------------

Oxnard Peace Officer's Association Neglects to include all candidates in its Endorsement Process

In what can only be called a surprise and an under the radar move - the police officer's union announced to the VC Star that it unanimously endorsed Tommy Holden for Mayor of Oxnard. 

The problem in all this is that the union did not contact or ask the other declared candidate for Mayor Bill Winter to participate in the endorsement process which usually consists of a questionnaire and in-person interview by the union.  When Winter ran for Mayor in 1998, the Peace Officers offered Mr. Winter an opportunity to address the Blue Line, but this time - no one even informed Winter of the endorsement process which was far beyond underway and already concluded prior to the opening of the nomination period on 12 July.

Mr. Winter contacted the police union, through a letter to it's president Sgt. Jim Seitz, on July 12th stating " when I am elected Mayor, I shall not treat you or your union in the manner afforded me during this election year.  I am sorry you did not contact me.  I believe in fair chances for everyone and I will be fair and considerate of police issues as your Mayor."

Winter is also asserting that if this is the way Tom Holden and the City wants to do business, then they have done a good job to show us early on how they conduct themselves so we can decide who we really want on our next city council.  Holden was a voting and active member of the city council when the downtown theater Brown Act Violation took place, another instance of public business being conducted secretly and without total participation of the community or principles involved.

BCW-040712b

THE GANG INJUNCTION HAS TEETH . . . .
(From Police Reports)

Wednesday 7/7/04 0700 hrs. - 200 block of Harding Avenue

On 7/7/04, members of the Oxnard Special Weapons and Tactics team as well as personnel
from the Oxnard Violent Crimes Task Force (OVCTF) served a search warrant at the residence of
Colonia Chiques gang member Leonardo Medina, 22 year old Oxnard resident.

The purpose of the search warrant was to search for items in connection with a June 26th
incident in which Medina was arrested for violating the recent Civil gang injunction and threatened
the life of the handling officers at the time of his arrest.

 On 6/1/04, Ventura County Superior Court Judge Frederick Bysshe issued an order
granting a preliminary injunction restraining the public activities of the Colonia Chiques
criminal street gang. Leonardo Medina has been identified as a Colonia Chiques gang member
by the Oxnard Police Department and was subsequently served with the preliminary injunction
in early June.  

 On 6/26/04, Officers with the Oxnard Police Department Special Enforcement Unit observed Medina walking within the “Safety zone” with several other known Colonia Chiques gang members in violation of the civil injunction. When Medina was contacted by the officers, he became physically resistant and was subsequently arrested. During the arrest and booking process, Medina made several statements to the arresting officers threatening their lives and the lives of other Oxnard police officers. Based on the documented history of violent criminal activity attributed to Colonia Chiques gang members, the Oxnard Police Department takes such threats very seriously and a follow-up investigation was immediately initiated.

During the search of Medina’s residence, numerous items were recovered indicating Medina’s participation in the Colonia Chiques street gang. In addition, the following items were seized: 
a .22 caliber pistol and .22 caliber ammunition, a loaded .380 caliber pistol, two (2) composite locking blade knives designed to avoid normal detection measures, approx. $6,700 in U.S. currency, approx. six (6) ounces of cocaine with an estimated street value of over $13,000, approx. four (4) ounces of marijuana, and other items indicating the sales of illegal narcotics.

See picture of confiscated items

 Medina was subsequently booked on various felony charges including: Possession of a controlled substance for sale, Possession of marijuana for sale, Possession of a firearm by a felon, and Possession of a firearm by a subject currently out on bail. Medina is currently in custody at the Ventura County Jail.

  When there never seems to be an end to the atmospheric problems --- just minutes after Southbank Neighborhood got a reprieve from the air-driven stench and the best news possible about Cal Wood's ceasing as a place where it's stinky stench drove the neighborhood to unite in fighting it ....now a new stink poops up into the nostrils of many Southbank residents.

At first signs appeared at the entrance to the Southbank community and other signs popped up hither and dither.  These signs boasting of a Community Web Site then later that same day when these signs appeared, they disappeared by mid-afternoon   Was there a problem....or what?

