BNI - Business Network International is a business and professional marketing program whose primary purpose is to exchange qualified business referrals. It is the most successful organization of its type in the world today, with nearly 6500 chapters in operation in 49 countries. Last year, BNI passed over 6.2 million referrals resulting in more than $2.6 billion U.S. dollars worth of business for our participants. Our uniqueness is that there is only one person per business category and we are a sales team devoted to passing referrals to one another.

Locally our chapter meets at El Pescador in Fillmore every Thursday at 7:30 a.m. to 9 a.m. If you know of someone who is looking to take their business to the next level, please have them visit our chapter or contact Theresa Robledo at 805-625-4450 email: Theresa@DiamondRealtyTeam.com or Ari Larson at 805-794-7590 email: petenari55@hotmail.com

SUMMARY
The 2011-2012 Ventura Grand Jury (Grand Jury) opened an investigation in September 2011 of the City of Port Hueneme’s (City) water rates, triggered by a public complaint. The Grand Jury investigated whether the water utility billing rose unlawfully when the “Utility Users Tax” increased after the City went through the Proposition 218 process, by mail, for increasing water rates in 2009. The report is silent as to wastewater charges as these charges were not an issue. Neither the voter-approved water rate increase, nor the percentage (4%) of the “Utility Users Tax,” was investigated.

The sole issue of the investigation is the inclusion of a previously untaxed “water service charge” into the water service fixed rate. The “water service charge” is now being taxed, creating a new tax, intended or not, by the City.

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SACRAMENTO, CA – A 70-year-old female in Kern County is the first confirmed human case of West Nile virus infection in California this year, announced Dr. Ron Chapman, state health officer and director of the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). The woman was hospitalized, but is now recovering.

"This first confirmed West Nile virus case reminds us that we must take precautions to protect ourselves and our families from mosquito bites,” said Chapman. “West Nile virus activity is greatest during the summertime.”

West Nile virus is transmitted to humans and animals by the bite of an infected mosquito. The risk of serious illness to most people is low. However, some individuals – less than 1 percent – can develop a serious neurologic illness such as encephalitis or meningitis. People 50 years of age and older have a higher chance of getting sick and are more likely to develop complications. Recent data also indicates that those with diabetes and/or hypertension are at greatest risk for serious illness.

To date in 2012, West Nile virus has been detected in 15 California counties.

CDPH recommends that individuals prevent exposure to mosquito bites and West Nile virus by practicing the “Three Ds”:

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The mission of the ARTISTS GUILD OF FILLMORE is to create an interest in people for collecting original art by local artists. Nine members are showing in their Second Annual Exhibit on the 70 foot Shively Memorial Wall at the Blanchard Community Library, 119 N. 8th Street, in the neighboring city of Santa Paula. The Library is open Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday 12 to 8, Wednesday 10 to 6, Saturday 10 to 2, Friday and Sunday closed. The artworks are available for sale for two months, June 4 through July 26, 2012.

Art lovers and friends are invited to come to the “Artists Reception” which is scheduled for Thursday evening, June 21 from 5-8 p.m. at the Blanchard Library.

Besides last year’s Primiere Show in the same location, the Artists Guild of Fillmore has continually exhibited at the Fillmore Public Library and at Giessinger Winery during Railfest Days. Addionally, their art was shown at an in-store display in the Rudkin Building and Farmers Market, both in the city of Fillmore. There have been single shows at the Ventura County Government Center and Ventura’s Poinsettia Pavilion.

The artists: Joanne King creates watercolor paintings of scenes with both expected and unexpected results. Judy Dressler is a self taught oil painter who took Adult Education art classes and paints Western life: people and landscapes. Karen Browdy creates refined collages and assemblages; she teaches art classes in Fillmore, Carpenteria and Santa Barbara. Lady Jan Faulkner focuses on mixed media collage and digitally enhancied photography. Lois Freeman-Fox paints digital portraits and landscapes on canvas enhancing them them with oils and acrylics. Luanne Hebner Perez’s watercolor paintings are bright, colorful landscapes, still lifes and florals of California and Europe. Virginia Neuman, our English artist, educated at Chelsea School of Art, uses various media and teaches art in the Fillmore Schools. Wana Klasen is a self-taught artist whose eclectic artistic interests are gathered from her life’s experiences and music.

