Ventura County Perspective : Police Pay Proves Majority Doesn’t Rule in Santa Paula : City Council has lost credibility over failure to pay a decent wage, voting rights and other issues. In divisiveness, however, lies an opportunity for opponents.

As the controversy in Santa Paula mushrooms into a full-fledged political battle, I hope that contending groups are finally able to set aside their differences and unite to defeat the minority that controls the city.

These factions have only themselves to blame for the fact that majority rule does not yet exist in Santa Paula. Instead, an oligarchy refuses to pay police officers a living wage, had to be forced by the community to appoint native son Robert Gonzales as police chief and has complained about having to meet low-income housing goals. Some of its members have violated conflict-of-interest laws and its decision-making process goes on behind closed doors.

Although the members of the City Council majority and their minions on the City Hall staff insist that the budget does not contain enough money to pay police officers a decent wage, they hire outside consultants and attorneys who cost the Santa Paula taxpayers thousands of dollars. By these and other actions, the City Council majority has proven that it no longer represents the residents of Santa Paula and has lost whatever legitimacy and credibility it had.

With every asinine maneuver the Gang of Four makes, the latest being its decision to hire yet another outside attorney to advise the council and perhaps defend it from a potential Justice Department lawsuit alleging violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, it digs itself into a deeper hole and gives added ammunition to opponents, some of whom are daring to suggest a recall.

I have another suggestion: Robin Sullivan, Jim Garfield, Rick Cook and Don Johnson should resign en masse and spare everyone, including themselves, the embarrassment, expense and irreparable damage to the community that will surely follow otherwise. But first they need to rescind certain recent decisions. They should go along with the concept of a living wage for the cops, who certainly deserve it. They should change city policies regarding low-come housing as well as higher-income housing (apparently their plans include quadrupling the size of Santa Paula through higher-income developments, such as Oxnard has pursued for many years but no one has questioned). They should change other policies designed to benefit the business community including themselves and they should agree to settle out of court the potential federal lawsuit over violating the voting rights of Chicanos.

What is going on right now in Santa Paula presents various factions the opportunity to finally unite and take control of the City Council. The dramatic increase in Latino political power that became noticeable in the California Legislature in 1994 has finally reached Santa Paula and Ventura County. The old regime is stubbornly clinging to power but their time is up. The revolution is about to sweep them into the dustbin of history, where they belong.

Hasta la victoria siempre!