Southbank Neighborhood Council Chair Roberta Walton and countless other neighborhood residents disagreed with
this newly popped up web-sigh bearing the name of Southbank in it's URL and making the claims to be "Your Community Website".  Nobody knows who removed the signs, but first off, there already is a neighborhood website.

This new "Community Website" wants to be a communal communion point where all of the "Southbank" electronic neighborhood could come together in cyberspace and share recipes and travel tips.

Alas...Southbank DID already have a "community website" and no kid on the block came to the Neighborhood Council or anyone in the neighborhood to say - "Hey, we're bringing you a new web site...." 
So this is where the snap came in.

" I 'm flabbergasted." said Colleen McMurry, co-sponsor of the website SouthbankNews.com. 
The site is a free community website for Southbank and I pay for it."

McMurry and her associate Mike Chestnut, both real estate agents, pay for the site and use the Realtor R ® sign along with the HOA logo to prove the site is an electronic pitch for home buyers to consider Mike and Colleen as the 'Neighborhood Connections' for all things real estate and recipes in the Southbank Neighborhood.  

Ms. McMurry attributed one nasty e-mail from "Roberta Watson" as one of the first indications there was a problem  and McMurry could not figure out where all these problems came from simply by having a website that serves the Southbank community.

Oh, those signs at the entrances to the neighborhood cost the cyber-duo of electronic realtors $120.oo USD. 
Any amount under $500.oo is considered 'petty theft' and this whole dueling debacle seems to be more petty than practical. McMurry additionally claimed that people were driving by her house and slowing down to look at her and her house.

"I've given nothing but time, energy, and resources into this website," McMurry claimed. 

Some animosity exists from an earlier neighborhood issue where McMurry and Ron St. Pierre were Chairs of the Southbank Neighborhood Council until they were force to  resigne after the Neighborhood rallied for the entire Neighborhood Council to be recalled.
So there is some history here.

The Ox Jo recommended that the realtors change the name and URL of the site to avoid further conflict and confusion.  Mike was unreachable by e-mail to comment.

Council District Petition Update:

Our petition is viable for 180 days from May 19, when the City Attorney
signed off on it.  While we have over 4000 signatures in the first month
of collecting, we started too late to make the deadline of July 2nd for
the Nov. 2nd general election.  The Star's article this past week seemed
to indicate that people were not signing our petition.  This is not the
case at all.  Citizens are embracing this petition and signing it as they
realize that this is a way to bring more representational and responsive
government to Oxnard.  The committee on Council Districts believes that
the remainder of the needed signatures can be gathered quickly, but only
if we continue to be visible and access the public in a variety of ways.
Therefore, we will be gathering signatures in front of Albertson's on
Ventura Ave. this Sat. and Sun.  Ventura Fernandez, Phil Molina, Mary
Fleischbein, Rebecca Ralph, and Tony Grey have volunteered to do this.
We need more volunteers for Sat. and Sun. from 2-4 PM.  If you can help
for two hours, please call me (Phil Molina) at 988-6029.

Completed petitions are being turned in daily.  Thank you for all your
hard work.  There are still many petitions out there in the neighborhoods
and in the community.  As they are completed, please turn them in.

Update:  Sat. at Albertson's was a very good day.  We will be returning today with
volunteers.  We gathered many pages of signatures and are still counting
them to see how we did.  We have been informed that other volunteers are
continuing to walk neighborhoods.  So we are hopeful that we are making a
dent in the remaining number of signatures needed.  Thanks for all your
hard work.

Please call  988-6029 and let us (Phil and Linda Molina) know where we can pick up your
completed petitions.   We are receiving many completed petitions and we thank
everyone for their follow through.