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Ventura, CA - From now until July 8th, the Ventura Family YMCA is encouraging parents to help keep their kids physically active and mentally engaged by signing them up for the Y’s away camp. Summer is a critical out-of-school time when children and teens can benefit from enriched learning, new experiences and making new friendships. The Y’s camp offers all of this and more.

“While summer should be a time of exploration, youth are sometimes less involved in activities that stimulate their mind and body,” says Sarah Abrams, Youth Programs Director. “During away camp, kids have the opportunity to get outdoors and learn about nature, take on new responsibilities, gain independence, and develop essential social skills and new relationships. As a result, they become more confident, open to trying new things and grow as individuals and as part of a group.”

Sequoia Lake Camp provides exciting and educational camp programming for children and teens, including: sharing cabins with friends, enjoy cabin activities led by trained volunteers, shooting arrows in the archery range, swimming in a private lake, hiking in the Sequoia National Forest, climbing the rock wall, and singing songs at campfire. Each camper will also have the opportunity to set new personal goals in the YMCA Rags and Leathers program. All of these activities occur in the mountains above Miramonte, California near Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks on beautiful Sequoia Lake. And, to ensure that all youth have the chance to experience camp, the YMCA offers financial assistance to those in need.

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SUMMARY
In the course of its duties, the 2011–2012 Ventura County Grand Jury (Grand Jury, or Jury) attended a Ventura County Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) program briefing by Ventura County (County) law enforcement. The subject was the training program for the CIT and its application in the County. Recognizing the importance of the program to County citizenry, the Grand Jury opened an inquiry to examine the policies and procedures governing the program and their implementation within the County.

The Grand Jury interviewed and obtained information from knowledgeable persons with respect to the subject of the inquiry and attended a CIT briefing by Ventura County law enforcement agencies that specifically addressed the subject of this inquiry in detail. The Grand Jury examined the CIT practices and written policies of County law enforcement agencies and gathered current data with respect to the various agencies’ participation in CIT. The Jury also considered the history of CIT in the County and researched the history of CIT on the Internet. The Jury also visited emergency (911) dispatch centers located in the County to assess application of CIT intervention in crisis-dispatch actions and the application of the training by the 911 call takers and dispatchers.

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SUMMARY
The 2011–2012 Ventura County Grand Jury (Jury or Grand Jury) opened an inquiry into the policies, procedures, operations, and practices of the Ventura County Animal Services Department (Department). This inquiry was conducted on the basis of newspaper articles discussing activities of the Department and various citizen complaints directed at perceived practice and policy deficiencies of the Department.

The Grand Jury interviewed numerous persons with respect to the various subjects of the inquiry. The Grand Jury examined the practices and written policies of the Department as well as Department records and records of its suppliers and contractors. The Grand Jury visited Department facilities to observe and inspect the premises to ascertain the coherence of written policy to practice.

The Jury found that the Department has had, since 2010, excellent and well- thought-out “Strategic Plans-Mission Statements.” The Department has made substantial improvement under its post-May 2008 management by pursuing those plans. Moreover, the Department’s Strategic Goals reviews have pinpointed many of the critical problems underlying its operational difficulties. It is apparent to the Grand Jury that the Department has moved to address these problems and that continuing efforts are underway to further alleviate them. However, the Grand Jury also concluded that some of the noted difficulties appear to persist in some form and, as a practical matter, seem intractable. In addition, the Grand Jury found new difficulties which are in need of continuing management attention.

The Grand Jury discovered CONTINUED »

