Chartered and incorporated in 1934, Post 339 has a proud tradition of service to Ventura County. The Post’s practice of supporting the community through donations totaling almost $400,000 over the past five years is symbolic of the Post membership’s commitment to service to the community, state, and nation.

Over the last three years, Post339 has been a regular supporter of The Gold Coast Foundation of Ventura County. Cold Coast is a veterans assistance organization headquartered in Camarillo that has played a major role in working to reduce the veteran housing shortage. Gold Coast also helps by providing vocational training and other support services to help veterans return to being self-sufficient and productive members of our community.

The Post has funded almost $25,000 worth of critically needed medical equipment for the Ventura County Health Care Foundation, equipment this agency would not have been able to obtain without the Post’s support.

The Post has been involved with for several decades supporting the Boys State and Girls State programs. The Boys State and Girls State programs allow selected high school juniors the opportunity to attend a week-long program held in Sacramento and experience the ins and outs of how government functions.

Another program Post 339 is extremely proud of is the American Legion Post 339 Legacy Scholarship Program established in conjunction with the Ventura College Foundation. The goal is to establish an ongoing fund to a veteran attending Ventura Community College. To the Post members this ensures the legacy of service that Post 339 has strived to establish since 1934 lives on in these young men and women seeking to further their education and life goals.

Over the last three years, the Post has made significant contributions to The Turning Point Foundation of Ventura County, helping veterans to recover from substance abuse or trauma, and helped get their lives back on track. Post 339 is a sponsor of Turning Point Foundation’s “Veteran’s Transitional Housing Program”. This program helps mentally ill and homeless veterans by providing housing, medical attention, and training to get these veterans back into society. Post 339 has furnished several rooms and provided other necessary equipment to them for several years.

To learn more, visit Facebook page or email at [email protected]. Post 339 meets monthly in Ventura and would welcome any veteran or guests.

May is Motorcycle Safety Awareness Month, and the Ventura Police Department encourages the community to think about the safety of riders on two wheels and look twice for motorcycles.

“Motorcycle riders are often much harder to see than residents in four-wheeled vehicles,” said Traffic Unit Sergeant Michael Brown said. “Drivers and riders should take extra precautions by keeping their distance and watching their speed.”

With nearly 900,000 registered motorcycles in California, many road users are going places without the same protections as drivers. Motorcycle riders are 28 times more likely to die in a traffic collision than vehicle occupants.

To help further protect our community, keep the following tips in mind while driving or riding throughout the city:

Drivers:

• Always check twice for motorcycles, both your mirrors and blind spots.
• Always use your signal when changing lanes.
• Never follow a motorcycle too closely.

Motorcyclists:

• Always wear a DOT compliant helmet and protective gear like gloves and leather clothing. DOT-certified helmets are designed to absorb the force of a crash, rather than resisting the impact.
• Consider adding reflective tape to your clothing to make it easier for drivers to see you.
• Keep your lights on at all times, even during the day.
• Don’t assume drivers see you. Signal well in advance before changing lanes and watch for turning vehicles.
• Lastly, never drive or ride under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.

Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. To learn more about the Office of Traffic Safety grant and VPD’s educational efforts, contact Emily Graves, Community Outreach Specialist for the Ventura Police Department, at [email protected].

by Res Publica

Decisions made by past and present City Councils led to Ventura Water increasing water rates by 7% and wastewater rates by 6% for each year over the next four years. In truth, water rates for the “average” ratepayer will increase by 43% during that time.

IF YOU DON’T PROTEST, YOU VOTE “YES” AUTOMATICALLY

Ventura is obliged under Proposition 218 to allow ratepayers to protest the rate increases. Yet, Ventura Water doesn’t make it easy to do so. The protest form is intentionally challenging to locate. In the 8-page Ventura Water ‘Proposed Rate Adjustments’ document https://www.cityofventura.ca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/26577/Final-Ventura-Prop-218-Notice?bidId=, Ventura Water buries the protest procedure on the last page. It is not bolded or highlighted to stand out to the reader. The protest format is not user-friendly. There is little explanation on how to complete the form, making it confusing to property owners.

If you oppose this increase, Ventura Water’s notice states that the parcel owner, or customer of record on the water bill, must file a written protest with the City Clerk at City Hall.

WHERE TO GET YOUR PROTEST FORM

The City did not enclose a protest form with the rate increase notice. Instead, the brochure directs you to go online. You can find the Water Shortage Rate Protest form here https://www.cityofventura.ca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/26577/Final-Ventura-Prop-218-Notice?bidId=. You can complete the form online, but you must print it for it to count.

