To the Editor:
In response to the editorial comment regarding Clarence Freeman, the “present” Pole Creek debris basin is not of the same design Mr. Freeman commented on all those years. The current basin has been redesigned and is much larger due to requirements set out by Ventura County Watershed Protection District. Maybe they listened to Clarence after all.
Patti Walker
Citizen of Fillmore

To the Editor:
Mr. Freeman was a great man. I work for the Boys & Girls Club, one day one of the club members needed to interview an engineer. We looked in the FIllmore phonebook and found Mr. Freeman's name. I called him and asked him if we could interview him over the phone and he said, I can do better than that, and he came to the club and spent about 2 hours with the club member talking about his experiences and his schooling. What a great man!
My question is in regards to this statement:
I keep remembering the warnings of the late, great, Clarence Freeman, may he rest in peace. I’m hoping his conclusions were wrong, but he was a very intelligent man with great experience. We’ll see.
What warnings did he make? Did it have anything to do with the river or the new basins?
Thank you.
Cindy Escoto
Fillmore

To the Editor:
I am beyond anger when I go to are local Laundry mat and lose $7.00 of my hard earned money. I know it may be only 7 bucks but to lose it and not get my clothes washed makes me mad! I went to the so-called new laundry matt by the Dollar Tree. They are suppose to have all new washer/dryers! Well I put my money in and I had to wait until the cycle ended and had no clean clothes! It just took my money and didn't turn on.
There was no number! No nothing! Who runs these places?? Its funny they sure make money off us people that rely on these crappy places!
Jennifer Pillado
Fillmore

To the Editor:
On December 23, 2009, my husband’s birthday, I went to the Bardsdale Cemetery to take him flowers. To my shocking surprise the manager and his friends or workers were playing golf on the cemetery lawn over the grave stones. I was very hurt and thought that was very disrespectful and rude.
Don’t they know the difference between a golf course or park and a cemetery? I hope they will show their respect to the dead in the future.
Frances Limon
Santa Paula

To the Editor:
I noticed your article in last week's edition regarding yard sale signs. When I worked for the City, they were a problem too. The solution was simple. Three of us salaried employees that worked in town made it our little chore to go around on Saturday mornings and remove the signs. It wasn't too long before people figured it out, and then they put their signs on their cars and parked them in certain places where people could see them. This became a win-win deal. They were in compliance with the law and got to advertise their yard sales. At the end of the weekend they took their cars and their signs home. And the rest of us didn't have to put up with their signs all over town all the time. On Saturdays, Captain Al Huerta would visit all the yard sales in town and make sure they had their permits. Those who didn't got to buy one from Al on the spot. No fines, just made sure everybody had what they needed.
Maybe that's the answer to the problem today, too.
Vance Johnson
Fillmore

A Million Thank You’s
To our Fillmore Citizens that supported our downtown merchants by shopping locally throughout 2009. Especially during the Holiday Season. Because of you there are new business’s now opening. We look forward to seeing you and your friends in 2010.
Thank you and God Bless Downtown Business Merchants.

To the Editor:
To Fillmore Residents:
Pacific Clinic’s Transitional Age Youth (TAY) walk in center is now meeting at 600 Saratoga St., Fillmore. Located at the Chocolate Church, TAY offers goal Management, great Social interactions, and Wrap. Wrap is the Wellness Recovery Action Plan. You make your own creative plan for wellness: a way to take better care of yourself and understand your behaviors, making the most of your life. Must be 18-25 to participate, enjoying the company of others. There are computers available for job search, school, and leisure time. We also offer: peer support, homeless outreach, indoor/outdoor activities, and classes in independent living skills, study skills. In addition to those services there is staff available to help with employment, transportation, community linkage support, and more. We meet every Tuesday from 10:30 -2:30pm. Please tell a friend or family member about this program, it could be a great tool in some one’s life. They can learn to make better choices and gain an understanding of themselves. We have great staff on board with Peer Supporters who work with members helping them understand themselves and brainstorming solutions to make the right choice. We also have Case Managers who oversee, as well as, support member wellness. We work towards one goal: helping those in need to teach, listen, and provide mentorship. For more information, please call us at 805-240-2538 or visit us at www.myspace.com/TAY_tunnel our home office is located at 141West 5th St suite D in Oxnard 93030.
Frederic James/Marilee Rust
Pacific Clinics the (TAY)

To the Editor:
A small technicality in the Realities column from December 31, 2009 needs attention. In referring to the year 1906, the word isn't "Ott". It is Naught. According to Webster's Dictionary, Naught has several related meanings. One of which refers to the number 0 (zero). So 1906 would be properly referred to as Naught 6. We don't commonly use Naught anymore.
Larry Jennings
Fillmore

To the Editor:
Sespe 4-H would like to thank all of the citizens of Fillmore who donated socks to our holiday community service “Sespe’s Sock Box.” A special thanks to Marcia Hereema and all the members of the Bardsdale Methodist Church, the staff at the Santa Clara Valley Bank, the window clerks at the Fillmore Post Office, Fillmore City Hall, El Dorado Mobile Home Park.
Our club gave away 350 pairs of socks, and we couldn’t have done this without the help of caring Fillmore citizens. Thanks again!!
Sue Maynard
Sespe 4-H

To the Editor:
Correction to my statement to the city council on December 14, 2009: The owner of the Fillmore Gazette did not say that I had a favorite abortion clinic; my apologies to him and the council members. With that exception, however, I stand behind my statement in its entirety.
Sincerely,
Bob Stroh

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To the Editor:
To Stop the Confusion
I am disturbed over some recent events involving one persons campaign for Sheriff of Ventura County. Dennis Carpenter has kicked off his campaign going by the name of "Carp".
Anybody that has lived in the county for more than 10 years may remember the REAL Carp, aka Larry Carpenter. He's had that nickname since high school. Any fact checkers can take a look a Fillmore High Schools 1964 yearbook, and see that's it's true. His official signature is Carp and has been for many years. That can also be checked by looking at his drivers license, or the many documents signed by him throughout his years as Sheriff of Ventura County. His logo has also been to have "Carp" in cursive over the Sheriff's badge. Guess who also decided to adopt that for his logo.
Several times a week my Father is approached by people asking him if he is part of Dennis Carpenter's campaign. I'm writing this to set the record straight, and to stop the confusion.
NO my Dad is not running for Sheriff. Been there done that.
NO, Dennis Carpenter is NOT a relative.
My Dad is NOT involved in nor does he support Dennis Carpenter's campaign.
My Dad had not yet publicly endorsed any candidate for Sheriff.
There's is only one Sheriff Carp, and that's my Dad, Larry Carpenter.
You may have heard the term "bait and switch"...... well, don't get hooked.
Margo Carpenter,
Daughter of Larry "Carp" Carpenter

* * *

To the Editor:
In a December 10 letter, ashamed FUSD employee took me to task for not citing a Stanford CREDO report on charter schools in greater detail. This week, ashamed employee says the same Stanford report is fatally flawed and should be ignored. This new attitude is based on what ashamed employee refers to as “the Hoxby report.” There is no Hoxby report. What there is is a memo written by noted charter school advocate Caroline Hoxby.
Ashamed employee refers to this memo as being “from Stanford University.” Caroline Hoxby is an economist at Stanford, but she wrote her memo all by herself. This is in no sense a report from the university.
In contrast, the 2009 Stanford CREDO report, is a peer reviewed study. It was produced by CREDO, the Center for Research on Education Outcomes, and is widely considered the best and most detailed study of charter schools ever done.
Hoxby, in her memo, accused the CREDO report of methodological flaws. This critique was answered in detail by the CREDO researchers in a paper called “Fact vs. Fiction: An Analysis of Dr. Hoxby’s Misrepresentation of CREDO’s Research.” They write:
“The memo, “A Serious Statistical Mistake in the CREDO Study of Charter Schools,” by Caroline Hoxby, does not provide any basis whatsoever for discounting the reliability of the CREDO study’s conclusions. The central element of Dr. Hoxby’s critique is a statistical argument that is quite unrelated to the CREDO analysis. The numerical elements of it are misleading in the extreme, even had the supporting logic been correct. Unfortunately, the memo is riddled with serious errors both in the structure of the underlying statistical models and in the derivation of a bias.”
Hoxby is controversial figure in academic circles, and her own work has been criticized for methodological flaws. She was the center of a controversy in 2005, when Professor Jesse Rothstein from Princeton flat out accused her of fudging data in a paper about charter schools.
Ashamed employee suggests that we ignore the Stanford study (which looked at 70% of all charter school students in the United States.) Instead we are referred to a paper on the charter schools of New York City which just coincidentally happens to be co-written by the same Caroline Hoxby. This study itself asks the question, “Is New York City a typical environment for charter schools?” It also answers the question: “Nothing about New York City is typical!”
Ashamed employee wants us to ignore the best and biggest study of charter schools ever conducted, because one controversial professor of economics wrote a memo critical of it, a memo that was systematically refuted by the authors of the report. Instead, we are supposed to extrapolate the results of a study by the same pro charter partisan about New York City’s charter schools, and assume we would get similar results in Piru.
Greg Spaulding

To the Editor:
In response to L. Durand's Letter; He wrote ....."The fact that the district can support the soccer program is BECAUSE of the football program. The revenues taken in by the football program is given to the ASB. This revenue pays for the soccer program, swimming program, track program and basketball program etc. Without the funds raised by the football program her child and many others would probably have to pay a large amount of money so that the high school could have a soccer program."
Don’t try to take all the credit Mr. Durand! Our soccer kids pay for their share, sell their share of shirts, sell their share of dinner tickets and still have to pay money to be involved in soccer! Please don’t make it seem like the football team carries all the sports! Contributions come from everywhere, especially our sponsors, which have nothing to do with the football team!
How tacky is looked for us to be playing on a field that was shorter than we normally play on! How tacky it looked that we had a perfectly good field behind us and we couldn’t even use it! How tacky that we had to sit on the ground or stand! Let’s just hope we didn’t have a person in a wheel chair show up! Where in the world would we have placed them! Also, how inconvenient it was to find a restroom. Thus the reason for us having access to the field! All those problems would have been taken care of. So you see it has more to do with the football team needing to practice on the field!
That’s wonderful that the football Flashes made it (at the time) to the next round but the soccer team is also representing our school! Please don’t make it seem like the coaches didn’t know about the game, they knew, they did have access to schedules and they could have turned to their right and see the two teams warming up and obviously getting ready for a game!
I think all our Flashes teams/sports matter, but if it comes to hosting a game, let us give that team/sport priority! Flashes Football does not come first... The Flashes do!!!!
I also want to add a thank you to the Girls Flashes Soccer team, they have been out there on most of the home games cheering on the Boys Flashes Soccer team!!! Way to support your fellow soccer players!!! Good luck Flashes!!!! :)
Christina Carrial-Vasquez

