The February 8, 2011 Fillmore City Council and Redevelopment Meeting was all about money, or more correctly stated, the lack of it, as the Council struggled to make recommendations in regards to redevelopment monies that may not be available when needed. On the regular agenda was a proposal by Chevron to develop the old Texaco Refinery, Santa Paula East Area Development Project, appointments to the Planning and Film Commissions, and the vacating of Orange Grove Easement to aid Grad-Night-Live (GNL). Items on the Redevelopment agenda included awarding the contract for the baseball field at Two Rivers Park and a request for an extension of KB Homes Participation agreement.

Also, the continuing problem between the City, City Council and the non-profit Grad-Night-Live was again addressed at Tuesday’s Council Meeting. Mayor Gayle Washburn softened the city’s commitment to provide two storage containers to GNL which was made at the December 14, 2010 meeting. At that meeting, Council Member Jamey Brooks said that the city was going to extra effort to help GNL, “Even to the point with Rigo, I guess they’re looking for containers.” Council Member Patti Walker said, “We have located two cargo containers.” And City Manager Yvonne Quiring said, “…and we’re gonna find two containers for her [Chaney] because Rigo has already taken care of that.” So the question remains, will the city honor its commitment to provide two containers for GNL?

It all started with a complaint back in July 2010 by Marina Martinez who was upset with GNL’s donations being stored on a City easement. Brenda Ortiz, the owner of Super Seal where the easement is located, originally gave Gary Copeland permission to fence in the area, and had assumed formal permission had been given to her to use the street. Super Seal and Coachcraft, two businesses with joining properties on Orange Grove, had both donated the space to the non-profit. The misunderstanding happened when permission had been given to Ortiz, but not formally. Ortiz addressed the Council and stated, “This is all a huge misunderstanding.”

Quiring directed the City staff to CONTINUED »

Ventura County Sheriff's Department

On January 6, 2011 at about 12:15 a.m, deputies working gang crime enforcement were driving in the 700 block of Akers St. in the city of Fillmore. Deputies saw the three suspects crouch behind a parked car in an effort to hide from them. The deputies recognized the three as local gang members, with two currently on probation. As deputies approached to investigate, the suspects fled a short distance, but deputies quickly caught and detained them. An investigation at the scene led deputies to the discovery of a loaded handgun hidden where the suspects initially attempted to hide from the deputies. They also found one suspect with a collapsible baton hidden in his pants.

Deputies arrested Jonathan Ramirez for unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, being under the influence of a controlled substance and street terrorism. He was booked at county jail with bail set at $110,000.00.

Deputies arrested Steven Chaveste for possession of a deadly weapon, being under the influence of a controlled substance and for street terrorism. He was booked at county jail with bail set at $100,000.00.

Deputies arrested Martin Gaspar for being a felon in possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, under being under the influence of a controlled substance, resisting arrest and street terrorism. He was booked at county jail with bail set at $115,000.00.

Location: 700 Block Akers St. Fillmore, Ca. 93015
Date & Time/ RB#: February 6, 2011 @ 12:15 A.M. / 11-3044
Unit Responsible: Fillmore Gang Unit
(S)uspects City of Residence Age
Ramirez, Jonathan Fillmore 25
Chaveste, Steven Fillmore 30
Gaspar, Martin Fillmore 21

Officer Preparing Release: Senior Deputy Taurino Almazan
Follow-up Contact: Senior Deputy Taurino Almazan @ (805) 524-2233
Date of Release: February 8, 2011
Approved By: Captain O’Hanlon

City of Fillmore

The year is 2011. Across the United States counties, cities, and neighborhoods are working with constricting budgets and some residents are worried. Major issues moving forward this year for Fillmore are: more budget reductions and how they affect services, the working environment in City Hall and the publics perception of how it’s city government conducts business all the while keeping the future of the City in mind.

