All posts by admin

Mayor makes case for tax increase to two “juries”

Erik Nasarenko was selected as Mayor by the City Council in December, 2015.

Mayor Erik Nasarenko, who is a deputy district attorney for Ventura County, was right at home making his case before a City Council meeting at his first State of the City address, and at the annual Ventura Chamber of Commerce’s State of the City Breakfast held on Thursday, March 10 at the Crowne Plaza Ventura Beach.

The mayor’s  “Invest in Ventura, Now and for a Strong Tomorrow” theme discussed the present and future of Ventura and laid out a case for a one-half sales tax increase in Ventura.

city mayor inset“The State of the City address is the perfect opportunity for the business community to engage with City Hall and hear directly from the Mayor about his priorities and vision for the coming year,” said Stephanie Caldwell, President and CEO for the Chamber.

In his State of the City presentations, Mayor Nasarenko gave credit to each council member for their contributions to Ventura.

He pointed out that an independent auditor gave Ventura a “clean” opinion for the fiscal year that ended June 30, and to balance the budget, the city no longer transfers money from internal accounts to the general fund.

“We are indeed managing our money wisely,” he said. “The city’s main source of income is from sales and property tax collections. But once the state and others get their share, Ventura is left with 13 cents on the dollar from the sales tax and only 16 cents for every dollar in property taxes.”

He stated that Ventura has greatly reduced the number of employees necessary to balance the budget, but said more money is needed for many things including:

Infrastructure – sidewalks, streets, underground utilities – that are in need of major repair.

The need for a new library to replace Wright Library that was closed several years ago.

More police officers are needed to control the 1,000 known gang members from the 100 known gangs in Ventura. Gang intervention officers were reduced from 7 to 2 in our current budget.

The fire department needs more funding to keep all of its stations open, especially Fire Station 4 that requires funds from outside sources to remain open.

Last fall, the City Council voted to spend up to $80,000 on a campaign to get public support for a sales-tax measure. The Council will likely vote in June to officially get it included on the November ballot. Most council members have already expressed their support for the measure.

Ventura’s current sales tax is 7.5 percent. In recent years, Venturan’s have twice rejected a sales tax increase.

In conclusion, Nasarenko said, “Invest in Ventura, join us. We are going to pass this. We’re going to get this on the ballot.”

 

Four Ferguson Case Orr Paterson LLP attorneys on Rising Stars list of 2016 Super Lawyers

Four attorneys with Ferguson Case Orr Paterson LLP have been named to the Rising Stars list of Super Lawyers for 2016. This is a repeat honor for partners Bret Anderson, Jesse Cahill and Douglas Goldwater, and the first recognition for Kymberley Peck, an associate with Ventura County’s largest law firm.

The Rising Stars list includes fewer than 2.5 percent of the lawyers in the Southern California Region who are 40 years old or younger, or who have been in practice for 10 years or less.

“Each of the attorneys named to the 2016 Rising Star list continually seeks opportunities for growth in their profession so that they can continue making significant contributions to our clients and our firm,” said FCOP managing partner Michael Velthoen.

 

Betsy Blanchard Chess selected as Director of Fund Development

Betsy has worked with numerous arts organizations including the Rubicon Theatre.

The Museum of Ventura County is pleased to announce the hiring of Betsy Blanchard Chess as its new Director of Development. Ms. Chess will help lead the organization in its efforts to sustain its two locations-the second site being the Museum of Ventura Agriculture Museum in Santa Paula-and to build an endowment.

Betsy attended high school in La Jolla and did both graduate and postgraduate work at the University of Southern California, earning a Masters of Arts degree in Modern European History.

In 1988 she became editor and publisher of The Broadcaster Magazine for the Farm Bureau of Ventura County. She retired from the magazine in 2013.

In 1994, she briefly served in a professional capacity as Executive Director for the Ventura County Symphony . She returned to the board as a volunteer and helped to oversee the birth of the New West Symphony in 1995. In 1998 she was hired as Executive Director of New West, a position she held until 2002.

In 2002, Betsy was named president of the San Buenaventura Foundation for the Arts where she worked to realize the Foundation’s dream of building the Cultural Arts Center in Ventura.She was chairman of the Arts Showcase for the Ventura Unified School District in 2005. She also serves on the board of advisors for Women’s Economic Ventures and the Board of Advisors for New West Symphony.  She is a member of Ventura Rotary of which she will be president July 1, 2016- June 30, 2017.

Ventura Interface Ministerial Association as a 2005 Woman of Vision, three times by the Ventura Rotary Club with Paul Harris Fellowships and by the Ventura County Arts Council with their first ever Arts Stars Award for her work in arts education. In 2011 She was named to the Cultural Affairs Commission of the City of Ventura. In 2012, Women’s Economic Ventures of Ventura, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Counties named Betsy one of five business trailblazers. The Association of Fundraising Professionals named her Volunteer of the Year for Ventura County in 2014.

