demand the same – solve all problems and pay for them too.<br /><br />But we up here can’t solve and pay for all problems – not all by ourselves. And one of the most important accomplishments of the last year has been to partner with other organizations in the community to get things done.<br /><br />Perhaps the most important partnership we have forged in the last year is with the Greater Ventura Chamber of Commerce. We cannot succeed as a city without a strong and involved business community and the Chamber has reinvented itself during tough times with great gusto and energy.<br /><br />So I want to thank that dynamic duo of Marni Brooke, chair of the Chamber board, and Sandra Burkhart, the chamber’s new CEO, for everything they have done and also thanks to Steve Perlman, vice chair in charge of business development and a representative of, let us say, an older generation of Chamber leaders.<br /><br />The City has also worked with many, many other community organizations and institutions to help get through these tough times and still provide important services to our community.<br /><br />For example, in tough times volunteers play an especially important role in making sure essential services and activities move forward. As a member of the national “Cities of Service” organization, we have come to realize the value of volunteers more than ever before<br /><br />Just the week before last we hosted the first-ever “Volunteer Summit” for all the organizations and agencies here in town that use volunteers.. More than 30 organizations participated, and we have now set a target of recruiting 200 brand-new new volunteers in our community in 2011. I want to thank everyone who participated in the Volunteer Summit and especially the City’s volunteer staff, including Cary Glenn and Rosie Ornelas, for putting it together with great enthusiasm.<br /><br />Similarly, we are increasingly working with nonprofit organizations to pool resources so that all of us can move forward doing the things we all need to do to maintain a high quality of life in our community. And this cooperation goes both ways – sometimes they help us, sometimes we help them.<br /><br />Last year we thought we would have to close our Downtown Senior Recreation Center. But thanks to a collaboration with the nonprofit organization Urban Encore, we are able to keep the building open. Urban Encore is leasing the building and providing space to other nonprofits, while maintaining the senior center’s activities. I want to thank Dave Armstrong of Urban Encore – and one of Ventura’s most dedicated volunteers – for his efforts.<br /><br />We’re also entering into an innovative arrangement with the Ventura Botanical Gardens organization. Everyone loves Grant Park – but we’ve had to postpone our plans to improve it for many years. Now, we have entered into an agreement to possibly lease parts of Grant Park to this new nonprofit group as an alternative way to make Grant Park better! Thanks to Doug Halter, who is representing the Botanical Gardens here tonight.<br />At the same time, we at City Hall are partnering with other nonprofit organizations to help them through these difficult times as well. By creating the Nonprofit Sustainability Center on the 4th Floor of 505 Poli, the City has helped 10 nonprofit to make it through the recession. By providing these organizations office space at low cost, we at City Hall can help them to maintain the vital services they provide to the community – services that our community otherwise might lose.<br /><br />Just to give you an example of the diversity of these groups they include Focus on the Masters, Turning Point Foundation and Ventura Film Society. I’d like to thank Donna Granata, Clyde Reynolds, and Lorenzo DeStefano for their leadership and cooperation.<br /><br />Amazingly enough, we have also seen remarkable progress in constructing and remodeling a wide variety of buildings and facilities downtown – helping to strengthen Downtown Ventura as the very epicenter of our region. Last year the WAV was completed. During this past year, the Kingdom Center has opened. So did Phase 1 of the Museum of Ventura County’s expansion, including the fabulous Smith Event Center. We’ve seen refurbishment and new vitality at the E.P. Foster Library. And we’ve seen the Housing Authority begin construction at Encanto del Mar at Oak and Thompson; and People’s Self-Help Housing begin renovation of the historic and beautiful El Patio Hotel just a block away.<br /><br />These would be remarkable achievements at any time. But to accomplish them all in 2010 – the worst year in recorded history for construction in the United States – is truly remarkable. I’d like to thank some of the community leaders that have made this possible – including Pastor Sam Gallucci of the Kingdom Center, Tim Schiffer of the Museum of Ventura County, Mary Stewart of Foster Library, and John Polansky, chair of the Housing Authority board for all of your leadership.