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To the editor:
Ashamed FUSD employee has struck again! Ashamed employee wrote a lengthy letter last week, directly criticizing me, by name. But, once again, ashamed employee neglected to sign his or her own name. Since I am not privy to ashamed employee’s secret identity, the only way to communicate seems to be through the pages of the Gazette. So, here it goes:
Attention Ashamed Employee:
Thank you for the compliment at the end of your recent letter. I do take exception however, to the rest of your letter. You claim that my opening argument is that “there just aren’t that many charter schools in Ventura County.” You characterize this argument as too dumb to waste time on. Since you don’t explain exactly what makes this argument too dumb to waste time on, it is a little hard to respond to, but I’ll try.
To begin with, you have misrepresented my argument. Here is an exact quote from my article: “Of the eleven charter schools in the county, only four are elementary schools with site based instruction. Two of them are in Camarillo, one is in Thousand Oaks, and one is in Ventura. “
I further note that each of the four charter elementary schools is one option among many, in relatively large communities. Three of the four elementary charter schools in Ventura County were start ups. That is to say, they started in facilities that were not currently in use. The fourth elementary charter (Meadow Arts, in Thousand Oaks) took over a school site that had been slated to be closed due to under-enrollment.
My point was that Piru would be the only elementary charter school in the entire county of Ventura to take over an existing successful running school site. This is more than unusual. It is unprecedented. It is unprecedented because it is a really bad idea.
It is a bad idea for multiple reasons. To begin with, conversions simply don’t perform as well as start-ups. A 2003 RAND Corporation study of charter schools in California (Charter School Operations and Performance: Evidence From California) found different results for charters schools depending on whether they were start ups or conversions. Start up charters had better results than conversions. In this study, charters that were conversions from conventional schools (which is what the Piru petitioners intend to do) did not improve student achievement.
In addition, charter schools are not intended to replace (or in this case displace) the local elementary school; and certainly not when the overwhelming majority of parents have indicated they oppose the charter. Successful charter schools find an appropriate site, and garner significant parental support for their project. The Piru petitioners have done neither.
Charter schools are supposed to be opt-in programs, that parents may choose to send their children too. Placing a charter in Piru, taking over the only neighborhood school in a small community, makes it an opt-out program, completely counter to the whole idea of charter schools. Of all the elementary schools in FUSD, Piru is the worst site for a charter school for this reason. It is the only site where students who do not wish to attend a charter would have to be bussed down the highway to attend a non-charter school, rather than finding a relatively close alternative school in town.
In regards to the Stanford CREDO National Charter School Report (2009) I cited, you are absolutely correct that you can find differences in achievement among various sub-groups. For example, on page 6 of the full report you find this statement: “Charter schools have different impacts on students based on their family backgrounds. For Blacks and Hispanics, their learning gains are significantly worse than that of their traditional school twins.” Since 91% of Piru’s students are classified as Hispanic, you would think this is would be an important bit of information. But, I guess the charter school petitioners forgot to mention it in their presentation to the school board.
You are also correct that charter schools have had relatively better results for children in poverty and English language learners. For example, on page 27 the report states “We see positive results for charter school students in poverty – these students realized statistically superior learning gains in reading compared to their TPS (traditional public school) peers… The magnitude of the difference was about the same as was seen for the overall reading effect, .01 standard deviations, though here the sign is positive. While significant, the effect is small.”
In the context of this quote the word “significant” means statistically significant. That means the results are not likely to be due to chance. It does not necessarily indicate that the results are practically important, since, as noted, the positive effects for those particular subgroups is small. And since there is enormous variation in results among charter schools, there is no guarantee that these results would be replicated at Piru.
According to Piru School’s 2007-2008 School Accountability Report Card, non-English learning Hispanics, non-Hispanic whites, Asians and African Americans combined make up 52% of Piru’s students. All of those sub-groups tend to perform, on average, either more poorly in charter schools or no better in charter schools.
The Stanford report also noted that “the effectiveness of charter schools was found to vary widely by state. The variation was over and above existing differences among states in their academic results.” California is cited as one of four states that had mixed results or were no different than the gains for traditional school peers. Obviously, 100% of Piru’s students live in California.
Also according to the Stanford report, “students generally experience a significant negative impact on learning in reading in their first year of charter enrollment, in the range of -.06 standard deviations.” While this negative impact tends to disappear over time, that would be cold comfort to the families of Piru whose children are currently enrolled, and would likely experience this decline.
On page 9 of the report we read this conclusion: “This analysis shows that in the aggregate charter schools are not advancing the learning gains of their students as much as traditional public schools.”
Another important study, by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), titled “A Closer Look at Charter Schools Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling” (2006), and sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, reached this conclusion: “After adjusting for student characteristics, charter school mean scores in reading and mathematics were lower, on average, than those for public noncharter schools.”
In 2009 the Center for Education Reform published a report on accountability in charter schools. They found that 13% of all charter schools ever opened have subsequently closed. 41% of those closures were due to financial difficulties, often due to declining enrollment (a distinct possibility in the case of Piru, since dozens of parents have already indicated their intent to un-enroll their children if Piru becomes a charter school.) 27% of the closures were due to mismanagement. 14% of the closures were due to poor academic performance.
Charter advocates routinely overstate the effectiveness of charter schools, cite only the data that supports their case, while rationalizing or ignoring data that undercuts their case. They like to cite only the studies or even just portions of studies (as you did in your last letter) that support their position, while ignoring the overall picture.
I argued that “the body of research on charter schools is less than impressive,” and I absolutely stand behind that statement. The research on charter schools does not justify a radical change of governance and personnel in a school that is making solid academic gains. Piru charter advocates like to speak of converting Piru to a charter school as “the next step of school reform.” Variations of this phrase are repeated no less than seven times in their petition. Unfortunately, there is no compelling evidence that this next step would necessarily be an improvement.
Incidentally, a group of parents and teachers from Piru recently visited Fenton Avenue Charter School in San Ferndando Valley. Fenton is characterized as “one of the oldest and most successful charter schools in the state of California” in a recent Gazette article about the trip. Now, I am sure Fenton is a nice school, but between 2007 and 2009 Fenton’s API scores rose by exactly zero points. In fact, between 2007 and 2008 its score dropped seven points. The next year Fenton (“one of the most successful charter schools in the state”) regained those same seven points for a grand total of zero improvement. Over the same time frame, Piru (as a non charter school) saw its API scores climb by 71 points.
As noted in the Gazette article, Fenton has high percentages of students from Hispanic families, second language learners, and students receiving free or reduced lunch. This is likewise true of all the schools of Fillmore, including Sespe. Last school year, on the 2009 API test Sespe scored 770 points. Fenton’s score was 747.
There is an even closer match between the demographics of Fenton and Piru. In the words of Chris Pavik’s article on their trip, Fenton has demographics that “almost exactly mirror those of Piru School: 87% of the students qualify for free and reduced lunch, 54% are in the English as a Second Language program, and come from a primarily Hispanic community.” The two schools also have almost identical API scores. Fenton last year achieved an API score only eight points higher than Piru’s (747 for Fenton, compared to 739 for Piru.)
My point about district administration is that Fillmore is at almost exactly the median for a district of its size in both the number of administrators in the district, and the portion of district money allotted to administrative services. The claim, made by representatives of our teachers’ union, was that Fillmore is uniquely overstaffed compared to comparable districts, and that district administrators have given themselves huge raises, up to 48%. This is completely untrue.
In the penultimate paragraph of your letter you credit me with saying that Piru is the most successful campus in the district. Unfortunately, you have habit of misquoting me. I never said Piru is the most successful campus in the district.
Here is an exact quote of what I said in that regard: “Charter schools are typically started for one of two reasons. 1.) The charter embodies a distinct educational vision, for example a commitment to open education, or an emphasis on technology or the arts; or 2.) the charter replaces a failing school. It is hard to see for which of these reasons the Piru charter is being proposed. The philosophy and approaches to education articulated by the charter team seem perfectly fine, but not at all out of the mainstream of educational practice. And they have seen three years of solid growth in their state testing scores, so the school, in its present configuration and personnel could hardly be considered failing.”
The jump from “three years of solid growth” and “hardly considered failing” to “the most successful campus in the district” is, I am afraid, a product of your still rather active imagination. (I won’t even discuss your odd penchant for conspiracy theories concerning John Garnica.)
In terms of API test scores, the most successful elementary school in FUSD is Sespe. It has seen greater growth overall, and has achieved higher scores than any other elementary school in the district. Since the start of API testing in 1999, Sespe’s scores have climbed by 243 points. Piru, over the same time, improved by 197 points. Last year Piru and Sespe improved by almost identical amounts (fifty-two points for Piru; fifty-one for Sespe), but Sespe’s API score last year was also 31 points higher than Piru’s. Sespe had a score of 770, while Piru’s score was 739.
I did not say, and do not agree, that Piru is the most successful school in FUSD. All the schools in FUSD are excellent, with terrific dedicated staffs. My point was that Piru has been experiencing success as part of Fillmore Unified. Your theory seems to be that if a school has been experiencing success, the best way to continue that success is to radically change the governance and personnel.
In fact, your point about Los Angeles Unified converting schools into charter schools due to, as you say in your letter, “declining student achievement”, makes my point for me. Piru has not seen declining student achievement, but rather the reverse, as a part of FUSD. There is every expectation that it would continue to do so as part of FUSD. On the other hand, breaking apart a successful team of teachers and experimenting with a charter is a much riskier proposition.
One last comment: It is unusual for any newspaper to publish anonymous letters. You have submitted two, and in both instances you harshly criticize me. You misquote me and mischaracterize my arguments. You accuse me of being a “hired gun” for the district, and “a true champion of the status quo.” You call my arguments “ridiculous” and “dumb.” And you have done all this from the safety of anonymity.
This hardly seems fair. There are basic principles of fair play, and you are breaking them. I don’t mind being disagreed with. That is certainly your right in a democracy. But if you feel compelled to write another letter mentioning me, please have the courtesy and the courage to sign your name.
Greg Spaulding

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To the Editor:
Response to Spaulding:
Greg,
Yes. I do think some of your arguments are “ridiculous” and “dumb”, you do act like a “hired gun” for the district, and you do support the “status quo”. And yes, “I’ve done all this from the safety of anonymity.” It has nothing to do with “fair play”, “courtesy” or “courage” Greg. The newspaper is protecting my identity in order to prevent retaliation from my employer. Fillmore Unified administrators have a track record of unethical behavior targeting individuals who speak out against them. Conversely, you routinely rise in support of district policies and have nothing to worry about. Being good friends with the Garnica’s doesn’t hurt either.
You continue to use selective evidence to back your anti-charter position and hypocritically accuse charter-supporters of doing the same. For example, from page 6 of the CREDO study you cite, “For Blacks and Hispanics, their learning gains are significantly worse than that of their traditional school twins.” You leave it there and attack Piru charter founders. These findings are contradicted in the more accurate NYC Charter Schools Report, “On average, a student who attended a charter school for all of grades kindergarten through eight would close about 86 percent of the Scarsdale-Harlem achievement gap in math and 66 percent of the achievement gap in English.” This is just one example of Blacks and Hispanics outperforming traditional public schools. Regrettably, the data you cite in most of your recent letter is flawed. The Hoxby report, also from Stanford University, found the CREDO report, “contains a statistical mistake that causes a biased estimate of how charter schools affect achievement.” And, “the CREDO study violates four rules for the empirically sound use of matching methods to evaluate charter schools' effects.” In other words, the CREDO data and conclusions are faulty. Regardless, I challenge you to convince one NYC charter school parent to pull out based on your analysis their child would do better in a traditional public school. Good luck!
Despite countless studies with contradictory conclusions, one thing is clear. Fenton Charter, Piru Charter, the 250 new charter schools in Los Angeles, the state of California, New York State, the Presidents’ Bill promoting charter schools (I could go on and on) all indicate policymakers, parents and educators want out of the public school rut. Then again, this could all be part of my “rather active imagination.”
The point of my original letter (which Sweeney and Board Members failed to directly respond to) was not to get into a charter debate. It was to point out a pattern of poor ethics, poor management, and poor decisions by Sweeney, Bush and Townend. Board Members routinely prefer a tall glass of Sweeney Kool-Aid to thinking for themselves. It’s not only embarrassing, it’s harmful.
I disagree with you Greg, and as you said, in a democracy, that is my right to do so. My criticisms were never intended to target you personally, and if you felt attacked or harmed by my remakes, I sincerely apologize.
We need more Geoffrey Canada's and fewer Jeffery Sweeney's. See http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5914322n&tag=cbsnewsMainColumnAre...
An Ashamed FUSD employee

To the Editor:
To the Communities of Piru and Fillmore:
While the Piru Neighborhood Council realizes it has no jurisdiction over the policies which affect our local school, we do wish to express our concern and disappointment that we could not bring both the petitioners for the Piru Charter School and parties concerned by the proposal to a forum that would allow the public to ask questions of both sides.
We chose a format that we hoped would avoid conflict, and planned to have the public write their questions down. The PNC Board would then have taken turns asking questions of the groups concerned with the school. We invited everyone on November 5th and reminded them on November 12. On that weekend, a petitioner called me, requesting assurance that the meeting would not be confrontational, which I gave. Then I received a text message November 16 stating that “the two-sided format doesn’t work for us”.
The general Piru Community, and apparently many parents and teachers, were unaware of the proposal to break Piru School away from Fillmore Unified until after the petition had been officially recorded and a special Board of Education meeting scheduled the night of our October meeting. We postponed ours to allow the public to attend the District’s October session, and later that month received a request from the Charter petitioners to appear at our General Meeting November 18.
The Piru Neighborhood Council Executive Board met on November 3 to finalize our agenda, and agreed on several points: taking a position for or against the proposal was outside our area of concern as defined in our by-laws; we had a duty to try to provide the community with information that would help them decide what position to take; four out of five Board members felt that another presentation was unnecessary, as the petitioners had already explained their ideas in a well-attended public meeting.
The Piru Community has gone from a total lack of information to an abundance of discussions, rumors, statements that are incomplete or unclear, and contradictory “information”; we are now in a state of confusion. The PNC regrets that the opportunity to clarify information and reduce confusion has been denied to the public, and hope that when the issue is finally resolved, the result will be a healthy thing for the school and the community that depends on it.
Respectfully,
Janet Bergamo, President
Piru Neighborhood Council

