Oxnard Council nixes Walmart alcoholic bev. sales; approves Colonia road work; hears IT master plan

By George Miller

We thought it would be a boring Oxnard City Council meeting on December 1, but saw a “spirited” debate about selling spirits at Walmart on Saviers Rd. There was also tearful gratitude that the city has finally approved and scheduled road resurfacing in Colonia. Another highlight was a presentation of Oxnard’s Master IT (Information Technology) plan.

A “spirited” debate about spirits-selling

In the vicinity of the Walmart on 2701 Saviers Road, 9 liquor licences have been issued. The area is already awash in booze, for better or worse. In fact, a local market was actually denied a license along that general argument.  The owner, a Mr. Ayalao , was indignant that the Oxnard Police Dept., Planning Dept and Planning Commission had all already approved the Walmart application while his was shot down.

But the area residents and school officials had a very different take on it.  Most residents who spoke were opposed to the application. They thought it would increase crime and seized up the fact that the mall area already has crime 66% higher than the city average. Police Chief Williams said the PD had determined that another outlet would not have an adverse affect, that it is common for commercial areas to have higher crime rates and that they were predominantly property crimes, not violence.

Oxnard Union School District Caesar Morales and District trustee Denis O’Leary spoke out against granting the license. Morales raised the additional pointy of alcoholism and abuse at home that might be worsened.

I spoke to a police officer at the meeting who knows the area very well, asking him what he thought about this all. He  replied that people can already get wine and beer easily by simply walking a short way.

Long faces on the Walmart team when Oxnard Council shot down their liquor sales application. Photo: CitizensJournal.us

There were five Walmart people in attendance. Those who spoke pointed out that Walmart did everything asked in terms of what could be sold, how it could be sold, security, training, discipline, etc. They said the alcoholic beverages would only account for a very small percentage of sales and that it was primarily for the convenience of shoppers. Alcoholic beverages are very profitable. Council members asked them how much of the sales would be said beverages, but they had no answers, nor could they say what other area Walmarts were doing.

The Council rejected the application after much talk. We asked the Walmart people if they would appeal and were told that they hadn’t yet determined their next move. Interestingly, it is already back on the council agenda for the 12-8-15 meeting.  We wonder if Mr. Ayalo will get his shot at it, too.

Colonia roadwork- at last

Colonia residents have been complaining about the poor state of roads in the neighborhood for years. It became an issue in the last election and in part helped account for Mayor Flynn’s overwhelming nearly 60% vote in a three-way election. But all council members have supported the citywide road priorities. We weren’t kidding about “tearful gratitude.” There is no greater La Colonia booster that Harold Ceja, who attends every council meeting, always sits in the front row and  sometimes vocalizes his priorities at the speakers’ podium. He got very emotional when the project, which he has championed for years, was finally approved at the meeting, to the tune of $1,250,000.

The city has a fairly aggressive program to bring its roads up to snuff and has also undertaken a preventive maintenance program to keep them up to snuff, at least as much as Oxnard’s severely deplete finances will permit. They believe that the PM programs will actually reduce long term costs, while keeping the “pavement index,” a road quality measure, at an acceptable level. Some projects had to be compromised or delayed due to lack of funding. For example, the Harbor Boulevard resurfacing from Channel Island Boulevard to Fifth Street, after a long, long wait, finally utilized a low cost approach that may only last five years, but supposedly not have a higher long-term cost.

La Colonia mural. Framegrab from ESNews, on youtube

Also: Victoria Ave median to be extended, with grant funding  …

Document: I-3 Victoria (pdf 526 KB)

IT (Information Technology) Master plan/progress unveiled

Oxnard’s information technology plan has lagged behind due to neglect and lack of funding and direction/priorities from the top. Its major  enterprise systems, for accounting, payroll, purchasing and human resources, are antiquated (17 years old) and disconnected from other IT tools, which don’t necessarily work together. In addition, platforms, networks, policies and support aren’t integrated or optimized. The Central IT group was separate from the Library, Police Dept., Housing and some other IT units. The situation was worsened with staff cuts due to the budget crisis.

But, Oxnard now actually has, for the first time since 1993, an Interim IT Director, Keith Brooks and is trying to integrate multiple IT units into one department. Fortunately, IT has some very dedicated and experienced employees who know how to deal with adversity/scarce resources and will be a key bridge to the future, along with new reinforcements. However, they were forced to cut corners to do this, so best practices suffered.

The city has hired NextLevel Information Technology, a consulting firm, to help them along this journey. A forward-looking and far reaching four year master plan (read POWERPOINT, SUMMARY, MORE DETAIL) was presented by NLIT and Brooks. Some of it is already being implemented or in the planning stages. It looks to this former consultant like a textbook big company IT approach. While it seems valid as presented, it could be quite expensive, so it will be important to prioritize activities to meet the most important needs which can be achieved with the city’s rather limited resources.

NLIT project scope seems to include a management, user/employee and customer survey,  needs analysis, evaluation of existing systems and gap analysis vs “best practices,” overall architecture, organizational analysis, IT governance plan.

Best practices evaluation chart for Oxnard IT. Source: NextLevel Information technology

A couple of big ticket items, besides expensive people, would be a core ERP systems upgrade and systems for on-line permitting. We’re talking millions here. but these are requisite building blocks for effective municipal management.  The main questions are “Lexus or Toyota (or Kia)” and how efficiently this is executed. Right now, they’re looking to see if they can just upgrade their existing HTE core enterprise system (ERP).

In the infrastructure area, a fiber optic network- possibly leveraged with third party partnerships; network monitoring and capacity management tools; heavy duty WiFi everywhere; new web site design; enhanced backup, recovery, testing; possible “cloud computing”; technology strategy; renewal strategy for desktops, servers, switches, firewalls; security; education & training.

The scope of this effort encompasses 47 master projects, with 74 supporting projects, impacting all city departments.

Given the current financial and deferred development/maintenance situation, it might be a good idea to provide some financial and priority guidelines so that IT/consultants can best fashion a solution within those guidelines. Maybe this already included in the methodology.

This is what they want to do next:

Not in IT plan scope are: emergency response systems, process control and technical systems.

This project will be back on the 1-26-16 council agenda- stay tuned.

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George Miller is Publisher of CitizensJournal.us and a “retired” operations management consultant residing in Oxnard

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