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City of Ventura Photo Contest winners announced

Winner Tammy Sims

A reception and exhibit for the City of Ventura Photo Contest will be held on Dec. 5 at 5:30pm at a special reception at City Hall, 501 Poli St.

The City of Ventura invites the public and all participants in the 11th annual photography contest to attend. The Mayor will award certificates to contest winners in the Council Chambers at 6pm.

Winner John Ferritto-Breeze contributing photographer

The winning photos will be on display in The Bridge Gallery near City Hall’s second floor rear entrance through January, 2017.

Fifty-five photographers entered 214 images – on view at www.cityofventura.net/photocontest – and 297 members of the public cast votes online to select the “People’s Choice” awards. A second set of “Judges’ Choice” winners came from a Community Partnerships team of visual artist professionals.

“The photo contest becomes more popular every year as a great way for residents to express civic pride in our city’s stunning natural landscapes, unique architecture and diverse people, culture and community life,” said Community Partnerships Manager Denise Sindelar. “I invite photographers to enter the 2017 photo contest online between January 1 and October 2, 2017.”

The JC (Judges’ Choice) and PC (People’s Choice) winners in 5 categories for the 2016 contest are:

Category 1 Environment

JC Lysa Urban (tie)
JC Jacqueline Counter (tie)
PC Deirdra Finning

Category 2 Architecture

JC Christopher Meugniot
PC Chuck Gebert

Category 3 Portraits

JC John Ferritto
PC Tom Robinson

Category 4 Community Life

JC Ron Brubaker
PC Chuck Gebert

Category 5 Altered Images

JC & PC Tammy Sims

Ventura — a charter city that is more accessible, transparent and accountable to the citizens it serves

In California, there are two kinds of cities: charter and general law.

by the City of Ventura

The City of Ventura has a long history of civic engagement. Our City Council listens carefully as citizens voice their concerns and suggestions at public meetings, by email or in person. On example is the City Council decision to form a Charter Review Committee after hearing from residents that our City Charter needed updates.

In 2014, an 11-member citizens committee immediately began its work researching areas of the City Charter that may require amending, clarification or modification, including considerations for a directly elected Mayor, term limits, district elections and removing the Ventura Unified School District’s process to elect its Board of Education from our City Charter. In April 2016 the City Council voted to place two Charter Amendments, recommended by the CRC, on the ballot and Ventura residents voted to approve the Measures during the Election this month.

Measure N changes the selection of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor from odd numbered years to even numbered years to coincide with the City Council election; replaces Section 506 of the City Charter electing Councilmembers at-large with a process to be established by ordinance in the City’s Municipal Code; and removes the Board of Education election from the City Charter.

Measure Q establishes term limits that a City Councilmember may not serve more than three, four-year terms without a break in service of at least four years. And, in the event the City Council are elected by districts, the term-limits provision will prevent a City Councilmember who serves three terms on the City Council from one district from moving to another district and seeking to run again without a four-year break in service. Term limits start with the 2018 election.

How do these charter amendments affect for our current and newly-elected officials? Mayor Nasarenko and Deputy Mayor Andrews will complete their mayoral roles in 2017 and serve as Councilmembers until 2018. Councilmembers Monahan and Tracy will serve their terms until 2018. Re-elected Councilmembers Heitmann and Weir, and newly-elected Councilmember LaVere, will serve until 2020. In December 2017, a Mayor and Deputy Mayor will be selected to serve a 1 year term to allow the Mayor/Deputy Major selection to start with the 2018 election. The Charter amendments become effective once they are published by the Secretary of State in the State Statutes. It is anticipated this will occur in January 2017.

In California, there are two kinds of cities: charter and general law. Ventura is a charter city, and of California’s 478 cities, 121 are charter cities. The benefit of being a charter city is to have local authority over “municipal affairs”, rather than allowing a state law to govern the same topic. Commonly referred to as the “home-rule”, the League of California Cities explains that the charter city provision of the State Constitution allows charter cities to conduct their own business and control their own affairs.

The City of Ventura’s first charter was approved by the voters in 1931 and by the State Legislature in 193. And because a city charter can only be changed by a vote of the people, it gives citizens control over local issues such as municipal election matters, land use and zoning decisions (with some exceptions) and how a city spends its tax dollars.

With leadership from our City Council and engagement of residents working together, we have “government by the people” and success in shaping our community with all the great attributes that Ventura has to offer.

Land Rover Jaguar Ventura hosts a law enforcement appreciation reception

Bella Donnelly making friends with police dog “Yankee” and officer Metz.

On Nov. 15 Land Rover Jaguar Ventura hosted a law enforcement appreciation reception honoring K9 Jag, the Ventura Police K9 Unit and law enforcement county-wide.