<br /><br />We also an excellent holiday shopping season downtown and everywhere else – much to our surprise. I want to thank each and every one of you for your commitment to shopping locally. I also want to thank everyone who took me up on my challenge at the Mayor’s Arts Awards – to buy one piece of local art during this holiday season and another piece during 2011. Personally, I’d like to thank Jennifer Livia of Red Brick Gallery for the wonderful art she created that now belongs to my family. And don’t worry – I’m still on the lookout for that beautiful piece of local art to purchase in 2011. The Mayor’s Local Art Challenge is still going on!<br /><br />Finally, whenever a community endures tough times, there is nothing like a group of inspiring athletes to lift our spirits and keep us going. This year, all of us in Ventura were inspired by the Ventura Deep Six Relay Team and their dramatic four-day swim through cold and choppy ocean waters. These guys didn’t just beat the world record – they killed it. In case you haven’t heard, the previous world record for an open water relay team was 78 miles – by the way, on a lake in New Zealand. Our guys swam over 202 miles in the Pacific Ocean in one of the coldest years on record. Oh, and by the way, these remarkable athletes are all in their 40s and 50s.<br /><br />Thanks so much to Jim McConica and the other swimmers for keeping our spirits up in a tough year.<br /><br />I’ve gone on at some length about all these people and organizations and accomplishments because I think it’s important to remember all the positive things that occurred during a difficult year. Thanks to all of you, we have made it through what I called last year “Our Defining Moment”.<br /><br />Now, we must all work together to channel all of our energies toward charting “The Way Forward” here in Ventura.<br /><br />And I do mean all of us – everyone in the community, working together – not just the City Council.<br /><br />The decisions we on the City Council make up here every Monday night about what to fund and what to approve -- yes, these are important. But we can’t do it alone – and, anyway, these days nobody trusts us in the government to do it all by ourselves anyway. But with all of us working together – government agencies, nonprofit organizations, private businesses, individuals – we can do a much better job of figuring out what’s right for our community and a much more effective job of getting it done.<br /><br />I think I can speak for all seven of us up here when I say that we must focus on two important and inter-related goals.<br /><br />First, working with all of you to create a sustainable and enduring prosperity for our community.<br /><br />And second, using that prosperity to maintain and enhance our quality of life.<br /><br />Let me begin with prosperity, because without prosperity we cannot succeed as a community.<br /><br />I have spent most of my life trying to understand how cities work, and I can say one thing: whether they grow or increase in population or not they never stay the same. To prosper – and to maintain a high quality of life – cities have to reinvent themselves economically again and again. This is true no matter how big or small they are; and no matter how fast or slowly they are growing.<br /><br />Ventura has already reinvented itself many times from mission town to fishing town to agricultural center to oil boomtown to surf town to government town – and we remain all these things to some extent today. But we cannot stand still. We must continue to forge ahead, reinvent ourselves – find enduring prosperity in the 21st Century global economy while retaining the small-town feel we all cherish.<br /><br />Everything we are moving forward with right now is focused on exactly this goal – and these efforts are tightly intertwined.<br /><br />We talk a lot about creativity and artists galleries and projects like the WAV. Sometimes it seems like we have staked our whole future on art galleries, artist housing, and arts events. Some people love this; others are understandably skeptical that we can base a city’s entire economy on this proposition.<br /><br />To be sure, arts and culture are important for their own sake. But they’re also important as a way to connect to the fast-growing creative and innovation economies regionally and worldwide which we in Ventura must be a part of in order to prosper in the future.<br /><br />The creative arts – performance, visual arts, graphic and architectural design, publishing, fashion -- represent one of the fastest-growing sectors of the American economy. No American city, large or small, will be able to prosper in the future without nurturing these creative arts. The future of the creative arts in Ventura is virtually unlimited – and essential to our future in so many different ways<br /><br />Over the last year, we have increased our visibility in Hollywood with the Film Ventura! Initiative – kicked off last fall at our downtown movie complex with a screening of the independent film, “Not Fade Away,” by local filmmaker Meredith Markworth Pollack. This effort has reminded us that we have an enormous supply of local film talent here in Ventura – actors, craftspeople, and even many writers and producers.