GUEST COLUMNIST
by  Bob Alviani, Chairman, Venturans for Responsible & Efficient Government’

Complaining about how Ventura spends tax money is like complaining about the weather. Everyone talks about it, but nobody does anything about it.

You trust city officials would spend it as though it comes out of their own pockets. However, many believe that City officials view tax revenue as an endless faucet spewing money.

So, we rely on our elected officials to question spending when necessary. The following example illustrates how dysfunctional the oversight has become.

At a recent meeting, the City of Ventura Finance Committee considered a “small-dollar” expenditure. The Finance Department wants to spend $29,600 per year on outsourcing the opening of payment envelopes and processing of water bills.

Currently, Ventura Water sends water bills every two months and when payment is made, city personnel open envelopes and process the payments through the bank. The City will soon change to send out water bills monthly. Since Ventura will change to monthly billing, the outsourcing costs would double to $59,200.

The city’s finance staff justified outsourcing this service to improve cash flow and increase efficiency. The staff did not discuss or offer any evidence on just how they would be more efficient if adopted.

Only two City Councilmembers attended the committee meeting.

A citizen asked how much money we would save and how many staff people would be reduced or redeployed. The initial reply was the cost savings would be “minuscule.” When pressed to define minuscule, the staff member was unprepared to provide numbers. When pressed about changes in staffing, the answer was “none.”

That should cause every tax payer in this city to express concerns about the issues surrounding this spending proposal and by extension any plans to spend tax money regardless of the amount:

Why would any staff member ask for $29,600 per year and not support the request with time and cost savings?

Why didn’t the City Council members ask the hard questions about time and cost savings?

If the city wasn’t planning to reduce staff, what would these staff employees do instead of opening envelopes and processing payments? How would they be more productive in their new duties?

You may be asking, “Why so focused on one instance such as this?” After all, it’s only $29,600 today. But soon, it’s going to double to $59,200. We must remind ourselves of Benjamin Franklin’s admonition — “Watch the pennies, and the dollars will take care of themselves.”

In this case $29,600 doubles within the year. No City Councilmember noted or questioned the expense.

Why? Have our elected City Council members have become complacent? Do they trust staff

recommendations unquestionably? Or, are they no longer concerned about how they spend our tax dollars?

No matter the reason, the City Council has to stop looking at taxpayers as an endless faucet from which money flows. It’s time they started spending our tax money as if it was coming out of their own pockets, not some faceless person.

When pennies turn to dollars and dollars turn to thousands then turn to millions, who do YOU think they will look to for more money?

Gold Coast Transit District (GCTD), Ventura County’s largest provider of public transit, broke ground recently on the future home of its new Operations and Maintenance facility that will support future transit needs for thousands of riders in Ventura County.

“This facility is an investment in both the future of transit serving Ventura County and the transit workers we depend on to keep a modern, efficient transit fleet in good working order,” said Congresswoman Julia Brownley.

The new facility will replace an outdated and deteriorating bus garage located on a 3-acre site that was originally built in the 1970’s for a much smaller fleet. Once built, the new “green facility” will allow GCTD to maintain a future fleet of up to 125 buses and will include an administration and operations building, an eight-bay maintenance and repair building, a compressed natural gas (CNG) fuel station and bus wash. Noted Darren Kettle, Executive Director of Ventura County Transportation Commission, “This is the largest transportation infrastructure project in the last 10 years.” The new facility is located at 1901 Auto Center Drive in Oxnard, and is expected to open in late 2018.

“We have to keep our buses, equipment and facilities in good shape so that people can rely on public transit to get to work, school and appointments,” said Steve Brown, General Manager.

With the May 11, 2017 announcement, Ventura joins a group of communities, in all 50 states, that are transforming their neighborhoods. There are now 416 communities nationwide currently recognized with a BFC award for their efforts to make biking better.

This is the first time that the City of Ventura has qualified as a Bicycle Friendly Community.  Local bicycle club and advocacy organization, Channel Islands Bicycle Club, assisted with the application and has supported the many improvements for cyclists in Ventura that resulted in this recognition.

“We applaud these communities for making improvements for people who bike in ways that build upon their existing strengths and are based upon their particular needs, whether that is infrastructure, education, or encouragement,” said Bill Nesper, Executive Director at the League of American Bicyclists. “We are encouraged by the way that communities are using bicycling as a part of their solution to issues of health, job access, traffic safety, and the environment and using our program to make progress in those issues.”

The Bronze BFC award recognizes Ventura’s commitment to improving conditions for bicycling through investment in bicycling promotion, education programs, infrastructure and pro-bicycling policies. The BFC program provides a benchmark for communities to evaluate these conditions and policies, while highlighting areas for improvement. The national scope of the program also promotes competition and comparison between communities.