To the Editor:
I really feel sad that a parent of a student in the Fillmore Unified School District is pitting one school team against another. Christina Carrizal-Vasque feels that soccer was slighted because the Fillmore Football team won league and then went on to successfully go to the second round of the playoffs. She asks does football come first? Yes, when a team has been successful they are given the opportunity to continue to use the field to practice and play. Why did the soccer coach schedule a PRACTICE game when he/she knew there was a good possibility that the football team would go to the playoffs just as they did last year? The football coaches probably had no idea that a game was scheduled. When the soccer team has won an gone to the playoffs every effort has been made to give them support including usage of the field for practice and games. Should the football team not be afforded the same opportunity?
Perhaps, Christina does not understand that we are in bleak financial times. The fact that the district can support the soccer program is BECAUSE of the football program. The revenues taken in by the football program is given to the ASB. This revenue pays for the soccer program, swimming program, track program and basketball program etc. Without the funds raised by the football program her child and many others would probably have to pay a large amount of money so that the high school could have a soccer program. Football happily supports all the other sports and the more successful the football program is the more funding other programs have. The football program wishes all teams continued success. I hope this misunderstanding and criticism of the Football program was the result of lack of information. The Fillmore Flashes of 2009 deserve nothing but praise. I attended all but on game and the football team and their coaches well represented Fillmore. They were fantastic!!
I am saddened that Christina is not happy for every team’s success. A positive supportive letter congratulating the football program and thanking them for all they do to financially support the many wonderful sports programs at Fillmore High School would have been more appropriate. The school and all the teams are equally important and deserve all the parents support not criticism. Go Flashes!!
L. Durand
Fillmore

To the Editor:
Attention Greg Spaulding:
Your arguments against a Charter School in Piru are flawed. The most ridiculous might be your opening argument that “there just aren’t that many Charter Schools in Ventura County.” I won’t waste anyone’s time describing how dumb that is and move right into what you describe in your own words as “the most relevant question, how charter schools perform.” You cite a Stanford University study: 37% of charter schools report gains worse than traditional public schools, 17% report gains better than traditional public schools, and 46% demonstrate no significant difference. You also claim that I have a “rather active imagination.” Is it just my imagination or did you “forget” to include any positive information from the report about Charter Schools? Since you chose selective information from the study, I’ll do the same. You failed to mention the report concludes “Nationally, Elementary and middle school charter students exhibited higher learning gains than equivalent students in the traditional public school system.” Piru Charter is an Elementary school with plans to add Middle School. The report goes on to conclude “In addition, some subgroups demonstrated greater academic growth than their traditional public school twins. Specifically, students in poverty and ELL (English Language Learning) students experience larger learning gains in charter.” Many Piru students are low income and ELL. According to the study, there are good arguments for a Charter School in Piru. Why would you not include such critical findings from the report? I guess it was also my imagination that Board Member Garnica gave you a big smile and congratulatory handshake after the Piru Charter hearing.
Since you brought up your email regarding administrative overstaffing and claim it “put the issue to rest”, let me state, for the record, you did not put the issue to rest. Fillmore Unified, along with public schools throughout the nation, is clearly overstaffed at the top. This bloated bureaucracy takes money away from students and forces bad decisions onto principals, teachers and students. These problems are compounded in Fillmore with unethical administrators, a weak superintendent, and a school board unwilling to think for themselves and question their actions. Is it just my imagination or did one administrator just slither away in the middle of the night? What? No going away party for Townend?
You are a true champion of the “status quo” Greg. Perhaps it’s this type of “inside the box” thinking that keeps our schools trapped in state improvement. After decades of increasing district administration resulting in declining student achievement, the LA City Board of Education voted against the “status quo” by converting 250 campuses into charter schools. One of the definitions of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Apparently the LA Board of Education is tired of acting insane.
One thing you are right about Greg. Under the leadership of Richard Durborow, along with the great work of Piru teachers, parents and community, Piru is the most successful campus in the District.
Regardless of what happens outside the classroom Greg, you are one of Fillmore’s finest teachers and we are fortunate to have you. Thank You.
An ashamed FUSD employee

To the Editor:
Recently our city council was remediated in a Brown Act workshop as a result of a settlement between the City of Fillmore and Richard McKee of Californians Aware. Evidently the county’s district attorney was satisfied that our city council cured its ills and with how it handled its unintended violations. But why the settlement unless the city was more guilty than innocent? And why would it agree to pay Mr. McKee’s attorney’s fees for something unintended?
What hasn’t happened is an apology, or has our council become politically calloused? We’ve all been bumped into in a crowd and typically, both parties exchange an apology. Here, our city council hasn’t seemed to notice where it steps or how it can brush public contact aside.
We’ve seen enough of the acrimony surrounding this legal embarrassment. Isn’t it time that our city fathers just walk circumspectly and move towards the civic matters that improve our community?
Bert Castel de Oro
Fillmore

To the Editor:
Several years ago our then City Attorney Roger Myers, gave me $50 to buy Marie Callender Pies for some needy families for their Thanksgiving Dinner. Since then I have had donated "Pie Money" given by more and more Fillmore people each year. These people that give are people that aren't going to be home or they just share and extend their Pie Order. Last year we changed the plan to giving to the "seniors". So we sent the pies to the "Meals on Wheels" and the for the people that have their lunch/dinner at the Senior Center. Antonia said the seniors were very happy with their pies and that the pies were delivered that Tuesday just in time to be cut and served.
So thank you all that have given in the past and the ones that donated this year (again): Marge Le Bard,
Dani Steiger, Martha Gentry, Patrick Maynard, Bev Haase, Jane Kampbell, Jim Herbert, Don Downey, Trinka Reynolds (Mortgage).
Very Sincerely,
Raelene Chaney
Grad Nite Live

To the Editor:
El Dorado: Some of our residents received a Rental Agreement. The idea that the board of the HOA has formed a committee to “negotiate the Rental Agreement” is obviously absurd. To begin with it is not a “lease” it is a Rental Agreement. And they can’t honestly think that the owners will sit down and even talk with them, let alone negotiate with them? These so called HOA members think they own the park! These people and some town residents don't realize the money the nincompoop’s have cost the city ($20,000+). El Dorado’s chaos and discord is directly attributable to their actions. Because of their previous rent control demands we got Measure F. Because of their insults and accusations of the owners and management, now we are only offered a rental agreement instead of a lease. What is next, an all age park? Please wake-up. They are destroying this park and the enjoyable life style we used to have. Their Collective Stupidity will destroy us all. El Dorado has two enemies: Those who want to destroy us from the outside and those who created this mess will destroy us from within.
A Concern Citizen of El Dorado
Raul Torres

To The Editor:
Attention Ashamed FUSD employee:
Your misconception is that two district office employees can control the thoughts and minds of so many. You would have us believe that anyone who shares an opinion that might be in agreement with Dr. Bush’s or Mr. Sweeny’s position then that thought must have been place there by them. You have them in control of the thoughts of parents, teachers, and board members. You would have us believe that only a fortunate few like yourself has been able to escape their powerful ability to transfer their cognition to another. Do you wear some special helmet that deflects their thoughts or is your skull just naturally thicker than rest of ours?
Not ashamed to be an employee of FUSD,
John Schaper

To the Editor:
I am writing in response to a recent anonymous letter, signed “ashamed FUSD employee.” The author was not willing to sign his or her name, but was willing to write critically, by name, about other Fillmore Unified School District employees. In particular, the anonymous letter writer mentions me in connection with a petition to recall Fillmore Unified Teachers’ Association (FUTA) president, Theresa Marvel. This isn’t exactly accurate. There is a petition, but it is not to recall Ms. Marvel, it is to call for a vote to recall Ms. Marvel.
Oddly, “ashamed employee” makes no mention whatsoever of a second petition. There is also a petition to call for a recall vote for FUTA vice-president Chris Pavik. I am a cosponsor of both petitions. In fact, there are cosponsors from every school site in the district, except Sierra High School. This recall campaign is widely supported throughout the Fillmore Unified School District.
In an online comment, “ashamed employee” accuses Superintendent Jeff Sweeney of “attempting to orchestrate the removal of Marvel.” This is completely false. Mr. Sweeney had absolutely nothing to do with instigating or encouraging a recall vote.
The anonymous writer also states in online comments that “the petition to recall Fillmore Teacher's Union President Theresa Marvel was signed by a small group of union members well connected to you [Sweeney], Bush and School Board Members.”
I don’t know how many the letter writer considers a small group. The minimum number of signatures needed to force a recall vote is 48. We collected the signatures of 78 Fillmore teachers for the recall of Ms. Marvel, and 86 for the recall of Mr. Pavik. We quit gathering signatures early, since we had more than enough to force a vote.
“Ashamed employee” characterizes me as “Bev and John Garnica’s good friend and apparent “hired gun” when it comes to issuing detailed emails and public statements supporting school board decisions.” I readily admit to being friends with the Garnicas, but I categorically deny in any way being a “hired gun” for the district. That’s a figment of “ashamed employee’s” rather active imagination. Anything I have ever written, any analysis I have ever done, any opinions I have ever expressed, are completely my own. No district administrator or school board member has ever suggested that I write on any topic, or has assisted me in any way.
Greg Spaulding

To the Editor:
Soccer v. Football
I find it every sad that while attending last nights JV Soccer game I had no where to sit but on the ground! I turn around to see a beautiful field behind me empty of soccer players, but plenty of action going on with the football players! I understand that the football team has made it to the next round but it is really necessary for them to take up the field while the soccer team is hosting a game? How embarrassing for the Fillmore Soccer team to have to play on this felid when we have a perfectly good field! How embarrassing for us to have our parents, fans and community members sit on the ground! Does football come first? Why did the coaches feel the need to use it during the soccer team’s game time! Shouldn’t it be whoever has a game gets to use it and if it is a practice session then you are voted off! Why couldn’t the football players use the baseball field for practice! At one point that’s all they had to use! But now it is only good enough for the soccer players to host a game!
What’s more important here? There have been times where the soccer team has gone to the playoffs or have made it all the way too! Is The football team special compared to the soccer team!? What will happen at next week’s tournament? Will this happen again!
I will say that the Varsity game was allowed to use the field for their game and so many people showed up and the seats were nearly full with fans, parents, and community members! How great it looked!
Note: the pictures of all the standing fans, parents and students who attended the JV game! No one is supposed to be standing behind the goalie but there are several students there!
Unfortunately, our Flashes did not win!
Christina Carrizal-Vasque
Fillmore

Attention School Board Members: Time to stop being led around by the nose by Jeff Sweeney and Mike Bush and time to start thinking for yourselves.
First, you followed Sweeney down a legally confusing and morally bankrupt path leading to Townend’s misconduct going unpunished and rewarded. Instead of firing Townend, as Sweeney had the legal right to do, he “granted her request” for a new position where she’s not doing a damm thing and continues to receive her same superintendent level salary and benefits in excess of $100,000 a year. And to make things worse, Sweeney hired an expensive consultant, in the middle of a budget crisis, to take over Townend’s responsibilities, depleting the district’s already reduced operating budget. Furthermore, some district employees, who are still adjusting to last rounds salary and benefit cuts, are now being asked by Sweeney and Bush to give up their healthcare benefits entirely. What a mess.
Second, Sweeney was advised by the Ventura County Office of Education to approve the new Piru Charter School because “if you don’t approve it, the state will” and “don’t waste any money on legal fees trying to fight it.” Instead Sweeney and Bush (known as the “Charter Killer” referring to the charter school he defeated during his tenure in Santa Paula) did just the opposite. They fought it and fought it hard. They demoted Piru Elementary School Principal Richard Durborow (who oversaw the most improved campus in the district) for considering going charter. Bush and Townend rigged the Piru Principal Election Committee to block another charter school supporter, Susan Jolley, from becoming Piru’s next principal. Sweeney and Bush used Piru teachers sympathetic to the district’s anti-charter position to intimidate charter-supporting teachers, indicating that “if they backed out now, no harm would come to them”. Sweeney prohibited any talk or meetings about going charter on school grounds, forcing charter supporters to go “underground” setting the stage for the district’s “information war” spreading fear and uncertainty amongst Piru parents. These same parents were bussed to the Piru Charter School hearing to make sure board members witnessed overwhelming anger and dissatisfaction over going charter. Its ironic that board member De la Piedra stated “We don’t like the division” while sitting next to the people who caused it. By pitting long time friends against each other, Bush and Sweeney have caused permanent damaged to the Piru community.
So, what happens now? Lacking any axes to grind or “Charter Killers”, and happy to take advantage of the Sweeney Bush blunder, the County of Ventura or State of California will approve the new charter school and receive monies (monies that Fillmore Unified could have received) for providing services to the new school. More unethical behavior and bad decisions will now lead to further depletion of Fillmore Unified’s budget, reducing services to our children and guaranteeing more salary and benefit cuts to Fillmore Unified teachers and staff. Another mess.
Third, it looks like Sweeney and Bush have led you down yet another unethical and potentially illegal path. Just last week, a petition was submitted to recall one your most vocal critics, Fillmore Teachers Union President, Theresa Marvell. The petition was signed by a group of teachers not only sympathetic to the school board, but related to several school board members and Bush himself. The petition signers include Rene Bush (Mike Bush’s wife), Bev Garnica (School Board Member John Garnica’s wife), Magaly Dollar (School Board Member David Dollar’s daughter in-law), Greg Spalding (Bev and John Garnica’s good friend and apparent “hired gun” when it comes to issuing detailed emails and public statements supporting school board decisions). But somehow, I have a feeling you already know about all this. Shame on you.
What bad decision or unethical behavior will you be involved with next? Time to get rid of Sweeney, Bush and Townend once and for all.
An ashamed FUSD employee