In March of 2016 Officer Hrynyk was selected as the Ventura Police Department’s next K9 handler. He was paired with K9 Jag. The Ventura Police Department has four K9 Teams assigned to Patrol. The K9 Teams are available for deployment seven days a week, providing protection to our community twenty-four hours a day.

Photos by Bernie Goldstein

Farm Day Heroes

Chris Massa brings nobility to farming at Balboa Middle School.

by Sheli Ellsworth

Most of us take food for granted. We shop in grocery stores bursting with choices. Food delivered to our doorstep is a click away. Roadside and farmer’s markets offer fresh and organic options. Food can be purchased anytime on any day. Scholar Thomas Malthus erred in his 1779 prediction; the human population has not out-paced agricultural production.

So, why worry about food or farming?

Because our abundance is dependent on a world food market which is dependent on political and economic forces we as individuals have very little control over. For example, in times of war, victory gardens in private residences and public parks decrease pressure on the food supply and allow people to contribute in tangible ways. The ability to grow and harvest is an integral part of our humanity. It connects us with the earth and with each other.

But we have produced a generation who has little or no idea where food comes from or what it takes to get food from field to fork. Community efforts like Farm Day encourage would-be growers to visit local farms, ranches and processing plants, but how do we inspire a whole generation to appreciate the smell of dirt? We find people like Chris Massa who bring nobility to farming.

We found Massa, a farm to school operations specialist, at Balboa Middle School pushing a shovel for the Ventura County Farm to School Collaborative, teaching world geography, environmental sciences, and history. Massa who has a degree in natural resource conservation from the University of British Columbia moved to Ventura to work for Foodcorps. He says he has gotten down and dirty since he was a kid in his mother’s garden. “But the real hook came in college when I took a permaculture design course. Farming encompasses all of my passions, environmental stewardship, creating healthy communities, and running a business.”

Oxnard Elementary School District, Rio School District, and Hueneme Elementary School District also use Massa’s services. He says his job requires him to spend 15 hours a week at Balboa, but his passion for the soil prompts him to spend much more. “In order to keep the farm in a productive state I spend another 10-15 hours weekly of my own time.”

Massa runs his organic gardens like real farms. He started the Balboa plot in June 2016 and hand tilled the soil adding worm castings and biochar. The 7th grade environmental horticulture class and the after-school Environmental Club tend the quarter acre spot. The students are growing lettuce, carrots, tomatoes and beans. They have learned the value of compost, insects and fresh vegetables. The student’s harvest goes to the school cafeteria for consumption. “The kids will try new foods just because they had a hand in the growing.”

What does Massa see in the future? “My biggest hope for the future is that our food system becomes less centralized. I would like to see more home/school/community gardens and farmer owned cooperatives. I would also love to see less food waste and a world in which no one suffers from malnutrition.” What is Massa’s plan for next year? “One of my favorite quotes is from Confucius, ‘If your plan is for one year plant rice. If your plan is for ten years plant trees. If your plan is for one hundred years educate children. ‘”

Massa says he loves Ventura County because of the year round growing climate. “But my favorite thing about living here is the ocean and how friendly the people are.”

Venturan’s approve all local ballot measures, including tax increase

Matt LaVere is Ventura’s newest City Council member.

Almost 60% of the city’s 65,265 registered voters took part in the Nov. 8 election. In our last council race, in 2013, roughly 26% of registered voters cast a ballot.

The increased voter turnout was due to the fact that this was the first time residents could vote for City Council in an even year and it also coincided with a presidential election. In 2014, the council asked voters to decide whether they wanted to switch from voting in odd years to voting in even-year elections and Venturan’s said yes.

The council race featured 10 candidates for three seats, which included incumbents Weir and Heitmann. Council member Carl Morehouse did not seek re-election.

City Council Winners:

Matt LaVere – 16,607 votes
Christy Weir -12,816
Cheryl Heitmann -11,469

School Board Winners:

Sabrina Rodriquez – 14,121
Jackie Moran or Don Wood

Sabrena Rodriguez won a Ventura school board seat, but who will fill the second open seat still remains a question. The votes counted for Jackie Moran and Don Wood change every time they are re-counted. The latest tally shows Moran leading by 12 votes (12,357 to 12,342).

Seven candidates ran for the two open seats for the school board.

Measure O, the city’s initiative to raise the sales tax, was approved 58% to 42%. It establishes a ½ cent sales tax increase for 25 years, expected to provide approximately $10,800,000 annually. To alleviate fears that the money will be spent on unapproved items, the measure requires independent audits, and a citizen’s oversight committee.

Attempts at a tax increase failed in 2006 and 2009 but this year’s voters recognized the need for improvement in city services.

Voters easily approved Measure Q, 82% to 18%, which sets term limits for City Councilmembers. The measure states that members can serve three full four-year terms (12-years), but then is not eligible to run for the City Council, or to be appointed to a vacancy, unless a period of four years has elapsed since they last serviced on the City Council.