Curtis Adams
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Congratulations to the Fillmore High Alumni Board for putting on another successful Alumni Dinner. Around 300 Alumni from all over the Country, and California enjoyed themselves as they reminisced and rekindled old friendships from years ago. Gary Larid (Class of '76) owner of Lairds Butcher shop in Santa Paula started the afternoon off with his Bar b q in tow, and sending his wonderful bar b q smells bellowing out around town from the the Memorial Building. At 4:00pm the party started. Folks started coming in and the Happy Hour began. Luckily, The Class of '52 (celebrating their 60th class reunion at the dinner) happened to set their tables right next to the Bar on the patio. Many folks from other classes started joining in on their fun. We're not sure if it was suppose to start out that way, but from the looks of everyone with big smiles on their faces and laughter you could hear from blocks away, no one seemed to care. Alumni came from Florida, Utah, and Washington State. Many drove in from all around Southern California, and the county. After a great dinner, including Cheesecake for dessert, it was time to meet the class of 2012 Scholarship winners. After their introduction, it was time to "Give Back", and boy, did the Alumni Give back. Alumni from here in town gave away prizes, including Gertrude "Gathright" Lovelace '48, Scott Beylik '87 from Beylik Farms, and Steve Barnard '70 from Mission Produce, just to name a few. Another Alumni, Mike Richardson class of '91 (Life Member) and owner of Quality Ag, here in Fillmore, gave away field level, behind home plate, Dodger tickets. That sure made that winners evening. Curtis Adams from the Class of '63 probably received the loudest applause of the evening. You see, with this many Alumni in attendance, the 50/50 raffle tends to be a pretty large amount for the Scholarship Fund, and for the winner. Curtis was the 50/50 winner Saturday evening, and he "Gave Back" all of his winnings to the Scholarship Fund. Thank You Curtis. The program ended with the singing of the Schools Alma Mater. It's amazing to us that so many folks know all the words to the Alma Mater with out looking at the words on the program. It truly is something to hear 300 folks singing in unison. "All hail to our Alma Mater.......". the program ended early, and many folks just stayed around and visited, and thanked the Alumni Board for a memorable evening. The 100th Alumni Dinner next year is on Saturday, June 15th, 2013. Make your plans now to be in town. This is the ONE you do not want to miss. The Alumni Board wishes to Thank the following sponsors for Saturdays dinner. Fillmore Von's, Elkin's Ranch Golf Course, Fillmore & Western, Super A Market, and the Fillmore Starbucks for their donations.

One of the rewarding outcomes of mentoring a child is watching them develop their talents in school and the community. For one Little in the Big Brothers Big Sisters mentoring program at Fillmore, these talents can showcase one’s passion in changing the world for the better, locally.

Diego Rodrigues, a Little in our Big Brothers Big Sisters school-based mentoring program in Fillmore was honored for his talents and won 3rd place in the "Get The Green" video and photo competition.

"Get The Green" is national competition that received over 300 entries from teens across the United States. As last year’s winner of the contest, Diego received a $300 cash reward to purchase a Gopro camera, which can be used for under water video production. This year he used his new camera to produce a video entitled, “Get The Green - What this Means To Me". As part of his winnings, Diego was awarded $200 to fund his trip to "VidCon" a video conference where he will be able to learn new and exciting video production techniques.

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The Ventura County Rose Society will hold its monthly meeting on Thursday, June 28, 2012, at the Ventura County Office of Education Conference Center at 5100 Adolfo Rd., Camarillo.

The doors will open at 6:30 p.m. for advice from Consulting Rosarians and refreshments, and our speaker presentation will begin at 7:30 pm.

The VCRS meeting will feature Burling Leong, owner of Burlington Nursery in Visalia, CA, speaking on "Chip Budding at Home in the Garden". Ms. Leong will demonstrate how to do "chip budding" in propagating roses. She will show pictures of her rose garden propagation and restoration work at Hearst Castle. She also did propagating work for the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens and the Vanderbilt Mansion in New York. This lecture should be very informative and interesting.

Visitors are always welcome. For more information contact: Janet Sklar at 818-337-9970 or Dawn-Marie Johnson at 805-523-9003. Our website is www.venturarose.org

Australian Sheppard puppy, Sunday June 10th on Guiberson Road in Fillmore. Call 805-279-7780.

It is time for the citizens of Fillmore to start questioning the way the Fillmore Unified School District is using the taxpayers’ money. I keep reading and hearing about trips administrators have taken, the presence of attorneys representing the District where prior to the past year or two would have been unthinkable, and other questionable uses of our limited resources. What is really upsetting is the report of the May 15, 2012 FUSD Board meeting in the May 24 issue of The Fillmore Gazette. Teachers and staff must take unpaid furlough days even though many need to work on these days to prepare classrooms and lessons. However, according to Lola Rogers, who did payroll for Fillmore Unified, in July of 2011 when a prior year payroll was processed, it revealed that the Director of Human Resources and the Assistant Superintendent of Finance had received 10 extra days of pay. The Superintendent received almost $10,000 extra pay. Ms. Rogers stated that when benefits are figured in, this came to over $22,000. The morning after the Board meeting, Ms. Rogers was told that her services were no longer required. As is the norm in our District, courage is a punishable offense. Ms. Rogers did payroll for our District for many years, so I assume that her information is accurate. One does wonder how many furlough days were paid this past year to the same administrators. One also wonders what other abuses have gone unreported. I understand that an audit was recently done. By whom? A truly independent outside auditor? What were the results? A pension audit is certainly in order. The Board would be derelict in its duties by not insisting on it.