Response by Jeff Sweeney, FUSD Superintendent
It is unfortunate that the letter submitted by the anonymous “ashamed FUSD employee” stoops to the level of personal attacks, name-calling and the dredging up of old issues in an apparently misguided attempt to garner sympathy and support for the Piru Charter School proposal. While I could respond to each and every one of the misstatements and unfounded allegations contained in the letter, that would serve no purpose but to further inflame and divide the community.
The letter’s author attempts to ascribe unsavory motives to Mike Bush and myself, and blame the failed charter attempt on an alleged inappropriate agenda by the two of us. As was clearly evidenced at both District Board meetings, as well as in other forums during the District’s consideration of the Charter, the overwhelming feeling of the entire community, particularly including Piru parents and District employees, was strong opposition to the Charter. The Charter itself contained a number of flaws and misleading and/or incorrect information, much of which is specifically addressed by the Board’s Resolution of Denial.
But the most fundamental cause of the Charter’s failure was the fact that it was demonstrably unlikely to be successful because the Charter petitioners failed to garner virtually any support for the Charter proposal. The families whose students attend Piru School, and most District employees, opposed the Charter. The families made clear that they simply would not send their children to the proposed Piru Charter School. Without students, the school obviously would fail.
The bottom line is the petitioners did not present the District a workable and potentially successful charter proposal, and for this reason, the Charter was denied. Mr. Bush’s and my purpose in recommending denial of the Charter was only to protect the interests of all District students, including the Piru students. The petitioners have the right to appeal the District’s decision, if they so choose, and that decision and the ultimate fate of the Charter request are now out of the District’s hands.
On a final note, I am aware that the membership of the Fillmore United Teacher’s Association submitted a petition for the recall of their current president, Theresa Marvel, and vice president, Chris Pavik. This recall effort was not instigated by the Board, Mr. Bush, nor myself, and it is not within our control, but, rather, is an internal decision for the FUTA membership. The District will, of course, continue to work for the best interests of the District, including its students and employees, with Ms. Marvel and whomever else may serve in leadership positions in FUTA.
I hope that we can all move forward from here in order to continue to provide the quality education that all of our students deserve, rather than concentrating on past disputes.
Sincerely,
Jeff Sweeney
FUSD Superintendent

To the Editor:
The most important responsibility I have as a board member is to review and study any and all situations that concern students who attend Piru and Fillmore schools and to vote or work towards anything that I believe will be in their best interest.
I voted to deny the Piru Charter School after many hours of studying the situation along with my fellow board members. Unfortunately, the Piru Charter was presented once the process had begun without any notification to our district. The petitioners failed to include administration, certificated, classified and more importantly parents and community members in the planning, the design, and the decision making processes of the petition that was submitted.
I am not opposed to charter schools; however, I am without a doubt opposed to this petition creating the Piru Charter School. I am not opposed to “something new” as was stated at the meeting held in Piru although that “something new” must be in the best interest of our students, which I did not find in this proposed Charter. The presenters stated that there were “great things” this Charter would provide, yet they failed at both meetings to provide us with what these “great things” would be. The Charter only replicated the current instructional offered at Piru, with the promise of reducing some classes in the upper grades and even the reduction of the upper grades classes were not guaranteed.
Another factor in my decision was the lack of support demonstrated by the community. At both the October 21 and the November 9 meetings in Piru, there was very little support for the Charter. Eighty-five percent of the speakers at our public hearing on October 21 spoke against the Charter. Over 200 attended that meeting and even those who did not speak, were against the charter because they were excluded from the planning process and did not see how the Charter was going to improve upon the great progress the school has made. Their fear was that it was going to derail that progress.
Piru is a successful school making great strides in achievement. There are a select few who now wish to take credit for this success, and such prideful boasting is an insult to everyone's hard work. I have observed time and time again the combined efforts of everyone who is employed and volunteers at the site, and I have witnessed the positive results they have accomplished.
Simply put, the Piru Charter was overwhelmingly not supported by the community and without support it cannot be successful.
Virginia A. de la Piedra
FUSD Board Member

To the Editor:
Piru Charter School Moves Forward…
Despite what some may think, the plans for Piru School to become an independent charter school, run by a Board of Directors composed of Piru parents, community members and staff, continues to progress. It is the intention of the petitioning group that Piru School will open as an independent charter school next school year. In the State of California, approval of a charter petition is a multi-stage process. By law, the petition must be submitted first to the local district. However, since most local districts have an inherent bias towards preventing any competition or loss of control or loss of funding, the California charter law has built into it the provision that County or State Boards of Education may also approve a charter even when a local school board has turned it down. The Piru School charter petitioners want what is best for the children of our community, and believe that it is important that parents have the right to choose their child's school. We welcome questions and/or enquiries about the plans for the upcoming year.
Sincerely, Chris Pavik
You may reach the Piru School Charter Petitioners with your questions at: pirucharterschool@earthlink.net or you can reach us at our address: Piru Charter School, P.O. Box 555, Piru, CA 93040.

To the Editor:
I am writing concerning the FUSD Board of Education’s recent decision to deny the Piru Charter School Petition. For me, this decision was a simple one to make for the following reasons:
1.) The lead petitioners failed to involve the Piru community in the process. I could have voted for a Charter School if the petitioners had simply ensured the success of the school by getting buy-in from the parents and community. As made evident to me by the hearing on Oct 21st, they did not do this. The standing-room-only crowd that overwhelmingly opposed the charter on that night made a huge impact on everyone that attended. It was glaringly obvious that the petitioners did not involve more than just a few parents. They also did not involve Piru staff other than the petitioners. Nor did they involve the wider community of Piru. In short, they totally misunderstood one of the key ingredients necessary for the success of a charter, especially one in a small, remote town like Piru: You need community buy-in.
3.) The petition itself did not bring anything new to the Piru School or community. One petition supporter complained saying, “When are we going to start talking about all the great things this charter school is going to do?” Well, we gave them all the time they wanted to make a convincing argument about those great things at the Oct. 21st meeting. We also gave them unlimited time to counter the problems identified by Superintendent Sweeney in his recommendation to the board at the Nov 9th meeting. Yet they could not articulate any of these “great things” to me or any other board member well enough to get even one vote. I could have voted for a well-thought-out, innovative charter petition. This one was neither.
John Garnica
President, FUSD Board of Education

To the Editor:
I am writing this to possibly save you the time and frustration that I recently went through. I received an e-mail from Bank of America (it said.) It informed me that someone has been trying to access my on-line banking and would I try to open my banking account to see if was still active and everything was OK. It said that if I didn’t access my account it would automatically be cancelled in six hours. The letter had an official place to “click” and it led to an equally official Bank of American on-line sign in page. I was to enter my on-line ID and pass-code. Now, I didn’t fall for this for two reasons: One, I do not have an account with Bank of America and two; If I did, I am not that dumb to be taken in by this scam. I am sure that there are a few in thousands that might fall for this and that is all they need to clean out an account with little effort spent on their part.
Thinking that law enforcement would like to have their e-mail address and possibly back track them somehow, I called the District Attorney. After three passed calls I finally got someone that said they were not interested and I would have to call my local law enforcement. If they thought it was important they would get in touch with us. I called our local Sheriff Department and told them the story. They immediately said they were not interested as there are so many scams they cannot possibly take the time to run them down. They just hope the public is aware and doesn’t fall for this sort of thing.
I thought, maybe Bank of America would want to know that someone is using their system to get some illegal money. I called Bank of America with a number I got from Google. I tried for about ten minutes and could not get a “live” person. Then I called the branch in Santa Paula and again could not get a live person. I finally gave up and took a copy to my local bank, gave it to them and told them to pass it on to B of A if they knew how. You can’t say I didn’t try to be a good citizen but sometimes you wonder if it is worth the effort.
It is no wonder we have so much of this going on if there is no one to pursue the bad guys. You would think there would be just one place you could call to report things of this nature. The D.A. and Sheriff’s departments sure didn’t refer me to anything. Its open season on us folks; so be aware and suspicious at all times.
John Heilman
74 year native.

To the Editor:
The recent Brown Act violations now admitted by the Fillmore City Council illustrate how easily elected officials can impede the public’s right to be involved in the decision-making of their local government. From the facts, it can be argued that the Council acted improperly to avoid embarrassment. That is, they violated the Brown Act in an attempt to avoid the embarrassment of having to admit they had violated the Brown Act.
Now, by executing a settlement agreement to end the lawsuit McKee v. Fillmore City Council, the City Council will remedy errors in judgment by agreeing to a 2-hour retraining on the requirements of the open meetings law.
However, there remains an even greater concern for the residents of Fillmore, and all the citizens of Ventura County - - a District Attorney’s Office either ignorant of the law or willing to compromise itself by sanctioning these obvious violations.
Acting on no formal complaint, but only an opinion piece in the local newspaper, the District Attorney says his office instituted an “investigation” into Fillmore’s actions. Then the office issued a baffling 5-page opinion, which included legal interpretations long ago repudiated by both the courts and the California Attorney General’s Office.
For example, the DA says it was proper when the Fillmore City Council included the opposing party to pending litigation in a closed session to discuss the issues and reach a settlement. Yet, in more than 30-years of opinions, the courts and the Attorney General have said such a closed session with a potential plaintiff violates the Brown Act.
The DA also says that the Council may cure its violation of denying the public an opportunity to comment prior to the Council taking action, by offering the public a chance to comment after the Council’s vote had already been announced. However, the Attorney General’s pamphlet on the Brown Act says, by the plain language of the statute, the public is always guaranteed the right to provide testimony before any action can be taken by the Council.
Why would the DA distort the law to support the City Council? It couldn’t be politics, could it? Is this evidence of an attorney “good old boy” network at work?
In this regard, it should not go unnoticed that the DA never contacted those making the allegations of Brown Act violations, even though we filed suit more than a month before his Office issued its opinion. However, while investigating these open meeting violations, the DA’s Office had no problem finding time to meet secretly with the attorneys representing Fillmore.
It is precisely this type of corruption that severely weakens the public’s ability to retain control over their local government. Fortunately for me, I live in Los Angeles County where DA Steve Cooley’s Public Integrity Division has a proven track record of vigorous Brown Act enforcement, most likely the best in the State.
I suggest that at the next election, the people of Ventura County should assure themselves a District Attorney who is more interested in protecting the public’s rights, than the backsides of political cronies.
After all, the promise of a government of, by, and for the people depends on the ability to exercise control over its elected representatives. Or as the California Legislature stated clearly when revising the open meeting law, “complete, faithful, and uninterrupted compliance with the Ralph M. Brown Act is a matter of overriding public importance.”
Richard P. McKee
Richard P. McKee is president-emeritus of Californians Aware, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the public’s right to open government by enforcing the Ralph M. Brown Act and the California Public Records Act.