The passing of Measure N, says that the selection of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor will occur in even-number years following regular City Council elections. It also eliminates the Ventura Unified School District’s election process from the City Charter.

Even though it was very confusing because of several open-space initiatives, Measure P (SOAR) – extending open-space, agriculture, and hillside land use changes only by voter approval until 2050 – easily passed.

The city’s Measure P, which is separate from the county measures, combined the current SOAR (initially approved in 1995) and Hillside Voter Participation Area (initially approved in 2002) and extended it from 2030 to 2050.

Ventura Unified School District’s Measure R, which continued the District’s existing $59 parcel tax for another four years passed, as it did in 2012. The tax is expected to bring in $2.2 million a year.

Measure R would aid in preserving and improving academic programs, including music and art, along with expanding career and technical training.

It also requires an independent citizen’s oversight committee to be formed and all funds are to be spent on neighborhood schools. No money is to be used for administrative salaries or be taken by the state.

Ventura College rally following Nov. 8 election results

Students expressed concern for the well-being of individuals targeted by large political campaigns.

by Andres Tovar-Ventura College

Students gathered the evening after the November 8th election to discuss the future of this great nation. Under the hot sun and heavy air that filled the end of a grueling campaign season, many expressed concern for the well-being of individuals targeted by large political campaigns and stressed the importance of safety in these coming times. Students in all, came together not for protest of any individual entity particularly, but to promote a much needed unity amongst the young and old of our community. Many felt the nation was more divided than ever and in these times where too many emotions run deep, a unity of our citizens regardless of political belief is our greatest duty.

Instructors of Ventura College gave insight on what the next most logical step should be, and in conjunction with the students, offered a message of peace and love and hope. The older individuals that attended this rally then offered further insight into the coming future, expressing sympathies for those who feel threatened and provided wisdom with their experience with similar times in their lives. Many individuals spoke to the crowd of having dealt with rougher times; being persecuted and often abandoned by the system meant to protect and assist them. In their all knowledge and wisdom gained within the borders of time and space here in our home, it was told again the greatest thing a people can do in the hardest of times is unite not against another, but for the sake of itself that it may flourish to be the voice of a generation.

These words do not ring hollow, as they to pass through the voices of the students of Ventura College, giving hope that times may come with difficulty, but be meet with a solidarity bounded by conviction.

A message from staff dictated that the students that participated in their first election not become disheartened with the political process, in regard to the overwhelming division driven by the political environment of the past year. As in most areas of politics, there has always been a divergence in belief between the young and old, rich and poor, and rural and urban; but a common ground for many was the right to have their voice be heard in ballot. This ability to be heard has been fought for and has held to be a foundation of the American way. The rally ended with a plea from voices of all types to hold onto their rights and use them to their fullest extent.

This election is both something seen before and something all too new to know what is to come. In absence of any certainty, the students of Ventura College can only express the need for unity in these most truly turbulent times, as a house divided against itself cannot stand.

Vol. 10, No. 4 – November 23 – December 6, 2016 – Tech Today

Why did the internet go down in October?
by Ken May

Last month, a malicious person or group took down numerous popular websites in a massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack against the domain name service provider Dyn. DDoS attacks are neither new nor very sophisticated. To do this, the attacker sends a massive amount of traffic, causing the victim’s system to slow to a crawl and eventually crash. There are some variants on this method, but basically, it’s a datapipe-size battle between attacker and victim. If the defender has a larger capacity to receive and process data, he or she will win. If the attacker can throw more data than the victim can process, he or she will win.

The attacker can build a giant data cannon, but that is prohibitively expensive. It is much smarter to recruit millions of innocent computers on the internet. This is the “distributed” part of the DDoS attack, and pretty much how it’s worked for decades. Cybercriminals infect innocent computers around the internet and recruit them into a botnet. They then target that botnet against a single victim.

You can imagine how it might work in the real world. If I can trick tens of thousands of others to order pizzas to be delivered to your house at the same time, I can clog up your street and prevent any legitimate traffic from getting through. If I can trick many millions, I might be able to crush your house from the weight. That’s a DDoS attack — it’s simple brute force.

The Dyn attacks were probably not originated by a government. The perpetrators were most likely hackers mad at Dyn for helping Security Researcher Brian Krebs identify — and the FBI arrest — two Israeli hackers who were running a DDoS-for-hire ring. Recently, there has been some evidence about probing DDoS attacks against internet infrastructure companies that appear to be perpetrated by nation-states. But, honestly, we don’t know for sure.

