Getting Down to Business

In contrast to Thousand Oaks, the swearing in of a reconstituted Ventura City Council on Monday could be rated ZZZ.

Sandy Smith, Brian Brennan, Donna De Paola and incumbent Jim Monahan cruised to victory in a profoundly mellow campaign. Cries for radical change were notably absent; earnest vows to work together to continue the city’s momentum were the order of the day.

Yet as the new council prepares to take office, enthusiasm is growing like a south swell.

Last week the three new kids on the dais began an intensive introduction to the city’s department heads, facilities and ongoing issues.

“We had a full day of orientation and got our new weightlifting materials--the budget,” said Brennan. “Won’t need to go to no stinking gym anymore.”

Finding ways to shape up that budget is the first priority, Smith said. In lean times like these, the city needs to run a tighter ship than in the past when money was a little easier to come by.

The major issues that faced the city four years ago have largely been resolved. The SOAR law that requires voter approval before farmland can be developed is awaiting its last legal review (if the U.S. Supreme Court agrees to hear it) and its champions are pushing the idea to the rest of the county.

The perennial problem with school overcrowding got a break when the council agreed to make school capacity a factor in deciding whether to approve new developments.

And the crisis in the libraries, while far from resolved, is dissipating through a vigorous countywide cooperative effort and an energetic citizen advisory board.

“We’re fortunate that the previous councils have set a lot of important things in motion,” Brennan said. “I think we’ve got a council that can work together to follow through and make things happen.”

“We really are working well together,” De Paola said.

Smith agreed. “The era of compromise and backing off seems to be upon us.”

The downtown revitalization that is Ventura’s most dramatic project is moving forward, with the parking garage topped out and the cinema complex shifting from site-clearing to foundation-laying phase. The lively scramble to snap up downtown real estate speaks more loudly than any news release about investors’ faith in the future. Even the troubled Ventura Theater is throbbing with concerts again.

Long-stymied efforts to choose a site for a park in east Ventura, to create some skateboard parks and to relocate the Surfers Point bike path are also moving forward at last.

Along Ventura Avenue, utility lines are going underground to help unclutter the views, and a branch library in the historic Casa De Anza building is becoming a reality.

Now, if they can just get those trees trimmed and potholes patched . . .