It is interesting that the cabal (Walker, Washburn, Sipes, Creagle, Westling, Stroh, Brooks) that has taken over city government based upon a campaign to “Take Back Our Town” and by creating a hostile work environment for long-term management employees who they claimed did not care about the community, used the accomplishments of those management employees they chased out of the city in their recruitment efforts to attract a new city manager.
The front cover of the recruitment brochure for Fillmore City Manager has pictures of: 1) Fillmore City Hall; 2) Fillmore Public Works Yard; 3) Fillmore & Western train; and 4) the phrase “The Last Best Small Town”. Ironically, all of these items were developed and brought to fruition under the careful guidance, vision and leadership of the previous city hall administrators (Roy Payne, Tom Ristau, and Barbara Smith).
The recruitment brochure goes on to highlight the attributes of the community by discussing: 1) the central business district and its amenities; 2) new Senior Housing in the downtown (Parkview Apartments); 3) the City’s partnership with the Fillmore and Western Railroad; 4) establishment of the new business park; 5) new community park; 6) reopening of the City’s community swimming pool; 7) new housing and retail spaces; 8) Neo-Classical designed City Hall; 9) Central Park Plaza; 10) wine tasting at Geissinger Winery; 11) the historic Towne Theatre; and 12) Museums and antique shops. The City Manager job announcement states “the City’s operating budget is $13 million with prudent reserves attributed to conservative spending policies”. Again, all of these items were developed and brought to fruition under the careful guidance, vision, leadership and prudent fiscal management of the previous city hall administrators (Roy Payne, Tom Ristau, and Barbara Smith).
Shirley Spitler and I personally negotiated with Edouard Geissinger to bring his winery into town; I created and maintained the partnership with the Fillmore and Western Railroad by personally negotiating with Jim Clark and Stan Garner (initially Shortline Enterprises) and negotiating with the Southern Pacific Railroad to secure the operating lease on the Santa Paula branch line for operation of the train and worked closely over the years with Dave Wilkinson to help Fillmore & Western Railroad develop its tourist operations; Tom Ristau worked to secure the necessary financing and to expedite the necessary approvals for the Parkview Apartments project; Tom also was instrumental in the financing and design for the new community swimming pool and the new skatepark; several years ago I negotiated the acquisition of the land for both of those projects; after the earthquake I negotiated the purchase of the Towne Theatre from the Larson family who were going to have the theater demolished and I secured a $500,000 grant from the State Historic Preservation Office to fund the reconstruction and restoration of the Towne Theatre; my wife and I were instrumental in the final design of the new City Hall and I secured a $1.3 million grant from the Federal Economic Development Administration to fund the construction of the City Hall; I was the driving force in the approval of the EIR and Business Park Master Plan and all of the entitlement documents and approvals for the five business park projects; Barbara Smith was instrumental in managing the financial aspects of all these various projects; and Barbara, Tom and I were instrumental in building up the financial reserves of the City.
So it appears that the town that the cabal wanted to “take back” is the very town that was developed by the city administrators that the cabal has inaccurately and deceptively characterized to the public as bad for the City, but now they trumpet the achievements and the town of that previous administration as the desirable elements of Fillmore.
Walker once said that her support for the Parkview Apartment project was one of the decisions she made that she regrets the most (but it is highlighted in the recruitment brochure as “allowing for the vision of walk-ability for those living close to downtown”).
Regarding the Business Park, Washburn once stated “There really is not a benefit to the community at this point - and in fact it will have a cost”. Washburn also stated “There are also workforce issues. We have the lowest educated in Ventura County. If jobs were available, would we be able to fill them?” And she recently said the Business Park project is going to fail. But now the recruitment brochure states “this business park will foster job creation”.
Deceitful? Hypocritical? Half-truths? What does the cabal really believe, what do they really want and what have they really accomplished?