 

Ventura Police Department’s newest K9 Teams, Officer Keith Therrien and K9 Falco, will be introduced at Ventura Baptist Church Mar. 13

One of Ventura Police Department’s newest K9 Teams, Officer Keith Therrien and K9 Falco, will be introduced at Ventura Baptist Church on March 13 at 9:30 a.m. Falco was purchased from a donation by Ventura Baptist Church. Falco is a two and half year old all black German Shepard from Germany. His full name is Falco Von Pentavita. Falco came to the United States on January 11th and started his training to become a police service dog that same day. Falco graduated the Inglis Police Dog Academy on February 18 and began protecting the citizens of Ventura February 19th.

 

The Ventura Police Department has four K9 teams. All are assigned to the Patrol Unit so that a team is on-duty seven days a week, providing around the clock service to the community. All of our canines are German Shepherds and they live at home with their handler/officer and their families. We use our K9 teams for a variety of public safety assignments. The two most frequent uses are to locate fleeing suspects and to find illegal drugs. Canines can search an entire warehouse, for example, in much less time than a team of officers could perform the same job. Canines can sniff out hidden suspects thereby making them more effective in this situation than their human counterparts. Using K9 teams allows the department to perform a variety of dangerous tasks in a quick and more effective manner.

 

Our department, along with other law enforcement agencies from Santa Barbara and Ventura County, train weekly with Dave Inglis, one of the foremost K9 trainers in the United States. Weekly training sessions focus on tasks such as searching, apprehension, drug detection, obedience, agility and confined searches.

 

The National Police Dog Foundation, founded by Dave and Debbie Inglis, has assisted in the purchase of all of our canines (past and present). Donations made by Ventura Baptist Church were provided to the Foundation for the purchase of Falco. If you are looking to give to your local church may want to consider mobile giving as one way of doing so. The Foundation seeks donations from the community and uses the money to purchase and train police dogs for law enforcement agencies throughout Ventura County. The donation of a trained police dog and handler is a tremendous benefit to our Department and to the community. On average the cost for a canine is $12,000, with an additional $8,000-$10,000 for training and certification, no tax payer dollars are used for the effort. All of the training is provided through the generosity of donations to the Foundation.

Cal Poly students from Ventura honored

Rachel SantaOlalla and Tanner Shelton make Ventura proud.

Twenty-one Cal Poly students were recognized for their awards and other accomplishments by state lawmakers on the floors of the Assembly and Senate in Sacramento on Monday, Feb. 1.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Monning, D-Carmel, whose district also includes the university, introduced the students to his colleagues. “I am proud to welcome to the state Senate some of Cal Poly’s most talented students,” Sen. Monning said.

Each has distinguished him or herself as an individual or on a team that has received a national industry award or on such high-profile events as the Tournament of Roses Parade, with its TV audience of 100 million, and the team that raised $600,000 for a net zero solar home that was judged third best in the nation.

Venturan Rachel SantaOlalla is a landscape architecture major in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design. She is a 2007 graduate of Ventura High School.

Being on this tour is a rare and special opportunity that I’m enthusiastic about,” SantaOlalla said. “I think it’s a progressive move to have New Age thinking start a conversation with lawmakers. Being selected as a representative of Cal Poly landscape architecture means I have a role in advocating for the landscape architecture industry. I see this as a platform for exchanging ideas, including the types of project that I and my peers from this generation would like to accomplish.”

Tanner Shelton is a city and regional planning major in the College of Architecture and Environmental Design. He is also a graduate of Ventura High School in 2012.

“I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to represent the university and the many accomplishments of our students and faculty,” Shelton said. “I think the success of the people in this delegation and all across our student body is directly attributable to Cal Poly’s focus on Learn by Doing and the university’s student-oriented approach to higher education.”

 

Public invited to Ventura 150th “City Hall Open House” on Friday, March 11

Community members of all ages are invited to visit Ventura City Hall, located at 501 Poli Street, for a fun afternoon learning about local government during an Open House celebrating Ventura’s 150th anniversary of cityhood.  The free event will be held Friday, March 11, from 1 to 4 pm.

Art and historic tours, music, refreshments, displays, open offices and a mock City Council meeting conducted by VUSD fifth grade school children are all highlights of the afternoon.

FOYER – Meet your guide Glenda Jackson at 1:15 and 3 pm in the first floor Foyer for a tour of the historic building with fascinating stories about its landmark architecture and role as the former county courthouse. At 2:30 pm Community Partnerships Manager Denise Sindelar will guide you through the building’s nationally prominent Municipal Art Collection – a permanent showcase of the county’s finest artists.

ATRIUM – Enjoy live music, refreshments and displays by the Ventura Water, Police and Community Development departments in the first floor Atrium from 1 to 4 pm.

COUNCIL CHAMBERS – Don’t miss the mock City Council Meeting conducted by Ventura Unified School District fifth grade school children at 2 pm in the majestic second floor Council Chambers, once the county’s superior court.

COMMUNITY MEETING ROOM – Explore a century of dramatic historic photos of city history in this former courtroom on the second floor from 1 to 4 pm.