Written protests may be submitted by mail to the Ventura City Clerk’s Office at 501 Poli Street (Room 204) Ventura, California 93001, or in person at the drop box near the back entrance of City Hall at 501 Poli Street, Ventura, California 93001 (parking lot behind City Hall). All mailed written protests must be received (not postmarked) by the City Clerk no later than May 17, 2021, at 5:00 pm.

To prevent the rate increase, most property owners (51%) must file a protest. Renters have no right to protest.  Business owners have no right to protest.  Only the 32,000 people that own property with water meters have a right to vote.  The remaining 81,000 people in the City of Ventura are effectively disenfranchised. They have no vote but will have to pay.

WHY IS VENTURA DOING THIS?

Ventura Water plans to build a $240 million wastewater treatment plant that will duplicate facilities that already exist near Ventura. The 2019 Corollo Report (commissioned by Ventura Water), titled Ventura Water Supply Projects and Alternatives https://ca-ventura.civicplus.com/DocumentCenter/View/18399/2019-Ventura-Water-Supply-Projects-Final-EIR, states that if Ventura Water utilizes the United Water Conservation and the Oxnard Water Treatment Plant, they would not need to build a separate treatment plant. The cost savings to Ventura ratepayers could be enormous.

The ‘lack of control and trust’ Ventura Water purports to be why it’s not cooperating with other water agencies is absurd. It’s already working with several other agencies and depends upon many other outside agencies for water resources.

If we continue down this path, Ventura ratepayers will pay more than may be needed. Ventura Water has put the price tag on “control” and “trust.” It’s $200 million

The Ventura City Council should:

Call for an accurate, independent, cost analysis that could result in potential savings of $200 million

Delay any rate increase to Wastewater rates

Direct the City attorney to apply for a deadline extension on the Wishtoyo Consent Agreement to provide more time to find the optimal solution while avoiding substantial legal penalties

Open negations with United Water and the City of Oxnard to utilize a wastewater treatment process.

Our current path is misguided and needs reevaluation. Making a financial decision based on “trust and control” is not in the public’s best interest.

by Carol Leish

Mary Haffner, who served on the Behavioral Health Advisory Board for the past six years, says that, “Ventura County is not the only California county dealing with the societal, economic, and human health costs associated with our society’s collective failure to provide a continuum of care for those with severe mental health issues. While serving on the board, I was able to get a close look at Ventura County’s mental healthcare system as it relates to people with the most serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder, and major depressive disorder. The needs of this population are far different from those who have mild to moderate mental health challenges and they require a specific set of treatment protocols and post-discharge supports. The good news is that these illnesses are highly treatable and people can do well given prompt and effective treatment.”

In a letter dated, October 29, 2019, to the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, from Haffner, while on the Behavioral Health Advisory Board, that concerned, ‘The Continuum of Care for the Seriously Mentally Ill in Ventura County,’ she stated: “Ventura County does not provide a full continuum of coordinated mental health care for the seriously mentally ill. Others with (physical) illnesses receive prompt and effective science-based treatment and follow-up supports to realize recovery. Investing in the continuum of care for those living with serious mental illness can alleviate stress on numerous agencies and begin to tackle the cycle of hospitalizations, incarceration, and homelessness.”

According to a letter to the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, from the Behavioral Health Advisory Board, on February 22, 2021, regarding the ‘Lanterman-Petrus-Short (LPS) Reform Workgroup Report’: “There was a need to reform provisions of the LPS Act.” However, “It was the County Counsel’s opinion that the Welfare and Institution code did not give the Behavioral Health Advisory Board the ability to engage in legislative matters or to advocate in support of legislation, even though members of the board strongly believed that behavioral health legislation was to be an integral part of its ability to address and work to resolve the needs of the behavioral health system of care in Ventura County.”

According to Haffner, “Providing treatment now requires adequate infrastructure, to include acute inpatient beds, appropriate step-down facilities, wrap-around post discharge supports, and supportive housing. Ventura’s crisis bed capacity is lower than counties similar in size. We do not have a facility that can directly accept psychiatric emergencies, necessitating long waits in hospital emergency rooms. Because people with serious mental illness often interface with numerous departments and agencies in a county system (hospital, jails, probation, behavior health, courts, homeless services), the most efficient way to utilize scarce resource is to look at the entire system, fortify communication between agencies, and to find ways to leverage resource to provide upstream treatment and supports. San Diego, Orange, and Los Angeles counties have all created templates for whole-systems approaches to provide treatment and supports for this population. And, other counties have used the Mental Health Services Act funding to partner with private entities to provide Crisis Stabilization Units and other crisis facilities.”

