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La Colonia Car-Wash Photos

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Ozland:  04 - 04 - 04

This Tuesday's City Council Meeting will be one to watch and one to attend. 
Show starts at 7pm Tuesday 06 April.

There will be a presentation by Oxnard PD on the Injunction and there will be information presented to define what this Injunction is going to be and what it is going to do.

The Presentations to be given at the City Council meeting and the Inter-Neighborhood Council Forum Tuesday and Wednesday --- 7 pm at each meeting.  

Oxnard Police Chief Art Lopez said, " We want this to be enforced in fairness to protect our kids from being killed and our our property taken."  

According to Chief Lopez:

        •  The average age of targeted gang member is 21.
        •  Since January 2001 - over 2,000 reported crimes and incidents have been related to the targeted gang.
        •  Since January 2003 - 14 homicides have been attributed to the targeted gang.
        •  In 2003 - 10 of the 22 homicides within Oxnard were the product of the targeted gang.
        •  The gangs prey on the weak, especially the young and farm workers.
        •  They rely on alcohol for liquid courage and bad results are the outcome.

Chief Lopez said, "The purpose of this injunction is not to arrest or harass kids who wear "Dallas Cowboy" jerseys."
The injunction targets 'street terrorists' who rove like a pack of wolves.  The Chief said that each of the known gang members will be served in-person with a public writ detailing the parameters of the injunction, so anyone who is not a member of the targeted gang should feel less stress about this.

We have a long way to go to bridge the communications gap but a series of public meetings put on by the Police Department should clear any misunderstandings and better explain what will happen.

The efforts of people such as Dolly Villa and the 50+ gang and non-gang kids who lent a hand at this past weekend's car wash demonstrate with the right approach, good results can come.  These good results need to work both ways.

¿Where do our youths go? --- downtown Boys and Girls Club - Nope ! That gig's been closed since Jan 2003 -- and with empty promises to reopen it, it seems like a bleak and broken promise to the central heart of Oxnard. 
Parks - No - and with the City coming down hard on the car wash about using Del Sol Park - the People's park - well - fact::::  Dolly was given insufficient notice by the City how to to conduct this peaceful action.  So with parks off the list and places for kids to hang and play extremely minimal and latch key kids and both parents busting tail to pay their utilities and housing costs -   what more is there - especially in La Colonia ??? --- There's zippo for the kids of Oxnard to do and most of the time Zippo^® gets something to do -- and. . . . .    

For a history of gang injunctions - Visit this website.

Until then --- Pray for peace in our City.

Bill Winter
Editor
the Oxnard Journal

   ANOTHER LETTER THE STAR REFUSES TO PRINT
         [ Editor's Note:  The Oxnard Journal will gladly print your letter if the Star doesn't.... ]

March 26, 2004

Letter to the Editor of the Ventura Star:

I appreciate the time and effort of Mr. Greg Totten our District Attorney in coming to the City of Oxnard last Monday to explain what the DA’s office is all about. But I wanted to ask why the DA’s office has not moved ahead with the follow-up to the Grand Jury report on the City’s golf course operators.

When illegal conduct succeeds in the City, it reinforces illegal behavior. The City staff may come to think of the behavior as normal. Without outside social controls such as law enforcement and the district attorney, a corrupt organization can adversely affect the society in which it functions.

The ability of City to lobby, sometimes after the fact, for legal norms that allow behaviors that society might not otherwise endorse complicates matters. The erosion of normative support for legitimate procedures can produce such anti-Democratic activities as ‘pay for play’ rather than open contract bidding, discriminatory price-cutting for City services provided to the golf course, embezzlement of taxpayers’ money, false advertising statements of non-existing profits at the golf course, and bribery.

The City has invited fraud as a means of obtaining goals. Because department managers concern themselves with reaching goals, some have maximized their department's own interests to the detriment of the City overall.

Oxnard executive staff has become ‘criminogenic’ by encouraging loyalty through:

·        recruiting and attracting similar individuals from Pasadena,

·        rewarding those who display loyalty,

·        encouraging long-term loyalty through retirement and other  benefits,

·        encouraging loyalty through social interaction such as City parties and social functions, and with

·        specialized job skills that discourage City personnel from seeking employment elsewhere.

In turn, this has caused City personnel to sometimes perceive that the organization is worth committing a crime to maintain and further its goals and thus earn more personal benefits. The use of formal and informal rewards and punishments combined with social activities and pressures to participate link an employee's needs and goals to the success of the City’s Executives, which sets the stage for unlawful conduct by individuals on the City’s behalf.

The complex City structure can also foster misbehavior. Oxnard isolates departments around the City Manager and individual Councilmen. Information about what one department does is often unknown to another department. The larger the City grows, the more its sub-units specialize. This diversified City has few employees who fully understand the organization's detailed workings, and thus reduces the risk that proper authorities will detect misbehavior or illegal actions.

The need to outperform other departments in the eyes of the City Manager and other cities within the County generates sufficient pressure to entice misconduct. A Department Head often has survival concerns that conflict with the larger interests of the City. When given a chance to make decisions, lower-level managers will not act in the interest of the City, but in the interest of their departments.