To the Editor:
The District Attorney’s Office agrees with Californians Aware that the Brown Act (public meeting law) is an important right of the public. Each year we investigate and evaluate a number of potential violations regarding city councils, school boards, and other legislative bodies. We take this responsibility seriously and take appropriate action, including sending warning letters.
Regarding the allegations against the Fillmore City Council, we obtained and reviewed all of the pertinent documents and video recordings. We concluded that the council violated several provisions, including an exchange of e-mails that constituted an improper “serial meeting,” and irregularities regarding a closed session to address the original violation. We do not agree that Councilman Conaway was a “potential plaintiff” who should have been excluded from closed session discussions – he had not threatened to sue and was never a party to any litigation in this matter.
The Brown Act specifically provides that a public body may not be sued to void its actions unless it is first given the opportunity to “cure or correct” the violations. The city council did so here by discussing the issues in a properly-noticed open session, including an opportunity for public comment. A lawsuit by the DA against the city would have been an unnecessary and inappropriate expenditure of public funds because the council took prompt action to resolve the problems and no additional violations were threatened.
I understand that Californians Aware disagrees with some of our conclusions, although the inflammatory tone of their comments is unfortunate. Public access to the meetings of legislative bodies is a hallmark of our democracy and the District Attorney’s office will continue to ensure that this right is honored.
Very truly yours,
MICHAEL D. SCHWARTZ
Special Assistant District Attorney
Ventura County

To the Editor:
We gratefully thank "The Bag Ladies of Fillmore" for their generous donation to the St. Vincent De Paul Society at St. Francis of Assisi Church. As you may know we operate a Food Bank for Fillmore residents every Tuesday morning and we have been serving 125 to 140 families each week, up until a few months ago. We now help over 175 families a week. We estimate this to be about 700 or more people. They thank you also!
You may have seen many stories in the newspapers about donations to Food Share being down and needs up, they are true, so we again thank you.
We may not know who you are, because you want it that way, but we do know you are a wonderful group of caring women. You are what makes Fillmore great.
Tom Montali, for
St. Vincent De Paul Society,
Clients and Members at St. Francis of Assisi Church, Fillmore

To the Editor:
Thank you for the Gazette's support of the residents of El Dorado Estates in their effort to defeat Measure F. We won this battle by an outstanding margin, 969 votes (86%) against the measure, and 159 votes (14%) for it.
We also thank all those who helped get the message out, and to the voters of Fillmore for taking the time to cast their votes, especially with only one issue on the ballot. Their concern for the future of El Dorado residents and the City of Fillmore is tremendously appreciated.
Board of Directors
Voice of El Dorado Mobile Homeowner's Association
(The results printed in the Gazette were taken from the VC Elections webpage and read “100%” return. Mr. Schifanelli’s letter reflects the correct tally.)

To the Editor:
Fillmore Pool: Reality or is it?
The dream had come to reality! Fillmore once again has a swimming pool! One that not only the High School uses, but also the local Heritage Valley Aquatics; all of who were commuting to Santa Paula for practice. Wow – no more driving to practice. Wow – the kids will have something local to do during the hot summer months. Wow – lap swim for the adults in town. Wow – water aerobics! Wow – swimming lessons. Wow – family night! Wow - employment for the summer months for some very excited people!
Reality has set in. Sorry – the pool is closed for some reconstruction. Sorry - the pool is closed because the chlorine is too high. Sorry - the pool is closed because the chlorine it too low. Sorry - the pool is closed because the heater is malfunctioning. Sorry - the pool is now closed because the pump motor is broken. Sorry – the pool is closed until further notice. Sorry – pool facility is closed – no paycheck for you.
What has to happen for Fillmore to finally become a town that has facilities that can be counted on? None of these issues are a result of the people employed at the pool facility itself. I don’t run it and I don’t have the knowledge of what it takes to keep it in proper functioning condition. I do know (well I am sort-of sure) that everyone has paid their share of the taxes that went toward the building and maintenance of the pool. It was a long and hard fought battle that involved many people. Why isn’t there someone who can properly monitor and maintain it to keep it in working condition?
Don’t let this be another sad Fillmore story with people saying, “What did you expect? It’s Fillmore.”
Heidi Popp
Fillmore

To the Editor:
Dear Editor and citizens of Fillmore,
In regards to the recent letter to the editor, (Oct. 15, 2009) from Marlene Schreffler, we at Fillmore & Western Railway Co. would like to thank Ms. Schreffler for her concern and for bringing this incident to the attention of law enforcement officials and to the citizens of Fillmore. We are very concerned about the safety of pedestrians and motorists along the railway corridor. Safety is our number one concern and priority. Because of the close proximity of the apartment development at the Central Avenue railroad crossing, vision by the locomotive engineer has been severely impaired and has caused us considerable concern for the safety of pedestrians.
The railroad crew that was on the train the day Ms. Schreffler refers to in her letter, reported that they saw children near the tracks, the engineer did “holler” out the window to them to vacate the premises and stay a safe distance, but as the waiting motorists witnessed, at least one of the children did not heed the warning.
Fillmore & Western wants to remind all residents to practice caution around the railroad tracks and crossing, whether there is a train coming or not. If you do see unsafe activity near the railroad at crossings or on the tracks please call 911 and report it. Near Central Avenue and on most crossings, there are posted signs that direct people to stay off the tracks and the railroad right of way.
As the saying goes, “It does take a village to raise a child.” Parents, as witnessed, are not always present when their children need direction. We can all be better neighbors if we watch out for youngsters who might be displaying dangerous behavior around the railroad tracks.
Better that adults find themselves in the uncomfortable position of warning someone else’s child, than that child have a severe injury or even worse, death, because we did not take action to ensure their safety.
We appreciate Ms. Schreffler bringing this important issue to the attention of the citizens of Fillmore and hope that it makes everyone more aware and to take care around railroad tracks and crossings. The Fillmore & Western Railway Co. takes its responsibilities to ensure safety very seriously.
Thank you again, Ms. Schreffler for being a good citizen of Fillmore and a friend of the railroad.
With sincere regards,
Dave Wilkinson and the staff at Fillmore & Western

To the Editor:
I was misrepresented at the school board meeting gathering information about the Piru School Charter Petition. I am the teacher who taught at Piru School, and "He is now teaching at San Cayetano." I was always against Piru School going charter. In discussion after discussion I argued strongly against going charter. When we voted whether or not to even continue gathering information about the possibility of Piru School going charter, I was one of the 2 people who voted no, against. The charter school choice was possible for me. I was strongly opposed to it. Not because it didn't fit for me personally, but because I believe the present Piru Charter School movement is greatly hurting the students and staff of Piru School as well as the entire communities of Piru and Fillmore. I have always been and remain completely against the Piru School Charter movement. I felt extremely uncomfortable being brought up in any other category than that at the school board hearing on October 21.
Sincerely,
Bill Raymond
Piru School Teacher For 20 Years

To the Editor:
A Grateful Mom wants to say THANK YOU to the person who found my letter a week ago this Monday and made sure it would get back to me. Your kindness restored my faith in people. Thank you again…
A grateful mom
Fillmore

To the Editor:
Short note to Roy Payne and Brian Sipes; please boys, give it a rest!
Dorothy Lynch
Texas

To the Editor:
My husband and I moved to El Dorado Estates two years ago with retirement in mind. We thought that in a few years, we could retire and travel (our children live on the East coast.) If Measure F passes, we will not be able to retire at all. All we see is the proposition of condo conversion taking our retirement monies. If we opt to rent, we could be living in a mobile park with some of the highest rents in California. How would we be able to retire and travel then? The owners talk about low rent options. This is a one-time offer to very low and extremely low income residents. Because my husband and I both work, this is not an option for which we can participate. We need both of our incomes currently to pay the rent. We are now in our 60’s. If Measure F passes, we could be working into our 80’s. This is not the future we anticipated. I hope we stay healthy, because getting sick would not be an option either. Fillmore residents; please get out and vote for us. Say NO to Measure F. You could be in the same situation yourself someday. Help save our homes. Thank you in advance.
Dave and Tricia Harms
Fillmore

To the Editor:
Letter to Fillmore Voters
I just want to remind all you voters here in Fillmore to be sure to get out and vote next Tuesday. Even though there is just the one measure to vote on, it is very important to all the senior citizens living in El Dorado Mobile Home Park.
In a recent straw poll taken at the park, every single resident who voted indicated he/she does not want to purchase his lot.
If you have any question as to how you should vote on this measure, just read the seven plus pages of the full text of measure F in your sample ballot and it will become quite clear how you should vote. You can be very certain the owner of the park paid some law firm a great deal of money to hand craft this measure so everyone would know exactly what this proposal will accomplish.
So please take a few minutes Tuesday and go by your polling place and give the El Dorado seniors your support.
Ralph Rees
Fillmore

To the Editor:
Last week, Bob Stroh, in his typical hypocritical and manure-like fashion, accused Martin Farrell of writing thirty editorial “attacks” against the current city council since last December. Mr. Stroh failed to tell you that during the same time period Stroh has written twenty-two letters to the editor (during the same time period I have written twelve letters to the editor). Most of Stroh’s 22 letters are focused on attacking the previous city council and administration and trying to shift or deflect the blame for the incompetence of the current city council. Stroh accuses Mr. Farrell of engaging in the very same kind of malicious negative attacks that Stroh and others engaged in for 2-3 years leading up to the 2008 council election.
Stroh also accuses Mr. Farrell of exaggerations because Mr. Farrell stated there would be mass firings at City Hall and multi-million dollar lawsuits against the city because the voters approved Measure I. In response to Stroh’s accusations, one Gazette blogger wrote “Stroh how disingenuous can you be?? The atmosphere there with the new city council was so bad, some very good employees quit. Think of the combined years, knowledge and expertise that were lost to the town of Fillmore. No, technically they didn’t fire anyone, did they Bob....” It does not take a brain surgeon to figure out that the mass exodus of employees was related to the veiled 2008 campaign tactics employed by Brooks, Washburn, Walker, Westling, Creagle, Sipes and Stroh. With regards to the costs of Measure I, the jury is still out. The costs to implement Measure I are still accumulating…about $150,000 to date.
Speaking of Measure I, it is my understanding that the City is now faced with revising its Housing Element to plan for increased housing density of 20 or 30 houses per acre throughout the City in order to make up for Measure I which reduced the density in North Fillmore to 5 houses per acre. Stroh, did you Walker, Washburn, Westling, Brooks, Creagle, and Sipes tell the voters that when you were advocating for Measure I? Incompetence, hypocrisy or deceit?
One of Stroh’s most recent attempts to try and polarize the community occurred on August 6, 2009 when he wrote a letter to the editor stating “I was surprised that the preliminary city budget report went unreported by the local news media. I was not surprised by the report’s conclusions. In spite of the rosy projections given by the last city manager and finance director just a few months ago, even the most casual observer of the state of our economy and the housing crisis should have foreseen the trouble we find ourselves in. Many did. A year ago people (including Jamey Brooks, Gayle Washburn and then council member Patti Walker) were urging the past council to exercise restraint in handing out pay raises for top managers to no avail. Now we are told that at our current rate of spending we will be out of money in eighteen months; the cost-cutting will have unfortunate consequences for many people”. Contrary to Stroh’s statements, the city budget is balanced, the last city manager and finance director were correct, and the City has almost $5.3 million in reserves! Regarding council restraint for pay raises, no restraint has been exercised to date by the new council and management pay raises of 6% to 20% were recently granted by the newly elected city council…hypocritical?
Back in February 2009 Stroh tried to upset the community by exaggerating the costs of the new sewer plant and had to be corrected by Public Works Director Bert Rapp because Stroh had overstated the costs of the new sewer plant by $16 million…more than a slight exaggeration on Stroh’s part. Stroh continues to try and polarize the community and to shore up and cover up the 2008 campaign misstatements about the new sewer plant, management salaries and the stability and solvency of the city budget that were made by the newly elected council to gain public office.
Stroh keep shoveling the horse manure and pretty soon you will be covered in it.
Roy Payne

To the Editor:
My husband and I have lived in the El Dorado Mobile Home Park for nearly fourteen years. When we bought our home, we honestly thought that we would live there as long as our health permitted. In the past years, I have seen numerous residents sell and move into Orange Blossom or a comparable facility, as well as others who have opted to stay in their homes and receive home health care for their needs. I have seriously considered the latter when the time comes. You can imagine the shock when we started hearing of condo conversion. At my age (75), I cannot visualize buying my space lot. We have not been told of the cost, but we already know how much the value of our homes have dropped. Homes in our park have been on the market for months, and in some cases; even years. Based upon the value of the homes, and the fact that many of us are on fixed incomes, I am not sure we could obtain a loan for the land. Even if there are two receiving social security checks, should either the husband or the wife pass away, that figure would be reduced to one social security check. That situation may also affect pensions and other investments, especially 401k’s. Please help El Dorado seniors by voting “NO” on Measure F.
Marion Schuck
Fillmore