<br /><br />We’ve also strengthened our connection with our most important local educational institution dealing with the creative arts, Brooks Institute. Hundreds of Brooks film and video students already live and work in Ventura, and I recently met with Brooks’s new president, Susan Kirkland, to reaffirm our mutual commitment to each other. Brooks is a critical component of Ventura’s creative economy – attracting talented young people to Ventura and helping us to attract regional and national attention. Thank you, Susan, for your leadership.<br /><br />And even in these difficult times, we have seen many other business leaders in the creative arts strengthen their commitment to Ventura – and, in particular, to downtown. Rasmussen Associates moved downtown and transformed the top floor of the Earle Stanley Gardner. Thank you, Larry Rasmussen for this commitment. Ann Deal of Fashion Forms has continued to help build Ventura’s reputation in the apparel industry and recently located her designers in our creative downtown, where she has long lived herself. Thank you, Ann.<br /><br />The creative economy is important to our future prosperity, but it will not sustain us all by itself. The creative economy is important to Ventura for a much bigger reason as well – it provides us with an important connection to the worldwide innovation economy. The creating of new products and new services – especially using the the Internet – today serves as the engine of the global economy.<br /><br />No city can prosper in the 21st Century without strong, local innovators. Innovators are themselves creative and they thrive on a lively and creative local community.<br /><br />That’s why our Ventura Ventures Technology Center on the 3d Floor of 505 Poli Street has been so successful. V2TC is now home to 19 startup companies. The entrepreneurs located there are changing the way the world uses information – through online advertising, geographic location systems, online marketing, and many other innovative ideas. They’re drawn to Ventura not just by this incubator but also by the high quality of life, the recreational opportunities, and the creative buzz in our downtown.<br /><br />I’d like to acknowledge one of those entrepreneurs right now – Jeff Green, founder of The Trade Desk, an online advertising startup that has been so successful that it’s actually busting out of the incubator and moving to the 5th floor of 505 Poli. Jeff, on behalf of everyone in Ventura, I want to say thanks for your commitment in creating jobs here in town. I’d like to thank all the other entrepreneurs in the incubator as well for their commitment to Ventura. And I’d like to invite everyone here to visit the incubator during the reception at the incubator, on the 3d floor of 505 Poli in a few minutes.<br /><br />Creative artists, designers, entrepreneurs – all are essential components in creating enduring prosperity. But businesses cannot succeed without startup capital. And local capital is especially important. If we can finance our innovative companies through local sources, then the resulting wealth will stay in our community, to be recycled into yet more business ventures and also providing the basis for local philanthropy.<br /><br />That’s why I am grateful to people like John and Dan Peate of Peate Ventures, who have decide to locate their venture firm right here downtown. Thanks so much, John and Dan, for being financial pioneers here in Ventura, and thanks to our financiers and entrepreneurs -- we are getting more attention from investors every day.<br /><br />There is yet another dimension to our future prosperity, one that is also linked to creativity and the global innovation economy – the medical and biotech fields.<br /><br />Here in Ventura, we have long been blessed with extremely high-quality medical care, thanks largely to our two fine hospitals and all the medical talent they attract to our community. This year, we’ve seen both our hospitals make major, forward-looking investments in Ventura.<br /><br />Community Memorial Hospital is building a new cancer center and is about to embark on a $300 million expansion that will improve medical care, create new business spinoff opportunities in the medical and biotech fields, and help to revitalize business in the Five Points area. It is inspiring to see such an enormous investment in our community during these tough times. And the new CMH will also be a place where biotech entrepreneurs will be able to create and innovate, bringing even more jobs and wealth to Ventura.<br /><br />And Ventura County Medical Center is also about to embark on a major hospital expansion, adding even more good-paying jobs – construction jobs and medical jobs – to our community. Together, these institutions make Ventura a center of medical care – and medical innovation.