Specialization also hides illegal activities, especially when the City Manager and City Attorney keep tasks separate and unrelated. This protects the City’s staff from the effects of personnel turnover and information leaks, because no one can offer more than a piece of the overall City picture. The same level of secrecy raises the chances for misconduct.

Sometimes censorship of information promotes the City’s interests. "Need to know" policies or ignorance of rules irrelevant to a department leads to inefficiencies. These policies restrict information flow and create opportunities for one unit in the City to act outside the knowledge of other units. Two weeks ago we learned that Mr. Stein was correct all along when he insisted during public comment that the City staff must prepare reports on the status of impact fees collected from developers, but until then City staff including the City Attorney publicly stated no such requirement existed. Censorship policies may originate in any part of the City and hide information throughout the organization.  A specific example is that Mr. Molina recently proved in Federal Court that he was fired in violation of his First Amendment Rights to free speech when he spoke to the Ventura Star reporter to answer the reporter’s questions, yet the City’s staff refuse to acknowledge this fact.

The structure of the City’s organization obscures personal responsibility and tends to spread it throughout the company. Thus, determining where a decision to engage in misconduct originated can be difficult. This has happened when another manager in the Planning Department was fired by the City Manager just a few years ago for alleged wrongdoing that she was ordered to do by her superiors.

Given that the Ventura County Grand Jury has already produced a report that identified many problems brought on by the specialization, isolation and pressures to succeed some of which I identified above, and given that Oxnard’s City staff knowingly produced false documents to the Grand Jury to mask staff’s wrongdoing, the Ventura County District Attorney must move ahead with criminal sanctions against those who perpetrated these criminal acts.

I know that taking such action against Oxnard executive staff will not be easy especially given the fact that the District Attorney’s office has been receiving annual grants in excess of $75,000 from the City of Oxnard to help pay for the DA’s operating costs. However, to put a halt at this time to the legal process that the Grand Jury began can only be seen as a means to the DA’s fiscal goal and not as a process dedicated to the citizens of this fine City.

Respectfully,

J. Ortiz
Citizen of the City of Oxnard
 

--- VIEW THE REGULAR ISSUE of the APRIL Oxnard Journal -------
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Sunni Shame 0 0 0 0 - Warning Graphic Fotos of
Americans ex-G/I.'s Killed in Iraq

------------------------Send the Ox-Jo an E-mail =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Targeting one gang only in Oxnard - the city's original hometown crew is the sole group listed in the civil injunction - even though other names have been know to operate here. 

 The original intent of the plan was perceived to only be La Colonia area of downtown Oxnard....then the whole map came out publicly at a press conference and the next day in Ventura's Star (Oxnard Edition). 

Residents within the affected areas may feel a breath of relief based on the possible coming enforcement of this ZONE - but others are now putting out the defenses to protect from fear and concerns based on the potential coming reality.
Oxnard PD puts out the word - they set the boundaries which are as ragged and jagged as the spray of the tag.

Some areas outside of Oxnard's new Zone have concern about DISPLACEMENT of the gangs and their activity.  Neighborhood watches and residents need to rouse apathetic neighbors to pay more attention to their  'hood - especially if it is Outside of the Anti-Ganglia Safety Zone. 

Word goes out on the street and ¿ how do the COX§CH react?
They cool and chill-out as they have been. 

There is nothing yet visible as to the potential of the COX§CH and are we awaking a sleeping giant? 
 
In the past, a few individual raids on a few homes with the usual 7AM Hard Knock on the front door while officers stand drawn off the the sides would become a scene we're used to and one that we live with.  Are we sure of what we do in this hard-ball approach to a problem that has been played on a softball field?  Time and a judge's order will tell.  And the pitting of the colors against the blue may draw some real lines.  The police have already been busy and their approach and the reasons are seldom understood until 'after the fact'.  Signs of heightened enforcement by OxPD has been visible and with all officers briefed - especially on Federal Civil Rights - a new approach is coming.

So where are we going with this?  Some in the Colonia - Wilson -&- South Fremont Neighborhoods may remember the circa 1993 march of gang members from La Colonia across Oxnard Blvd, to Magnolia, Second and then down
B Street between First and Second to Second and to the Old Oxnard High School.  We watched in horror as over 100 young men marched down the street followed from behind by two black-n-white units.  That was it for Police work that day.  The result, the guys reached the High School where there was a minor melee -- they dispersed mostly down Fifth Street and hit some vehicles and took car radios, CD's and cell phones.  

---------- Just another fine day in Oxnard.
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Who knows what the result of this enforcement zone will become.  It could come back with a snap or it could keep things subdued.  The next few weeks will tell as we wait for the Man in the Robe to approve or tell the City to take achill pill and don't push your problem outside of the bottle.

----------- Bill Winter ---

WARNING ! HIGH ALERT STATUS !

* Accidents 

* Murder / Violence

* Crime- Graffiti

* Too Much Traffic - Unsafe for pedestrians traveling.