To the Editor:
I’ve lost count; did last week put the count over thirty of absurd editorial attacks by The Fillmore Gazette’s, Martin Farrell, against the current city council before the end of its first year? Last December Farrell started his attacks sounding very spooky. He said there would be mass firings at City Hall and multi-million dollar lawsuits against the city because the voters approved Measure I. The City’s survival was in serious doubt.
To date, no one has been fired, there have been no Measure I lawsuits and low and behold we’ve survived. Farrell seems disappointed. Don’t lose hope Martin, there must be at least one scary crazy notion you have that we can be convinced of. Happy Halloween, Martin.
Bob Stroh
Fillmore

To the Editor:
Last week, CNN ran a ticker tape at the bottom of the screen: Obama approves HB 1388, to assist Palestinian (Hamas) refugees from Gaza to the U.S. The amount approved was $20.3 million. Check it out at: www.thefederalregister.com.
There are millions of illegal immigrants coming from China, yet nothing is said about it. The immigrants come to America in hopes of a better life. In reality, they work in the underground economy in slave-like conditions. Last week Congress scrapped plans to complete the border fence. At the same time, borderinvasionpics.com released a video of 440 people walking into the U.S. unimpeded. We must tell Congress we will no longer accept those who are voting against the American workforce. We have had enough.
House Representative, Elton Gallegly has introduced HR 133, HR 142 and HR137 all of which deal with the problems occurring today with illegal immigration; primarily Social Security Adm. and the IRS. Also, he is working on HR 124 and HR 138 which would deal with legislative and executive government contractors to verify the legality of their workforce. It is very important that we get behind the legislators who are actually working for us!
Go to the Town Hall meetings and Tea Parties! Be informed. Don't let anyone take our country away from us! We are not alone. There are more of us thinking alike than not! This is America! Stand up and be counted while we still have a choice!
Elaine Bashford
Fillmore

To the Editor:
Dear Lions,
The Friends of the Fillmore Library extend a gracious and appreciated Thank You for the $200.00 donation you granted to us. Your continued support of the Friends allows us to provide greater learning opportunities for the entire Fillmore Library community.
Sincerely,
Patti Walker
President of the Friends of the Fillmore Library

To the Editor:
Last Thursday at about 1:00 pm, I was driving north on Central Avenue and had to stop, as did many others, while a train was on repositioning maneuvers (back and forth many times through the crossing.) All of the vehicles on both sides of the tracks had to stop as the crossing "arms" were properly down, however, on the west side of central there is an area crossing the tracks which is open to pedestrians. Most people walking on the sidewalks on both sides stopped and watched the movement of the train. Additionally, there were people on the balconies of the apartment building watching. Unfortunately there were two children, one boy and one girl, about 10 to 12 years of age on the south side of the tracks who did not remain at a proper distance from the tracks. They seemed to be playing "chicken" by running up close to the moving train and then backing up. Finally the girl stopped but the boy continued and disappeared from my sight. Apparently he went between to cars of the train or underneath without getting hurt or killed.
In discussing this with Fillmore authorities, they surmise that the children were probably students at Sespe school who are let out early on Thursdays. I was asked if I had seen any RR personnel monitoring the crossing while the train was being repositioned. I told them that I had only seen one individual at each end of the train. I was told that if the crossing arms are functioning and are down that the RR Company is not responsible. My question is "If a person is hurt or killed in such a case here in Fillmore, who is responsible? The City?, The School?, The person? The parents in the case of children such as I saw?"
To me, this seems to be a potential accident ready to happen.
Marlene Schreffler, a concerned citizen
Fillmore

To the Editor:
Let’s look at what happens to property tax providing Proposition F is passed and the El Dorado is converted into a condominium. (All the data I am using is from the Ventura County Tax Assessor and Tax Collector web sites.) The El Dorado Mobile Home Estates sits on 37.5 acres and the Ventura County Tax Assessor has calculated the value to be, for property tax purposes, $4,367,410.00. The park has 302 mobile home spaces. Dividing the assessed value by the number of spaces equals $14,461.62 per space. This assumes that each individual space would be valued the same as any other and also include a portion of the ‘common’ areas, such as the buildings, streets and utilities.
Prop 13 (remember that?) took effect after the El Dorado was built and therefore limits the amount of increase in the valuation for tax purposes. Each year the county tax assessor may raise the valuation by only a fixed amount due to the limitations of Prop 13. However, once the property is sold, the county tax assessor may (will?) raise the valuation to the selling price of the property! If each and every lot were to sell for $14,461.62 then the total property tax would remain at the current $52,971.40 for the entire 37.5 acres. This works out to be $175.40 per space.
But you and I and the county tax assessor know that this isn’t going to happen! If the ground under my mobile home is offered to me for $15,000.00 then I want to buy two, three or four spaces at that price. Simple math will tell you that if the lot is sold for ten times the current tax evaluation or $144,616.20 then the property tax will go to at least $1,754.00 per space!
Get the spare bedroom ready; Grandma and Grandpa are moving in!
Yours in freedom,
Jay C. Wood
Fillmore

To the Editor:
Kudos to Ventura County during the Guiberson Fire. From all indications, the reverse 911 system worked beautifully to all residents in Bardsdale, etc.
A big THANK YOU to ranchers and custom farmers who made their water trucks which are primarily used for farming available to helping supply water to fire truck in outlying areas. I also understand that some of these ranchers and custom farmers supplied trucks, water, and personnel to the Station Fire.
A big question for me is: Why was there no evacuation center set up in Fillmore? The day of or the day after the Guiberson fire started, TV and radio news welcomed potential evacuees to the Goebel Center in Thousand Oaks. This was fine for the people of Moorpark but with Grimes Canyon and Balcom Canyon closed, where could any Fillmore, Bardsdale, and Piru people to go. After four days, an evacuation center was opened at the Santa Paula Senior Center. I heard that this was a "Ventura County fire" and as such it was up to Ventura County to ask for evacuation centers. Did VC ask for one here in Fillmore? It was needed. Is there a problem between City of Fillmore and Ventura County for emergency operations and needs?
Marlene Schreffer
Fillmore

To the Editor:
I find it sad and unfortunate that our only published newspaper in Fillmore appears dedicated to the city's destruction. Whatever personal vendetta motivates both Mr. Farrell and his fellow naysayer, Mr. Payne, they don't evidence much concern for our city and its reputation. I wonder how we were even able to attract a city manager given the hornet's nest that has been created. The present council (all five) was elected by the citizens, serves endless hours trying to make Fillmore a better place, and, for that civic interest, they get castigated, belittled, and threatened every Thursday when the paper comes out. How many potentially good council candidates are reevaluating their desire to serve our community?
I could write the editorial response to this letter as I've seen enough of them - a "holier than thou" misguided interpretation of free press. I read many newspapers that manage their role of holding people of authority accountable while maintaining high standards of journalism. I believe the Gazette could do this as well. I urge the paper to have a more thoughtful approach to the power of the press and to remember that community pride is a precious commodity.
Sincerely,
Susan M. Cuttriss
Fillmore

To the Editor:
It is heartening to see the "No on Measure F" signs all over town! Voters must be aware that there is no "fair" in this measure which is sponsored by the park's manager/owners, who incidentally, are the only ones who would benefit from the passage of Measure F. Speak with the residents of El Dorado and you will agree that to support and defend our seniors there we must vote "NO on Measure F".
Lynne Brooks
Fillmore

To the Editor:
As a homeowner in El Dorado Mobile Estates, I’m asking Fillmore voters to vote NO on Measure F. I moved to El Dorado from Leisure Lake, a mobile home park in Lancaster, three years ago. Leisure Lake was under a rent control ordinance, and I was able to adjust for the small space rental increases each year. The passage of Measure F would have devastating consequences for me personally. I have no means financially to purchase the space lot beneath my mobile home; nor could I manage to pay the excessive rents that have been proposed to mobile home owners in other parks that have undergone condo conversion. I would probably be forced to sell my mobile home at a greatly diminished value, and move into the home of one of my children. Not only would that take away from my independence as a healthy senior, but it would be a difficult living arrangement for any of my children who have their own families. Help me and other residents of El Dorado, and vote NO on November 3rd.
Elenora (Dee) Dicey
Fillmore

To the Editor:
Mr.Payne,
Thank you for bringing to light my service as a board member for the Fillmore Chamber of Commerce. I enjoyed participating in serving the business community of Fillmore. I served two years on the board and was pleased with the progress that was being made. At that time when I served as a board member, there were many instances as to how all board members, including myself, contributed to making the Chamber of Commerce a success. Presently, the Chamber is still bringing businesses (new and old) to the forefront so they too, have a strong voice in the community. During these caustic times, I feel its imperative that we as a small community support each other, so we remain solvent for years to come.
Mr. Payne, you being one with a selective memory; here are a few activities I volunteered my time when I served as a board member for the Fillmore Chamber of Commerce.
In 2005, I spearheaded efforts to bring proposals to find a qualified publishing company for the citywide directory. As many members of the Chamber of Commerce remember, there were numerous problems with the publisher of the citywide directory in the past.
I was not satisfied with this company for many reasons, mainly the fiscal elements of the contract that the Chamber was responsible for. My role, since I wasn't pleased with the company, was to bring qualified proposals to the board of directors. My solution to the problem was to hire an experienced company that primarily focused on Chamber directories, but most importantly, they had the proven results of doing so. I feel this process opened doors to better decision making when selecting individuals/companies that seek to provide services to the Chamber of Commerce. Additionally, I assisted in membership drives, monthly mixers, and among other programs that the Chamber of Commerce participated in. The board of directors make no City authoritative decisions with regards to fiscal matters concerning the City or anything pertaining to City politics. The City Council & City Manager only possess this power of official decision making.
In regards to you being discontent with my comments and disagreements with Mr. Smedley & Ms. Cuevas: I stand firm by my comments and beliefs. By the way, I'm perplexed as to why Mr. Smedley and now yourself, still haven't addressed former Council Member Cuevas' refusal to vote for the 2008-2009 budget. Why the abrupt walk out? This issue is of paramount importance since you for the last 10 months have denigrated this Council with primitive lies and distortions, which at the end of the day has harmed the spirit of our community more than you'll ever care to know. In light of your ingenious media blitz, let me remind you, Roy, that you're still collecting a lifetime pension, a portion from which I might add the taxpayers of Fillmore are obligated to pay you.
I imply the following statement, Roy: STOP BITING THE HANDS THAT FEED YOU!
Brian N. Sipes,
Resident and Local Business Owner in Fillmore

To the Editor:
The whole oral scenario that was concocted by Walker, Washburn and Brooks on September 22, 2009 regarding the events surrounding their illegal serial meeting email communication on August 14, 2009 does not stand the smell test and is contrary to the written facts. First, on August 27, 2009 an article in the Ventura County Star reported “Fillmore admits violating state open-meeting law”. In the article, Walker conceded that members of the city council unintentionally violated California’s Brown Act on August 14. So we know and Walker, Washburn, Brooks and the City Attorney know that they committed a Brown Act violation on August 14. However, they claim the Brown Act violation was of no consequence since no City Council action resulted from the illegal serial meeting. Walker, Washburn and Brooks now claim (after the fact, and after they had been caught) that since they gave instruction to interim city manager Larry Pennell to proceed with reference checks on a third city manager candidate on August 11; then it does not matter that they participated in an illegal serial meeting email communication regarding the third city manager candidate on August 14. Walker also claims that travel arrangements were made on August 13 to check the references of the third city manager candidate; and Walker claims that since a third councilmember did not respond to the serial email communication until after travel arrangements were already made; that this was conclusive proof that interim city manager Pennell was not seeking direction from the City Council after August 11 on whether to proceed with the reference checks on the third city manager candidate.

There are no written documents available to support their September 22, 2009 story. Public records obtained from the City through the California Public Records Act tell a different story. The records obtained show that in Walkers own words in an email dated August 14, 2009 at 11:20 A.M. she states that on August 14 (not August 11 as claimed by Walker, Brooks and Washburn) “Larry obtained approval from 3 council members to do due diligence as to third candidate”. Larry is Larry Pennell the interim city manager who initiated the illegal serial communication via email.

