Oxnard Council Election Campaign Underway

By Peter K. Godinez and George Miller

It’s election time in Oxnard again- there were/are three this year- May Special recall election, June primary election and finally, the November general election. In reality, the bulk of the campaigns will only be about 6 weeks, since filings were only done by mid August, campaigns are just getting started and absentee ballots go out on October 8. More than half of voter registrations are for mail-in ballots.

Issues

The big things driving this election are: crime, commencement of district elections, city financial problems- continuing budget/structural deficits, pension liabilities, audit issues, roads/public works/infrastucture, development/congestion, housing code enforcement. Then there’s the image and reach of the candidates.

Th big recall issue was the enormous wastewater increase and debate about how much money to spend on that utility and on what. Many thought that that the rate issue alone was not enough to recall 4 incumbents: Mayor Tim Flynn and Council Members Ramirez, Perello and Madrigal. Those who voted might have agreed since around 55% voted to keep Flynn and about 60% to keep the others.

So all of this should give candidates, pundits and the public plenty to talk about. We’ll get more into the issues and candidate positions in future articles .

District Voting

This will be the first election under the new district voting scheme, which will simplify candidates reaching voters, and create more local accountability, but less accountability of district reps to other city voters. This scheme was practically forced upon the city via implicit threat of lawsuits by those who implemented the sceheme via state legislation. But, for better or worse, these are the new rules.

Candidate List

Here are the filed candidates (incumbents in red):

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

Peter K. Godinez is a longtime document management professional in the information services industry, as well as a Citizen of Oxnard who desires to see this community thrive to the best of its abilities and potential.

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petergodinez

Peter Godinez Education & Public Sector Account Executive
Tel: 800-769-2679 Cell: (818) 430-6945
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