“Understanding the dire lack of crisis services and need for prompt and effective treatment,” according to Haffner, “the Behavioral Health Advisory Board recently prepared a report with recommendations for the Ventura County Board of Supervisors. Among these recommendations is a 30-day extension of hospitalization for individuals deemed gravely disabled in order to provide better care and stabilization and to avoid the need for Conservatorship. The reality of serious mental illness is that people need to receive treatment for longer than 3 days.”

Haffner believes that, “We don’t do more to help these people because I believe that discrimination and stigma play a big role in our society’s failure to provide treatment. We have normalized the jailing of people with mental illness and we have too many people who don’t want any treatment facilities in their communities. That is why leadership is so important. We need leader who understand the illness and who are willing to educate the public and work toward solutions.”

Since the onset of COVID-19 one year ago, Food Share, Ventura County’s largest hunger-relief organization, has distributed more than 26 million pounds of food, providing more than 21.6 million meals to people in Ventura County. That’s the most amount of food ever distributed in the organization’s 43-year history, and nearly double the previous high of 13.5 million pounds in 2019.

“The numbers really show the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the health and economics of our community,” noted Monica White, Food Share’s President and CEO. “To put some context around it, that’s the equivalent of feeding a sold-out Dodger Stadium three meals a day for the entire baseball season, plus the playoffs and the World Series.”

To ramp up operations to the level needed to meet the increased need, Food Share has relied heavily on the support of the CA Air National Guard, plus thousands of individual volunteers who, collectively, have given more than 76,000 volunteer hours to support Food Share’s mission over the past twelve months.

“We truly cannot thank our community enough for their support, whether it’s been through food drives, or monetary donations or volunteer hours,” commented White. “While we celebrate the news of decreased COVID cases and increased vaccinations, we can’t stress enough that the vaccine doesn’t cure hunger.” White added, “Food Share continues to see the negative economic impact on the members of our community due to COVID-19. We anticipate needing to provide additional food support for many more months and years to come.”

After a months-long competitive search, the Ventura Unified School District (VUSD) Board of Education, has voted to hire Dr. Antonio Castro as the new Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services. Dr. Castro will began his new role on April 8, 2021. In this new role, Dr. Castro will oversee departments such as; Curriculum and Instruction, Early Childhood Programs, Multilingual & Multicultural Education, Special Education, Student Support Services, and Health Services and Prevention Programs.

Dr. Castro brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise that will serve him well at VUSD. Since 2016, Dr. Castro has served as the Associate Superintendent of Educational Services at the Ventura County Office of Education. He has been highly effective in this role with oversight in the areas of Comprehensive Health and Prevention Programs, Curriculum & Instruction, Early Childhood Programs, Hearing Conservation, Leadership Support Services, Research & Evaluation, Accountability & Continuous Improvement, Administrator and Teacher Induction Programs, Expanded Learning Program and the Local Control & Accountability Plan.

Dr. Castro also served as the Director of Student Support Services, the Director of Special Education, and the Principal of Los Cerritos Middle School while working for the Conejo Valley Unified School District from 2006-2016. He began his career in the Simi Valley Unified School District as a Special Education Teacher.

“I believe that Dr. Castro’s background in facilitating school improvement, his reputation for building positive relationships with District personnel and community agencies, his ability to innovate with the use of technology and online learning platforms, his familiarity with implementing districtwide initiatives, and his history of improving outcomes for high needs students will serve our community well. In addition, Dr. Castro has worked with our teams here in VUSD for some time and is very familiar with our Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP), and will be ready to hit the ground running as we continue to address the immediate and long-term impacts of COVID-19,” stated Dr. Roger Rice, Superintendent.

“It is such an honor to join the Ventura Unified School District as the Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services. VUSD has an established history of elevating voices, aspirations, and pathways to possibility within the community. I look forward to forming rich connections with our students and their families and contributing to the district’s tradition of celebrating diversity,” stated Dr. Castro.

The Ventura Unified School District (VUSD) is located in Southern California, in the coastal city of Ventura, approximately 70 miles north of Los Angeles. The District is made up of an early childhood education program, 26 elementary, middle, and high schools, with more than 16,000 school-age students, an adult education center, 2,000 staff, and a wealth of parents and community members who all strive to help our children find their passion— academically and personally. For more information, visit www.venturausd.org or call 805-641-5000.