<br /><br />I would like to express my thanks to Gary Wilde, the CEO of Community Memorial Health Systems, and Mike Powers, the outgoing director of the Ventura County Health Care Agency, for spearheading these large and significant investments in our community. They have truly taught us here in Ventura that working together produces far more wealth, health, and happiness than the alternative!<br /><br />The purpose of building prosperity, of course, is to provide the funds – public, private, and philanthropic – necessary maintain and improve our quality of life.<br /><br />Part of The Way Forward here in Ventura must be to refocus on our quality of life – for all citizens. My colleagues and I on the council look forward to renewing our long partnership with the Ventura Unified School District and Superintendent Trudy Arriaga – not only to ensure safe and high-performing schools, but to work together toward major community goals that will benefit everyone in our community. Yes, Trudy, we will build the Westside Pool.<br /><br />We also have to focus on our neighborhoods. Ventura’s neighborhoods are great places to live. But they’ve taken a beating in the last couple of years, as we at City Hall have been forced to cut back on many basic services that neighborhoods depend on – police and fire service, park and median maintenance, tree-trimming, street paving, libraries.<br /><br />Again, we on this dais are committed to working in collaboration with our neighborhoods to create stability and improve the quality of life. I’d like to thank the chairs of Ventura’s Community Councils for meeting with me regularly to discuss these issues. And I’m proud to announce that we are all working together to bring about Ventura’s first-ever Neighborhood Summit later this spring.<br /><br />Lastly, I would like to note that, in approaching the future, we must be inclusive. Ventura is a diverse community, and we must ensure that both our prosperity and our quality of life is shared by all residents. Frankly, we have fallen behind in our efforts to implement the Americans with Disabilities Act and ensuring that every place in our community is welcoming to everyone. I look forward to the City’s rollout in 2011 of new efforts to make our community more accessible to those with disabilities.<br /><br />As a person who is rapidly developing a severe disability, I have learned that while there may be physical disabilities, there is no such thing as a disability of the heart or spirit. We are blessed in Ventura with fabulous people active in promoting the cause of those with disabilities. I’d like to thank Chera Minkler for being a personal inspiration to me – as an advocate for the disabled and as a person with great compassion for all.<br /><br />Here in Ventura, The Way Forward inevitably involves a look backward toward the past. We are a city of history. Ventura was incorporated as a municipality in 1866; and, indeed, of the 481 cities in California, only 22 are older than we are.<br /><br />On April 2, 2016, our city will celebrate its 150th anniversary. In case you’re counting, that’s 1,880 days from today.<br /><br />So here’s a challenge:<br /><br />Let’s dedicate ourselves to making Ventura’s new prosperity – and much better quality of life – a reality by that date. Let’s make sure that, by then, we are<br /><br />A city that has successfully combined our creativity our innovation and our opportunities to create a new and lasting prosperity<br /><br /> A city that has fulfilled its commitment great education, high-quality public safety great medical care, great parks and recreation, by the way great and by the way, a great place for all kinds of people to live.<br /><br />In short, let’s make ourselves the best small city in California.<br /><br />We have a long list of things we know we must accomplish to achieve renewed prosperity and a better quality of life. So here’s my challenge: I ask you to join me in a concerted effort to get those things done.<br /><br />Within 90 days, let’s form a group of community leaders to lead this effort.<br /><br />Within 3 to 6 months, let’s agree on a to-do list – the high priority things we must do to establish long-term prosperity and a better quality of life by 2016. And then let’s spend every day between now and then getting things done, crossing items off the list, until we have made sure Ventura will be a great place to live and work for the next generation.<br /><br />Remember, when you wake up tomorrow morning, there will be only 1,879 days left.<br /><br />And on Wednesday, only 1,878.<br /><br />So let’s get going. Let’s make every day count. Let’s make each one of these days count. </p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Bill Fulton is a member of the Ventura (Calif.) City Council.</div>Bill Fultonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10833863247431014699noreply@blogger.com2