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On behalf of the Chamber, we would like to thank everyone that participated in the 100th May Festival Parade! Special thanks go out to Hal Provo and his crew from Santa Paula Pilots Association for the awesome flyover to start the parade; Sonshine Pre-School for providing electricity and space for our judges; Eddie and Brenda Ortiz of Super Seal and Stripe for providing the flat bed for our judges stand; to the Explorers and the Sheriff’s department for help with closing down the streets and traffic control as well as the Mounted Posse for leading off with the Colors!; to the Miss Fillmore and Miss Teen Fillmore courts for their participation and assistance with the awards ceremony; Special thanks also to Tom & Nikki Scott, Harold Cronin, Sarah Scott, Jacqui Guerra, Amber Holms, Darlene Holmes, Darrin and Debbie Galarza, Hans, and Tyler Stump for your assistance with check in, line up and traffic control. Without your help, the parade would not have been possible! Thank you to Orange Blossom Villa for your generous use of the gem car and to all of the residents of Fillmore for your patience with the closure of streets and traffic in the parade staging area!

The following is a list of winners by category, from the 2012 May Festival Parade:
Equestrian:1st Place – Ventura Sheriffs Mounted Posse
2nd Place – Charro De Paloma Patino
Youth Walking Groups: 1st Place – Sonshine Pre-School
2nd Place – Ballet Folklorico
3rd Place – Boys and Girls Club
Adult Walking Group: 1st Place – Fillmore / Piru Relay for Life
Novelty Groups: 1st Place – Camille Mia Perales
2nd Place – Bella Calderon
3rd Place – Azaria Rose Aguilar
Youth Floats: 1st Place – Andrew, Maribella & Aaliyah Morales
2nd Place – Perces Kenpo Karate
3rd Place – Alexandra Nuno
Adult Floats: 1st Place – Heritage Valley Red Hatters
2nd Place – Ventura County Search and Rescue
Car Groups: 1st Place – Model A Car Club
2nd Place – Fillmore Historical Museum
3rd Place – Fillmore Citizens Patrol
Other: 1st Place – A Street & First, Inc.
2nd Place – Ventura County Swat Team
3rd Place – Ventura County Sheriff’s Dept.
If you have won an award, it may be picked up at the Chamber Office during regular business hours.
RJ & Joni Stump

The yard of the month for June 2012 goes to Dr. Bundy and his lovely wife Xixi. Birch trees add shade to the small but very serene front yard. Dr. Bundy gives credit to his wife Xixi for enhancing on what the previous owner had started with. Shrubs, pretty green floor covering, roses, lilies, a Chinese Maple Tree and strategically placed statues gives the yard a calming effect. The address is 59 Anza Lane in El Dorado. They have received a $25 gift certificate from Otto & Sons Nursery. Fillmore Civic Pride-Vision 2020 meets on the 3rd Wed. of the month at 1:30pm in Fillmore City Hall (2nd floor). For more information please contact president Linda Nunes 805.302.7527

Come join your fellow Alumni from our Alma Mater, Fillmore High School, for a great Bar B Q meal this Saturday evening at the Memorial Building. Happy hour starts at 4:00pm, Dinner at 6:00pm, short presentation at 7:00. The memorial building will stay open until 11:00pm for folks to visit and look at the 99 years of Class Photos that will be hung up around the Memorial Building. This really is a sight to see as each class has their pictures beautifully framed. The cost of the dinner is $30.00 per person if your a "Flashbacks" subscriber, $35.00 is your not, and $40.00 at the door. Gary Laird '76 (Lairds Butcher Shop in Santa Paula) will do the honors and cook his very famous "Fillmore Bar B Q" of Tri-tip, Chicken, and all the sides.Questions? call 805-524-0416. F.H.S. Alumni - Onward, and upword!