* City lacks sufficient lighting for pedestrians and drivers.

  City is very dark @ night with multiple street lights out which 
   affects  residents and neighborhoods.

*   No to  LNG- Liquefied Natural Gas (Let's Not Gamble)

*   Not enough parking in neighborhood streets due to overcrowding of 
    people and cars. (Especially on weekends and holidays.)

*  Roads need repair. (Potholes can be found everywhere)

* High Cost of Housing - Low availability of affordable  homes
     

*Port of Hueneme / C.I. Harbor - Downtown - 101 FWY / P.C.H                 
* Oxnard College -  CSUCI          

* Oxnard Schools        

* Oxnard Airport

* Ormond Beach - Hueneme Rd. - Oxnard Beaches

* Gang Injunction vs. Colonia Chiques

* There is some retail in Oxnard and  very vibrant shopping centers- i.e. Fremont Shopping  Center(Doris/Ventura Rd.), Island Plaza Shopping Center(Saviers/C.I. Blvd.)

* We must work together to change the negative perceptive of  Oxnard which is a lie to undermine our potential.

* These issues affect our children, families, youth and community.
Sounding off the alarm

: Alejandro Rivera  -

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© -2004 - AR Diamond Productions, Oxnard, Calif. 

          OXNARD , CALIFORNIA
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The sixth annual Cesar Chavez March will celebrate the life and work of this field worker and civil rights leader on Sunday, April 18, 2004.

Our community will celebrate the fair contract after 17 years of struggle of the Pictsweet Mushroom Farm of Ventura, California.  This labor campaign has caught national attention for the brave effort of the Pictsweet workers’ and our community’s support of better working conditions and benefits. 

UFW President, Arturo Rodriguez will be present at the march and address the crowd at Plaza Park.  Local field workers will be presented as well as political representatives.  Local music and dance groups will also celebrate the memory of Cesar Chavez.

During his life, Cesar Chavez lived and worked extensively in Oxnard as a child and adult.  Cesar first started organizing field workers in the late 1950’s in Oxnard which is depicted in the book “Conquering Goliath” by Fred Ross.

Program Schedule:

 Sunday, April 18, 2004.

9:00 am - The march will start at West Village Park adjacent to Brekke School on Cesar Chavez Drive at Rose Ave. and goes to Plaza Park, Oxnard.

10:30 am - Celebration of the life of Cesar Chavez in downtown Plaza Park (La Plazita), Oxnard.

Bus transportation will be made available from Plaza Park to Brekke School starting at 8:30 am to 9:15 am.  Transportation back to West Village Park will start @ 11:30 and ending @ 1:15

Contact:  Cesar Chavez Celebration Committee, (805) 486-9674,(805) 407-1987, (805)444-7914 or (805)857-9838

COUNCILMATIC DISTRICTS

Divide and conquer is a famous quote that has no attribution, but dividing and conquering is what “Councilmatic” districts is all about.  Divide the city of Oxnard into districts and allow representatives who reside within those districts to conquer and represent their district on the City Council.  Oxnard has already conveniently divided the city into seven community council districts so the same formula can be followed to create these districts.

Why do we need Councilmatic districts within Oxnard?  Well, fair representation is the main thrust.  At present four council-members who reside in exclusive north Oxnard make all the decisions for the entire city, the fifth council-member resides at the beach.  Tom Holden, should he become our next Mayor, will be closer to the heart of the city as he resides in downtown’s historic Wilson Neighborhood.  Mayor Holden , however, will not outweigh the need for Oxnard to have more fair and even representation on the council.

South Oxnard is always feeling left out.  Watch the city council on the Oxnard city TV and you will hear a parade of speakers ask the city for more attention to the “south-side”.

Watch what the city does!  River ridge has more new homes and suddenly all of Ventura Road has to be torn up to lay pipes for the affluent effluent.   Who represents all who reside south of 'Gonzo' Road when big issues like tearing up Ventura Road comes to the forefront?

Council-members from specific districts will hold specific allegiances and alliances to the people who put them there. 

The first issue is always voting and how do we select these Councilmatic Council-people?  Do we put the large slate of those running for their districts on one general election form or do we accept only votes for candidates by voting precinct?  How do we hold debates.  Mini debates in each council and allow the slate of candidates to fester and fuss in their district, or do we allow the entire slate of all the district candidates onto one giant stage and let them battle it out for their own little slice of Oxnard?  How do we pick the people who will represent us?  These individual district council people will surely be voting and making decisions about issues that affect the entire City of Oxnard.

The issue is probing and the Ventura County Star is looking into it with articles addressing the issue of councilmatic districts for Oxnard.  Oxnard is Ventura County’s largest metropolis and we need to step out and be bold in our city and in it’s government.  Districts, as a whole, is a good idea, while the concept of districts needs to be well thought out.   

/s/ Bill Winter

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.....

See the Feb '04 -  Issue of the Oxnard Journal. 

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..................................OXNARD ---- 2004 Predictions a
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 Read at Oxnard City Coun
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Keep an Eye on the
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Keep an eye on the City Council
 

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