The botnets attacking Dyn and Brian Krebs consisted largely of unsecure Internet of Things (IoT) devices — webcams, digital video recorders, routers and so on. This isn’t new, either. We’ve already seen internet-enabled refrigerators and TVs used in DDoS botnets. But again, the scale is bigger now. In 2014, the news was hundreds of thousands of IoT devices — the Dyn attack used millions. Analysts expect the IoT to increase the number of things on the internet by a factor of 10 or more. Expect these attacks to similarly increase. That leaves the victims to pay. This is where we are in much of computer security. Because the hardware, software and networks we use are so unsecure, we have to pay an entire industry to provide after-the-fact security.

Reference: SecurityIntelligence, accessed 11/01/2016

Attendees were offered a guided tour of the Ventura Police department

Chief Ken Corney spoke about the accomplishments and goals of the Foundation at luncheon.

Ventura Police Chief Ken Corney spoke to members of The Ventura Police Community Foundation about the accomplishments and goals of the Foundation as well as the Department’s Strategic Plan and public safety at the first annual Chief’s Luncheon on November 16 held at police headquarters on Dowell Dr. Attendees had lunch provided by the Ventura Spaghetti Company and a guided tour of the Ventura Police department.

Public Safety Improvements: Initiatives that address specific public safety needs, improve police effectiveness, and officer safety through the use of specialized equipment, evolving technology and other innovations.
Community Partnerships: Projects that enhance the relationship between the community and the Ventura Police Department.
Youth Programs: Positive and proactive opportunities such as after-school and youth mentoring programs designed to reduce crime-related risk and help disadvantaged youth grow into productive citizens.

The funds raised from membership, donations and fundraising events such as the Annual PAL Golf Tournament, goes to support many essential city programs and safety initiatives. To learn more about the Foundation and membership visit www.venturapolicecommunityfoundation.org, on facebook at www.facebook.com/venturapolicefoundation or call 399-4317.

Principal for a Day — connecting schools and the business community

26 schools in the Ventura Unified School District, as well as Vista Real Charter High School, participated in Principal for a Day last week. Volunteers from the business community spent the morning in an elementary, middle or high school, then shared their experiences at a lunch at Ventura Adult and Continuing Education (VACE.)

The volunteers got to witness the faculty and staff of their schools in action, and participated in interactive activities and tours.

Dawn Rosin of Jersey Mike’s in Ventura noted that it was National Sandwich Day and helped students at Blanche Reynolds Elementary prepare sandwiches.

Tina Reed Johnson of Tina Reed Johnson Web Marketing got to see Cabrillo Middle School as a Principal for the day. “It was a pleasure to shadow Ms. Lorelle Dawes of Cabrillo. I’m very impressed with our district’s hardworking teachers and staff. The education of our students is crucial to the future of Ventura County in many ways, and I am thankful to be part of the business leadership involved in our local schools.”

Carlos Cohen, Principal of Ventura High School, was paired with The River Community’s Jim Duran for the day. “It was a pleasure having Jim with us at VHS. Jim was a student years ago here at VHS as well as a parent of 6 students that have attended VHS. Being the principal for the day gave him the opportunity to come back to his alma mater and his roots. A great tree produced great fruit and he continues to do that as a community leader and help others.”

Local author wins coveted Royal Dragonfly Book Award

The judges of the 2016 Royal Dragonfly Book Awards contest, which recognizes excellence in all genres of literature, have spoken. The Spirit of Villarosa: A Father’s Extraordinary Adventures; A Son’s Challenge by Horace Dade Ashton, Marc Ashton, and Ventura’s Libby J. Atwater won first place in two categories: biography and memoir and historical nonfiction.

“Winning any place in the Royal Dragonfly Contest is a huge honor because in order to maintain the integrity of the Dragonfly Book Awards, a minimum score is required before a First or Second Place or Honorable Mention will be awarded to the entrant—even if it is the sole entry in a category,” explains Linda F. Radke, president of the Dragonfly Book Awards program. “Competition is steep, too, because there is no publication date limit as long as the book is still in print.”

The book is a glorious account of Horace Ashton’s remarkable adventures juxtaposed with his son Marc’s 2001 kidnapping in Haiti by four armed thugs who clearly plan to kill him. While captive, Marc determines to survive and asks himself, “What would Dad do?”

“I am pleased and honored to have won first place in the Royal Dragonfly Book Awards in two categories twice, in 2014 and in 2016. I urge fellow writers to enter this contest,” said Atwater.

To find out how this true-life adventure culminates, read the book, which retails for $19.95. It can be purchased at www.TheSpiritofVillarosa.com, www.MyBookOrders.com, www.LibbyAtwaterBooks.com, www.Amazon.com, www.BN.com, and through these wholesalers: Ingram, Baker&Taylor, Brodart (library distributor), and Follett Library Services.

To learn more about the Dragonfly Book Awards, visit www.DragonflyBookAwards.com, email [email protected] or call 480-940-8182.

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