As a lifelong resident of the City of Oxnard and resident of the Colonia neighborhood, I am personally insulted by remarks made by Mr. Russell S. Hawthorne about my neighborhood.  First of all comparing the proposed LNG terminal here in Oxnard to the crime rate here in our city is like comparing apples and oranges.  In my opinion, LNG is an issue bigger than all of us and if approved will negatively affect us for generations. The crime rate, thru community involvement and other means can be reduced. No one person can stand alone to be a voice against crime.  To quote former first lady Hillary Clintion, “It takes a village”.  Obviously. Mr. Hawthorne’s remarks are politically motivated at the expense of the hard working residents of the La Colonia Neighborhood.    For him to signal us out that “he would feel much safer having this terminal here than he would be if he had spent one hour walking through the La Colonia” area is a very childish and irresponsible comment.  Makes me wonder what else he was thinking.   These types of comments only reinforce the negative stereotype that our neighborhood has been trying to overcome for years.  For years residents and police have been working hand in hand to make our community a better and safer place.   It’s true; our neighborhood has its fair share of problems, gangs, crime, blight, but what neighborhood doesn’t.   Unfortunately due to recent events such as the gang injunction that primarily focuses on the Colonia Chiques Gang, more and more of these comments are becoming the norm in the media and in people’s minds.  Currently the picture painted in people’s minds about our neighborhood is of one that fits every negative stereotype associated with those of Latino dissent.  The reality is that homes in Colonia are going for over $ 350,000.00.  Residents do care about our neighborhood; we have an active neighborhood council and neighborhood watch.  We have an active police storefront here in our community.  We are doing our part.     The other reality is yes, the Colonia has a gang problem, yes we live in a very dense area and yes we have blight.  These are problems that affect every neighborhood, some more than others.    Just because our neighborhood has a gang named after it, does not mean that the neighborhood as a whole is bad. Residents of the colonia neighborhood have become guilty by association.  All of us need to take a leadership position and become vocal about ridding crime in this city and most importantly, do something about it, get involved, not just sit back and take an elitist position as Mr. Hawthorne.  I wouldn’t trade my home in the Colonia neighborhood for any of new homes sprouting out at an alarming rate in the City of Oxnard.  Common sense also tells me that I would be safer in the Colonia neighborhood than on that proposed LNG platform off our coast.

In conclusion, I would like to invite Mr. Hawthorne for a nice walk through our neighborhood; he will see that we are a working class neighborhood, with its share of issues, with a lot of character just like every other neighborhood in the city.    If Mr. Hawthorne would like to take me up on this invitation, he can ask the Star for my contact information..

Vicky Gonzales - La Colonia - Oxnard . . . . ..

Winter
para
Alcalde  

Saul Medina for City Council

Reagan Pix
slow load (136K ea)

Memorial to a President
slow load (136K ea)

Gang Signs atop - Old Saint John's Hospital - OSJH - . 16 pix - slow load (136K ea)

Be ALERT- .

Oxnard Neighborhood Council Forum
       (  I  N  C  F )     
  meets every first Wedsnesday
            1900hrs ( 7pm )           
      Oxnard City Council Chambers   

August 4th ---  Topic:
Oxnard Airport Master Plan --

Sept. 1st. (Alt. date is Sept. 8)
TRAFFIC in Oxnard
A Panel Discussion of How to Improve Our
Local Traffic Situation. 
ALL Meetings are
open to the Public

No Registration is needed to read the Oxnard Journal ( OX JO )

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 

Features of benefits:

Family Emergency Guide
$100.oo credit for signing bonus
Informacíon en Español

llame - call Carlos:
981 - 0955
or
805-415-9250

Or E-mail Today

CATHOLIC CEMETARIES:

Be at Peace with God
and have a piece of sod.

   don't make your family pay
for your going away. . . . . . .

You'd be surprized at how
inexpensive and easy it is to do.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=07.4

=-=-=-=-=-=-=

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

ULTIMATE OXNARD LINX --- 01 ( I )

ULTIMATE OXNARD LINX
-- 02 ( I I )

ULTIMATE OXNARD LINX --- 03 ( I I I )

...Oxnard Predictions for 2004.....
 

.
 

11-11-02

11 - 06 - 02

09 -19  02

08 - 02

<<<>><<<>><<<>>><<<><<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
 Read at Oxnard City Coun
=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-==-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=il
 

Keep an Eye on the
Planning Commission

=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-==-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=
 

Keep an Eye on the City Council

=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-==-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=

The Oxnard Journal is produced - whenever -
for all of Oxnard & the world -
Whenever - There Is News -

==