Here is the chain of events concerning the illegal serial meeting email communication:

1. 2:08 P.M. - Thursday, August 13, 2009; email from Pennell to Walker, Conaway, Hernandez, Brooks, Washburn, and City Attorney Schneider; subject “Houston, We Have a Problem”; email discusses issues with one of the two city manager candidates and Pennell specifically states in the email “I am recommending we contact third candidate. I am soliciting your comments and advice on this matter”. If Pennell had clear direction on August 11 to proceed with the third candidate, then why did he feel the need to solicit comments and advice from the City Council on August 13 from the City Council just two days after he supposedly received direction from the City Council?

2. 3:12 P.M. - Thursday, August 13, 2009; email from Walker to Pennell in response to Pennell’s 2:08 PM email; subject “Houston, We Have a Problem”; Walker states in the email “I support contacting third candidate”. Sounds like to me that Walker is providing direction to Pennell on third candidate.

3. 3:32 P.M. - Thursday, August 13, 2009; email from Washburn to Pennell in response to Pennell’s 2:08 PM email; subject “Houston, We Have a Problem”; email from Washburn specifically states “I concur with your recommendation”.

4. 3:36 P.M. - Thursday, August 13, 2009; email from Pennell to Washburn in response to Washburn’s 3:32 PM email; subject “Houston, We Have a Problem”; email from Pennell states “Thank you. Patti felt the same”. This confirms that two of the city council have now participated in the serial communication regarding the third city manager candidate.

5. 9:53 A.M. - Friday, August 14, 2009; email from Brooks to Pennell; subject “Recall: Houston, We Have a Problem”; email from Brooks to Pennell states “If xxx has not paided [sic] xxx income tax (both federal and state) as recent as 2008, and if it is a continual financial practice, that would be a reason for me to eliminate xxx as a possible city manager. One needs to manage one’s own finances well in order to be a keeper of a city’s finances. Call zzz.” “Call zzz” indicates that Brooks is advising Pennell to proceed with the third city manager candidate. This confirms that three of the city council (Walker, Washburn and Brooks) participated in an illegal serial communication (Brown Act violation) regarding the third city manager candidate and that through the illegal serial email communication they gave their approval to proceed with reference checks on the third city manager candidate.

So now the question is was the illegal Brown Act violation of no consequence or did it provide direction from the City Council to Pennell to proceed with travel plans to interview references for the third city manager candidate? Here is the chain of events for the travel plans:

1. 11:18 A.M. - Friday, August 14, 2009; email from Southwest Airlines to Debbi Boschee; subject “Ticketless Confirmation– WALKER/PATTI – NLZ7A6”; email confirms airline travel for Walker from Burbank to Reno, Nevada. On September 22, Walker claimed that travel arrangements were made prior to the illegal serial email communication. However, according to public records the illegal serial email communication ended at 9:53 A.M. on August 14 and travel plans to the third candidate were consummated at 11:18 A.M. on August 14. Thus the expenditure of public funds for travel to the check the references of the third candidate was also not properly authorized. Debbi Boschee is a Fillmore city employee. She is classified in the city budget as a Confidential Employee. I believe she works in the Finance Department. Typically, a city employee would be responsible for making travel arrangements for a city council person when the city council person is traveling on city business. Ms. Boschee was properly doing her duty as a city employee and is not party to or responsible for any of the actions and directions undertaken by Walker and Pennell on August 14.

2. 11:20 A.M. - Friday, August 14, 2009; email from Patti Walker to Steve Conaway; subject “Travel Arrangements for CM”; email from Walker to Conaway specifically states “Larry (i.e. interim city manager Larry Pennell) obtained approval from 3 council members to do due diligence as to third candidate”.

To anyone with a rational, logical and open mind, public records show that the 3 council members gave direction to proceed with reference checks for the third city manager candidate through an illegal serial meeting email communication and that direction resulted in Pennell and Walker proceeding with travel plans and with the expenditure of public funds to check on the references of city manager candidate number three and that the Brown Act violation was of consequence. Pennell and Walker should be required to reimburse the city for all public funds that were expended for airline travel, meals, lodging and hourly charges billed to the city relating to this action.

Submitted by
Roy Payne

To the Editor:
Piru Charter School- Nothing New
The Piru Charter School petition does not have any new ideas other than the wish to provide smaller class sizes for upper grades. There are ways that Piru School can continue to benefit from a mutually beneficial relationship with FUSD and still be innovative, such as becoming a magnet school.
The Program Elements described in the Charter include teaching practices that are already in place at Piru School. Piru students are currently taught California State Standards at their grade levels. Teachers are encouraged to be innovative and flexible to meet the needs of their students and to ensure mastery of the curriculum. Teachers should be using these good instructional practices and activities now, if they are not, they have chosen not to do so.
However, in the charter’s list are a couple of practices that are not currently part of the FUSD practices. One is teaching Yoga, certainly this should not be a primary reason to kill Piru Elementary and open Piru Charter School. The other is to reduce the class size ratio of students for teachers in the fourth through sixth grade. While the student to teacher ratio for primary grades would remain the current FUSD’s 22 to 1, the ratio for fourth through sixth grade would reduce to 24 to 1. A worthy goal, but is it achievable? The answer is yes. And, it is possible now in FUSD, but teachers would have to make concessions in our current contract that would shift money towards that goal. How would Piru Charter School achieve this? This is an open question that the charter does not address.
The Charter petition acknowledges the difficulty of class size reduction, as it states on page 10, ““…PCS reserves the right to adjust classroom/grade level enrollment, including the option of offering multiage classes if necessary.” This clause will not only allow PCS to increase the class size ratio from the hoped for 24 to 1 at the 4-6 level, but the Charter school may also need to create undesirable combination grade classrooms. Last week’s Fillmore Gazette’s article states “Currently Mrs. Jolley [a charter petition signer] has 32 students in her 5-6 combination classroom. Teaching two very different curriculums at the same time does not follow best educational practice. As class sizes increase achievement drops and students begin to fall between the cracks.”
Fillmore Unified School District has long held the goal of educating the whole child. Piru has done this with wonderful results without a Charter School. Aided by a Low Performing Schools Grant, and support from the district, Piru’s scores on state tests have gone up by 94 points. Piru School has great teaching practices in place now. FUSD has supported the innovative practices at Piru, and staff from other district schools have visited to learn from Piru’s successes. All this is happening without a Charter.
Over a year ago, the District created a Reconfiguration Committee. Charter schools and Magnet schools were discussed. The idea of a Green Technology Magnet School intrigued some Piru staff members. A Green Magnet School would teach environmental responsibility. Programs could teach the whole child focusing on healthy life styles, including but not limited to organic gardening on the school’s farm, and as well as on recycling, reducing, and reusing resources while the school uses less toxic products on site, solar and wind energy might be harnessed to reduce the schools carbon footprint. This option was not pursued. The option is still there to create a magnet school without a charter.
Piru Community, take the time to examine the Charter. If your desire is for a charter school then ask for more than this one offers you. You deserve better than this attempt at a school takeover.
John Schaper
Teacher at Piru School for 32 years

To the Editor:
The Gazette continues to publish letters from Roy Payne that are critical of our City Council, salary paid to the new City Manager, and criticism of Brian Sipes. In a past letter to the Editor, I stated that "Enough is Enough" from Roy Payne.
It is apparent that you chose to let Mr. Payne continue to criticise the City of Fillmore and it's citizens. I regret to inform you that your continued support of Mr. Payne's criticism has cost you my support. I will no longer read the Fillmore Gazette.
If you take the time to listen to the feelings and opinions of the people that live in Fillmore, you'll find that the Fillmore Gazette is out of touch, and further articles of criticism from Roy Payne will cost you subscriptions, to your paper.
Kenneth Creason
Fillmore
PS. Please cancel my subscription.

To the Editor:
The employees of the Fillmore Unified School District and members of the community are disappointed that the Board decided to create a new position for an employee about whom there are so many unanswered questions. It seems that the problem is more encompassing than we thought. Many are asking if other District personnel could be implicated. If the Board considers her so competent, why is it not appropriate to keep this employee in her former position instead of creating a new one at added expense? The Board is depleting its exchequer, the financial resources of our School District.
Speaking of depleting the financial resources, there is still a great deal of anger among the employees of the Fillmore Unified School District as a result of the District Office reorganization. Director positions were elevated to Assistant Superintendent positions with enormous increases in salary. Other new positions were created in the District Office while some school staff positions were eliminated and others had their hours cut. The Assistant Superintendent of Personnel position received a reported 48% salary increase. The Assistant Superintendent of Business received a reported 31% increase. What other benefits were included in this sweetheart deal? How many back room deals are being perpetrated now?
The employees are also upset about the questionable hiring practices in the Fillmore Unified School District. It seems that favored people don’t even have to apply whether or not they are fully qualified. Other deserving people are not considered for reasons that are not professionally legitimate. Credit is often not given where credit is due.
The representatives of both employee unions, FUTA and CSEA, are often frustrated with the apparent lack of contract knowledge exhibited by District negotiators. School District attorneys are constantly consulted, presumably at added expense, because the contracts have not been thoroughly read or followed. If one lacks the capacity to read, follow, or understand the contracts, then that person should not be negotiating and should not be employed in that position.
Does the Board know that someone representing the District [is alleged to have made] intentionally false statements under oath to an Administrative Law Judge in a Labor Board matter? If our school officials are capable of lying and perjury, what else are they doing? How much potential legal liability has our school district been exposed to because of this and other questionable and possibly illegal actions? The financial cost would mean a greatly reduced ability to educate our children. In this time of fiscal crisis, the Board must take action and become more informed to avoid serious legal and financial problems. The Board must begin to show more leadership and do a better job of dealing with the problems created by the District Administration.
Mary Ford,
Fillmore

To the Editor:
Clarification on the September 24, 2009 edition of the Gazette
The article by Carol Wilson concerning the September 22, 2009, Fillmore City Council meeting did not include key parts of the dialogue between the council members and staff regarding the proposal for a new City Auditor. To borrow from Paul Harvey, “Here’s the rest of the story.”
City Manager Larry Pennell promptly brought this matter forward for council discussion and decision when it became apparent to him that to wait for replies to the distributed request for proposals (RFP) would not allow for the city to timely file state fiscal reports. Ms. Young had been the assistant to our previous finance director for many years but was not able to complete the reports to be filed as she had not been mentored or trained by her supervisors to do so.
Ms. Wilson was incorrect in her statement that the RFP was distributed to just one accounting firm. As I stated at the council meeting, it was sent to the previous firm as I read from an email from one of that firm’s partners who acknowledged receipt of the RFP.
Ms. Wilson also left out that the budgeted amount of $32,000 is from the general fund with an additional $15,000 budgeted for the audit from the Redevelopment Agency funds as Mr. Pennell pointed out at the council meeting. The proposal to do the audit, including timely submittal of the reports due in October, is $40,920 and is well within the budget. This proposal is just over $900 from the previous firm which, by the way, raised its price approximately $5,500 from last year’s audit.
Patti Walker
Mayor

To the Editor:
Mr. Sipes stated in his September 24, 2009 letter to the editor that he is a fiscal conservative and he is against salary increases. I could be wrong, but I do not recall Mr. Sipes standing up and taking issue with the 6% to 20% city management salary increases that were recently approved by Walker, Washburn and Brooks. Nor do I recall Sipes standing up and taking issue with the 18% increase for the new City Manager which raised her salary to $156,000 per year and a total compensation package of over $240,000 per year. Sipes claims that this is the worst time for hefty increase in sewer and water bills, but where was he when the current City Council allowed the current sewer rate increases to go into effect without even putting the matter on the City Council agenda for discussion? It does not appear that he is as concerned about people staying afloat in these rough economic times as he would like you to believe. Where was Sipes when interim City Manager Pennell claimed the City was going to run out of money in 18 months and that $1.8 million would need to be cut from the budget and at the very next City Council meeting the City Council adopts a $69.8 million expenditure budget, the largest in the history of the City with huge salary increases and no cuts in expenditures or revenue enhancements? Sipes says he wants to help make Fillmore the most financially secure City in the County, but I guess he wants to wait until an election year to start, rather than criticize those who Sipes campaigned for; who are now in office and spending the city’s money like there is no tomorrow.
I believe Mr. Sipes served on the Board of the Fillmore Chamber of Commerce for a number of years. Can Sipes tell you what he accomplished there to make that Board the most financially secure Chamber in the County?
I think it is hypocritical of Sipes to criticize Ken Smedley for pointing out Sipes’ position on matters and to say that Ken has never spoken to Sipes on these matters and then for Sipes to turn around and criticize Ken and Cecilia Cuevas when I know Sipes has never inquired of them as to their opinions.
I recall the campaign promises of Brooks and Washburn to cut management salaries and to get rid of out of town managers. Well, they failed on both counts. Salaries have increased significantly under their watch and out of town managers are still being hired. By the way Brooks and Washburn conveniently voting no on the $156,000 salary for the new city manager after the Council went into closed session to count the votes to make sure that the salary would be approved and Washburn and Brooks could maintain their political cover by voting no on the salary increases was a typical politician CYA maneuver and anyone with a lick of common sense (even Sipes) could see right through it. Sipes, along with Brooks and Washburn talk a good story and will say anything to get elected.
Roy Payne