Each community that applies for a BFC award receives a report card. The report cards for communities that receive an award are available in the League of American Bicyclists’ award database.

“We are very proud of the many recent infrastructure projects in Ventura, such as the clearly marked bike lanes and green ‘bike boxes’ at intersections, that help cyclists and motorists share the road in Ventura,” said Leslie Ogden, Government Liaison at Channel Islands Bicycle Club.  “We encourage new riders to sign up for a Street Skills class through the City of Ventura and learn the techniques for safe road cycling.”

The League of American Bicyclists is leading the movement to create a Bicycle Friendly America for everyone.  The Bicycle Friendly Community program was created in 1995 and has processed more than 1,200 applications since 2002.

To learn more about building a Bicycle Friendly America, visit:  www.bikeleague.org/BFA

About the Channel Islands Bicycle Club

The Channel Islands Bicycle Club (CIBike) represents over 300 cyclists from Ventura County and beyond. The Club sponsors weekly road bike rides and co-sponsors the annual “Cool Breeze Century Ride” every August.  CIBike advocates for safe cycling facilities and provides grants to organizations that promote cycling for recreation, health, sport, and transportation.  CIBike is partnering with the City of Ventura to offer the Street Skills classes.

by Terri Stober.

My book entitled  A Road to Barcelona, A Mother’s Account has been recently published.  My e-book or paperback is listed on Amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and other online retailers.  Bank of Books in Ventura, also, has my book in paperback.

My book is a mother’s story of her two daughters leaving home at young ages to pursue gymnastics dreams to be Olympians.  The loneliness and longing to be with her daughters during their journey and the long separations were not easy to describe.  Maybe they didn’t make it to the Olympics, but there were decisions, successes, and experiences that I wanted to share.

A retired high school educator and Human Relations Specialist retirement has allowed me the time to hike, bike, volunteer at the Ventura Botanical Gardens and the San Buenaventura Mission, play bridge, travel, and now write my first book.

Terri and her husband raised their two daughters in Grass Valley in Northern California, where they found their passion for gymnastics. After the girls’ college graduations, Terri worked and lived internationally for five years in Egypt and Paris, France, then moved to Seattle where she lived for 11 years. She finally returned to her home state of California in 2013.

I will have my second book signing at Bank of Books, 748 E Main St.  from 1-3 pm on June 24. I hope to see you there. www.gymnasticsamothersacctbystober.com .

GUEST COLUMNIST
by Rob Petrin

Pierpont residents in Ventura took a stand as a community, in an effort to reject a proposal by Verizon wireless to erect an RF ( Radio Frequency) cell transmission tower at the Marina Village shopping center directly behind Vons market. This is only 70ft from the nearest residence. The hearing was at city hall in February. The public took turns speaking, voicing concerns. Residents were very concerned about the health risks living directly in front of an RF transmitter or in close range to it. The best thing they could do in this situation would be to follow EMF Protection guidelines including things like wearing specially designed protective Clothing, but they wanted to avoid the situation altogether.

Turns out the only argument the city was allowed to consider from the public is appearance. The Verizon proposal was eventually rejected by the city based on aesthetics. Being taken back by this and even shocked, I decided to research what was behind this seemingly absurd ruling.

The CTIA (Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association) has managed to convince law makers to exclude health concerns of residents as an argument against cell tower placement. They have also introduced a law which cancels arguments against loss of property value in close proximity to cell towers.

Most of the current research on RF is being done with regards to cell phones themselves, the little siblings to the transmission towers. This comes as no surprise as there are somewhere in the area of 4 billion cellphone users around the world that could be affected if RF were not as safe as our government lets us believe.

The FCC states in their guidelines. “ there is no scientific evidence to date that proves wireless phone usage can lead to cancer or any variety of other health effects”. The FCC last updated its standards 20 years ago. They rely on agencies like the WHO (World Health Organization) for its standards, even though the WHO declared RF from cell phones as 2B ( possibly carcinogenic)?

I am not condoning the WHO either. Picking apart their 2B classification they set for cellphone RF is full of holes. They chose to ignore the critical data and rejected studies by one of the most knowledgeable scientists in the industry. Respected scientists from around the world are screaming out to the WHO and all other standard setting agencies to urgently review their position on RF safety.

Let’s face it, we all need and use our wireless devices, most all using RF communication. What I want and what I think most people want is to know what is really safe and what is not. It only makes sense to keep cell towers away from our homes and families until we can establish safe distances from their transmissions. With your cell phone you have a choice. Cell towers are not a choice.

Verizon has appealed the decision. Now we get to see how our community survives fighting with sticks and stones and against the cell industry armed with laws, lawyers and RF.