What is the State of the City’s Finances? Council member Steve Conaway comments, “The State has removed over $2.5 million from Fillmore… and we haven’t seen the end of the state take-aways.” According to City Manager Yvonne Quiring her focus going into next year will be “the Budget… and how do we make this work given the resources that we have… subject to [what the Council decides].” Quiring explains that the City has been “burning through… and living off of the savings account…[current projections show] no money being available next year.” Realistically she continues, there will be some nominal amount available, but “reserves [are] not enough to cover expenditures… [The City is] not getting enough money in the checking account to write checks.” Washburn reports “We have been told we [are likely to] have a $2 million shortfall, we have redevelopment money to payback, we are not getting [our] sales tax revenue [as] that issue has not yet been resolved, the county assessor is looking at another decrease in property tax assessments, so we’ll be getting less property tax.” She explains that the recent development and growth in the City has occurred “based on assumptions… that there was no bubble. We took out a lot of debt based on ever increasing revenues.” According to Washburn the City has several bonds with “increasing debt service levels, which is not good in a declining revenue situation. The assumptions were way to… optimistic.” Washburn suggests that city government and the services provided “may look different” as a result of the financial hurdles that need to be dealt with. Some areas where she thinks residents can expect to see a difference are with street repairs, landscape and lighting, pool hours, and tax increases. While generally opposed to new taxes, Washburn states, “we may be required to implement a new storm water treatment tax.”

Regarding budgeting issues Conaway states “As a city…we’ve lost sight of our city finances since 2008 due to revised budget formats and reallocation of funds and are only now starting to gain stability in our budgeting process.” He feels that continued focus on this, “defending [the City’s] economic interests in the courts… will provide a boost to our local economy.”

According to the Budget CONTINUED »

(l-r) School Board Vice President John Garnica and Students First award recipient Tony Newhall of the Henry Mayo Foundation.
Enlarge Photo

On Tuesday February 1, 2011, School Board Vice President John Garnica presided over a regularly scheduled meeting since President Virginia De La Piedra was not in attendance. Superintendent Jeff Sweeney was also not in attendance due to illness.

Board Members Tony Prado, Dave Wilde and Lucy Rangel reported they attended the District’s meeting regarding math essential standards, and all enjoyed the video shown (to view this video got to www.fillmoregazette.com/school-matters). Rangel went on to mention an event she attended at the high school, where parents were informed about “Zangle”, an online resource where parents can now log in, and have access to up to date information on their children’s homework, grades and attendance. She also attended a dinner hosted by the Ventura County School Board Association finding it “very informative.” Rangel explained that a topic discussed was the future with charter schools and the VCSBA recommending that all board members get educated about them because “it’s not going away, if anything it’s growing.” According to Rangel there are fourteen charter schools in Ventura County, “about half of them aren’t necessarily better than our public schools…[based on API scores] but that middle and high school [charter schools] are doing much better [than many non charter secondary schools in the County].” She explained one issue is that the charter schools tend to “attract the high performing students.” Rangel emphasized the recommendation made by the VCSBA of getting additional training regarding charter schools “for any future petitions that come up.” Another important topic presented was about marketing the Districts schools. “We really need to sell our school to the community… they encouraged us to attend meetings with parents [and community groups] like Tressa [Saviers] was saying,” and include unique aspects of FUSD on the homepage of the districts website. Rangel also attended the English Learner Advisory Committee (ELAC) meeting following the meet and greet at Fillmore Middle School on January 28. “I didn’t realize that the teen pregnancy rate… [in our District] is so high…it’s second in the County …[at] 13.7%.” She praised a mother-daughter program targeting ages 12 to 13 put on by the Public Health Department ran by Claudia Benton and Rhonda Reyes-Deutsch aimed at preventing teen pregnancy further stating that “we should showcase” this program.

A Students First Award was granted to Tony Newhall of the Henry Mayo Foundation. Newhall told how his great-grandfather came to the area 125 years ago and purchased the Rancho San Francisco. He proceeded to prosper, and the family later created a foundation to “benefit the people and communities where he worked and earned his money.” According to Assistant Superintendent Mike Bush the Henry Mayo Foundation has given the Fillmore Unified School District $630,000 for arts programs at Piru and San Cayetano Elementary Schools as well as scholarships to Fillmore High School graduates who went on to college.

During public comment Fillmore CONTINUED »