To the Editor:
I am asking the voters of Fillmore to help me defeat Measure F at the polls on November 3, 2009. My wife Joyce and I have lived in El Dorado for more than 5 years, and we believe that our community is one of the nicest and friendliest of all the places we have lived in. Here are just a just few reasons to vote NO on Measure F.
Upon subdivision (condo-conversion) the park’s owner will retain total control until 51% of the spaces are sold. In my opinion, that will not happen soon, partially due to the economic environment, but mostly because historically, space prices have been highly inflated in other parks undergoing condo-conversion, devaluing the equity in the mobile home.
Those extremely low and very low-income residents, that do not buy, would have a “one time only” opportunity at inception of condo-conversion, for very limited rent control under Measure F, however, County and State Rent Control Ordinances offer more comprehensive protection. For the rest of us, God only knows what kind of hardship we could be forced to endure. Currently, many of us are paying some of the highest space rents in a senior mobile home park in Ventura County, as Fillmore is the only city in our County without any type of rent stabilization. Although Measure F is presented by the park’s owner as “The Fair Rent and Homeownership Initiative”, all 135 responses, representing over 200 residents in a recent park-wide HOA survey on Measure F, was NO! There were 0 affirmative responses.
A converted park becomes a hodge-podge of renters, owners, and speculators. Instead of “one for all and all for one”, it is everyone for him/herself. WHAT A NIGHTMARE! Does this sound like a community in which you would want to invest?
It came to my attention recently, that former Mayor Roger Campbell, was hired as a consultant by the park’s owner, and management, to promote Measure F. Knowing Mr. Campbell (not an El Dorado resident) personally, and having worked closely with him on issues regarding El Dorado and Griffin Industries, I asked him why he would support a measure that benefits the out of town park’s owner, with potential to financially harm many of his friends and former constituents. His answer was that in his opinion, it would be better for the people of El Dorado if Measure F passed. After discussing several items in Measure F, Mr. Campbell admitted that I had given him quite a few things to think about, and that he would do some research regarding those items, and also on possible future ramifications if Measure F passes.
I would like to take this opportunity to invite Mr.Campbell to attend a Voice of El Dorado HOA Board meeting on Sunday, October 4, 2009 at 6 P.M. in the El Dorado Club House. The first portion of the meeting is an Open Forum for all El Dorado residents. The park’s owner, Nancy Watkins and Star Management’s Mike Cirillo have been invited both to HOA Board and General meetings to answer residents’ questions why they think Measure F would be good for El Dorado, however, neither have attended.
Thank you for printing this letter in its entirety. Please, vote NO on Measure F!
Paul Schifanelli,
Fillmore

To the Editor:
A few years ago a previous city council member told me The Fillmore Gazette was a “rag” and that she didn’t read it. A couple of weeks ago the Gazette’s owner, Martin Farrell, was invited to cover a meeting about Measure F at the El Dorado Mobile Home Park and instead of an honest report we got an attack piece directed toward a council member who was invited to attend. Based on the letter last week from the El Dorado Homeowners Association it seems they were a bit surprised by Farrell’s behavior, they must have been expecting fair and honest reporting.
I’ve been reading The Fillmore Gazette for as long as Farrell has been in business and in my opinion it is the last place one should go if they want honest reporting and thoughtful editorials. If you can’t attend or watch public meetings then you will be closer to the truth by having no information then if you read about it from Farrell. It’s difficult to find an argument against that former council member’s assessment of the Gazette.
Bob Stroh,
Fillmore

To the Editor:
Mayor Walker and Interim City Manager Pennell should be embarrassed. Walker's letter to the editor of October 1, 2009 is intended as "Clarification" on the September 24, 2009 edition of the Gazette regarding the article by Carol Wilson concerning the September 22, 2009, Fillmore City Council's hiring of an auditor. As Walker stated, when Washburn pointed out that the City had only budgeted $34,000 for auditing services, Pennell quickly stated that he thinks the budget has more money for the audit as the Redevelopment Agency also contributes to the cost of the audit. And guess what? At the meeting they bought Pennell’s explanation and now Walker is repeating it as if it is gospel! Problem is Washburn got it right, there is no extra money budgeted for the audit, $34,000 is all there is. Page H-15 of the budget shows $34,000 budgeted for the annual City Audit. This page also shows all of the transfers to help pay for the $34,000 budgeted audit including the $10,000 transfer from RDA Central Project and the $5,000 transfer from RDA Housing. There is no "extra" $15,000 of RDA funds as Walker and Pennell have claimed. So Pennell and Walker are either intentionally misleading the Council and public when they claim the budget has more money budgeted for the audit, or they do not know how to read the expensive budget that they just foisted on the public in the name of transparency.

Walker attempted to keep this transparency argument going at the September 22, 2009 meeting when she stated that last years budget raised concerns because of a zero balance in the General Fund; that there were budget transfers that were hidden; and there was improper funding of city operations with RDA funds that needed to be addressed. All of these claims by Walker are false and just shows she did not know how to read the old budget and she does not know how to read the new budget. For many, many years, the objective of the City Council was to make sure the General Fund was balanced (i.e. revenues matched expenses) and any extra funds were transferred to the General Fund Reserve. This is how the past administration was able to build up the General Fund reserves to over $3.8 million as reflected in the 2009-10 budget as the July 1, 2009 beginning cash balance. Walker should know this because she pariticpated in the adoption of those past city budgets for 6 years! The 2008-09 budget that she alludes to as being troublesome because it has a zero balance in the general fund; in reality the general fund balance is $8,073 and is shown in the Summary of Funds page of the adopted 2008-09 city budget.

Regarding Walker's claim that the old budget had "hidden transfers", these so-called "hidden transfer" are clearly shown on pages K-1 thru K-4 of the adopted 2008-09 city budget. In fact, without this page for guidance, interim Finance Director Wooten and interim City Manager Pennell would not have had a clue as to how to include the transfers in their new "transparent" budget. Regarding Walker's claim that there were "improper funding of city operations with RDA funds that needed to be addressed"; the new budget shows $9.2 million of RDA funds used for city operations and the old budget shows $7.1 million of RDA funds being used for city operations. So, I guess the way Walker and Pennell addressed the "improper" use of RDA funds was to increase the amount of RDA funds used "improperly by $2.1 million.

Remember it was Pennell who stated to the City Council on July 23, 2009 that the City at its current rate of spending was going to run out of money in 18 months and on July 28, 2009 Pennell stated that in order to balance the General Fund budget he would need to cut $1.9 million. Well, on July 28 the General Fund budget was $12.9 million and on August 25 the City Council adopted a $13.3 million General Fund budget; an increase of $400,000. Pennell never produced the $1.9 million in cuts that he said were needed to balance the budget. In fact, the budget that Pennell convinced the City Council to adopt is $2.6 million greater than last year’s General Fund budget.
Roy Payne

Tidbits I Learned This Past Summer About Parenting and Family Life…
1. I will always be several lifetimes away from being organized enough to have my picture albums up to date.
2. Just cuz my kids were exposed to classical music in-utero does not mean that as teens they will want to listen to it on family road trips.
3. In the life span of a child, the first 10 minutes he/she is late getting home from Anywhere seems to last forever. But the rest goes by really fast.
4. If you are camping at the beach (30 minutes away) and the kids get the flu...don't fight it! Just go home.
5. "You must be this tall to ride" signs put the shorter 13 year old boys in bad moods.
6. And, Anonymous was right: You're only as happy as your least happy child.
7. For as much as I loved my childhood, I still find it exhilarating not to have to ask anyone if I can borrow the car.
8. Sometimes it is ok for the little brother to love his big sister so much that he just has to wrestle her to the ground and punch her.
9. World peace is a lofty goal considering the diplomatic challenge of deciding who has to sit in the middle of the back seat.
10. I now appreciate and revere my own parents like never before.
OFFICIAL PUBLIC APOLOGY TO MY PARENTS:
I am sorry for everything I ever did to worry or upset you between June 10, 1959 and the present. Honest, I had no idea.
I love you both dearly,
Marie Alviz

To the Editor:
As a relatively new resident of Fillmore, only here since 1999, I have maintained a silent voice regarding our local government. I have voiced objection only about the constantly increasing cost of our sewer bills which are at the least exorbitant. I was promised by the city manager that they were working on a more equitable breakdown of the costs, similar to that of Ventura, by using winter water usage as a gauge for sewer usage. This promise has been either tabled or ignored.
We can all accept that change is inevitable in life. We know that seasons change, we increase in age, things become outdated and need replacement. Change that is expected is more readily accepted, however, when those we trust reverse their values and let us down it is time to call them to account for their action. At a time when our state is in economic distress, those we have elected to represent us are ignoring the mandate of the citizens and bowing down to special interest groups, and the welfare of the nation is in jeopardy both financially as well as politically, it is difficult to accept that our local politicians have voted a tremendous increase in the salary of a new City Manager. The increase in salary from $133,000 to $155,00 plus the additional benefits will bring the total expenditure to close to $200,000 per year.
It is understandable that Steve Conway would vote for this increase. He campaigned for and voted for the overpriced treatment plant. I honestly have no idea why Laurie Hernandez voted for increase and will not speculate. I do know that Mayor Patti Walker, whom many trusted to represent the best interests of Fillmore, cast the deciding vote for the increase. For this I say SHAME ON YOU PATTI WALKER. You wrote you name on the list of past bonehead mayors and council members.
CONGRATULATIONS J. Brooks and L. Washburn for showing integrity and fiscal responsibility.
Stan Mason,
Fillmore

To the Editor:
Once again, Mr.Smedley, a former council member and failed 2006 incumbent for re-election, has contrived to gossip over actual facts about my positions. For the record, Mr.Smedley has never once inquired my opinion on City issues. Assuming and stereotyping individuals is the route Mr.Smedley has chosen to take now and when he was a council member. Let me brief you on the facts: I'm a fiscal conservative and always been, thus, my position in regards to salary increases, not reductions, is the same as it was in 2008; they were not warranted then and to date. That's a difference of opinion I've had with Mayor Walker, Councilwoman Hernandez and Councilman Conaway on this matter.
Your mischaracterizations are unfair and disrespectful to me as well as citizens whom have a desire to be active in our City government. I make decisions based on actual facts and the overall picture. When speaking on City affairs, I do what has in past been rare; I take peoples concerns to heart and strive to bring inclusiveness instead of wedging people in select groups or "mobs" as you stated in 2006. I am not here to channel any council members opinions. I have always been a independent thinker and people who know me, will attest to that.
In regards to your comments about the City of Fillmore's financial status, I believe it took years to build up a financial shield of reserves, hence, past city councils going back to the early 90's should be acknowledged and commended. Currently, the reality in Fillmore specifically for families, small businesses and schools are in financial limbo partly due to hefty increases in our water-sewer bills. This is the worst time for non-stop utility increases when people are struggling to stay afloat during these rough economic times. A flashback in time (voting records and comments from the minutes) states that both you and Cecilia Cuevas were staunch supporters of our overpriced sewer plant. Let's give credit to where it's due.
Your admiration for Cecilia Cuevas record is respected. However, I respectfully disagree on all counts. My previous letter was factual. Yet, you failed to address Cecilia's weakness during last year's budget vote. You know, the one in which Cecilia conveniently walked out before the vote so it wouldn't conflict with her 2008 re-election efforts. Again, these are fundamental differences in leadership and authoritative decisions made by Cecilia Cuevas and yourself. Going in depth of your voting record Mr. Smedley, your record is synonymous with Cecilia's; poor decisions and aloofness towards the meaning of citizenry. Results of 2006 & 2008 elections were clearly evident.
You're correct on one account; the 2010 election will be interesting. I intend to bring forth solutions and a civil debate to help make Fillmore the best and financially secure town in Ventura County.
Brian N.Sipes,
resident and local business owner