SANTA CRUZ CONFERENCE ROOM – View a 20-minute film celebrating the first century of City Hall in the smallest former courtroom on the second floor 1 to 4 pm.

CITY MANAGER, CITY CLERK & HUMAN RESOURCES OFFICES – Meet city officials and explore the offices of government leaders during the open house from 1 to 4 pm.

CITY HALL EAST BACK PARKING LOT – Visit “touch a truck” displays behind the building from Ventura Police, Fire, Public Works and Ventura Water from 1 to 4 pm.

Experience 1840s California at free Olivas’ RANCHO DAYS on March 13

Find out what life was like on a California Rancho over 170 years ago during the “Rancho Days Celebration” on Sunday, March 13, from 11 am to 3 pm at the historic Olivas Adobe, 4200 Olivas Park Drive, near Ventura Harbor.

Step back in time to experience Ventura’s Western heritage-Chumash, Mexican and Cowboy-at California’s only remaining Monterey Style adobe built in the 1840s by a Mexican family on the 4,694-acre cattle-and-crop land grant Rancho San Miguel.

Enjoy great period entertainment and try your hand at a dozen engaging and educational activities for the whole family with Rancho-era workshops led by outreach staff, volunteer experts and heritage services organizations including the Ventura County Hand Weavers & Spinning Guild, Olivas Adobe Historical Interpreters and Channel Islands Woodcarvers.

Make adobe bricks. Grind corn and grill tortillas. Pan for gold. Rope a steer. Try beading, birding and animal tracking. Craft some Mexican paper flowers. Learn more about the Chumash natural and spiritual worlds, the adobe’s barrel organ, Gene West wooden toys, laundry days and Thaumatropes and old gadget guessing games plus watch antique gun demonstrations, tour the historic adobe with costumed docents abd visit the Mexican food truck onsite to purchase authentic refreshments.

ENTERTAINMENT LINEUP

11-12              Mariachi Aguilas de Oxnard

12:05-12:25   Ballet Folklorico de Bell Arts – repeats 1:05-1:20

12:30-1           Professor Tinker’s Magical Medicine Show – repeats 1:25-1:50

2:10-3             California State Old time Fiddlers – Range Riders

The Rancho Days Celebration is an all-free event in celebration of the City of Ventura’s150th anniversary of cityhood thanks to the sponsorship of Olivas family descendants Bill and Elise Kearney.

The Art Tales contest for writers inspired by art deadline nears: April 4

Dear past Art Tales participant,

Just a reminder that the deadline nears for the contest. When we talk and write about the experience of art — and how it frees our mind — we provide that art both oxygen and speech. Artworks live through our spoken and written conversations about them. Won’t you help the artworks selected for Ventura’s 150th anniversary “live” by entering your poem or short narrative in the contest? Entering is easy and by email. You may view the artworks at the library or online. And there are cash and other prizes in three categories. Hope you hear from you soon!

The City of Ventura is pleased to sponsor the eighth annual creative writing contest inspired by art, in partnership with E.P. Foster Library, 651 E Main St in Ventura. Selections from the Public and Municipal Art Collections at Ventura City Hall are rotated annually to a special second floor exhibit space near the library’s rear (children’s) entrance in an effort to make them more accessible to the community.

Visit E. P. Foster Library or the links below and choose the artwork that inspires you to create and enter your own poem or short story, 500 words or less by April 4, 2016.

● Free and open to all writers worldwide

● Prizes in 3 age categories

● To receive future contest notices  click the link to check the “Art Tales News” box under your profile

Artworks & Theme

“Our Local Story” is the Art Tales theme for 2016, celebrating Ventura’s 150th birthday in April, through four artists whose works in the Municipal and Public Art Collections tell our city’s unique story by depicting its classic neighborhoods, citrus orchards, proud history and hip downtown.”

– Tobie Roach, Art Tales Curator

 

When the Stranger says: “What is the meaning of this city?

Do you huddle close together because you love each other?”

What will you answer? … “This is a community”?

–from Choruses from The Rock – T.S. Eliot

Click the links below to view and download featured art, contest info and the required release form:

1) Ortega Adobe, by Marguerite Hardeman, c. 1960s, oil on canvas, 31″ x 37″

2) Catalina Street V, by Katherine McGuire, 2002, watercolor on paper, 22″ x 28″

3) Oranges Against Shadows, by Meredith Brooks Abbott, 1999, oil on canvas, 21″ x 25″

4) Thrift, by Paula Odor, 1999, watercolor, 34″ x 28″

5) 4 in 1 all contest artworks in one PDF document, each printable on 8.5″ x 11″ sheets

6) Teacher and writer lesson plan with entry rules, featured artist bios &  more lesson plan model poems 7) Explore past anthologies (find links at the bottom of the website) for more prose and poetry examples

8) Copy, fill, save and send the REQUIRED RELEASE FORM in English or Spanish

TEACHERS: please contact Art Tales curator Tobie Roach at 805.658-4759 or [email protected] to request printed copies of materials for your classes and for further contest information.