Oxnard-1 / Casino- 0

Oxnard is about to review it's entire Neighborhood Services program at the Tuesday, Jan. 27 City Council Meeting.

This review in itself is not a bad thing, but the reason for the review is suspect. Roger Pariseau, the Chair of Fremont North Neighborhood, and the current chair of Oxnard's Inter-Neighborhood Council Forum attended the City Council retreat last summer when the issue of the neighborhood councils came up. Apparently, there was agreement among the council that there were some problems within the neighborhood council system. The main problem cited was that certain neighborhood chairs would come to city council meetings and basically "yell at the council". This behavior, and/or any lively contesting of the seated council by neighborhood council members who were elected by their neighborhoods to represent them perhaps reached its saturation point with the Councilmen. According to Pariseau, Mayor Lopez was the only member at the retreat who saw value and need for the Neighborhood Council program.

Interestingly, the city never minded to ask or involve any of the residents who serve on their Neighborhood Councils for input into this deliberative status report which will be presented as the last item on the Council agenda next Tuesday. It seems odd, would not a doctor ask the patient or even touch the patient to make a diagnosis. Well, the city staff preparing this report for the council never touched or asked the patient, their own city residents. So, it will be worth a visit to the city council meeting to see what happens to the program after this staff report and the recommendations that are put forth to and by the concerned councilmen.

The neighborhood program works. It has been working well since its inception in 1975, when the City Council resolved to create the program. Even though a few dedicated and unpaid volunteers serve on the neighborhood councils and they work relentlessly to make Oxnard a better city, there is still room for improvement, room for more hands to help out. Our neighborhoods for the most part are doing well under the neighborhood services program and we only have a few neighborhoods that are considered inactive due to a lack of annual election of officers. This is minor in comparison to what the city fathers see. What they see disturbs them. What they see, causes them to question the City's continuance of this program.

As a member of the Inter-Neighborhood Council Forum and Chair for the historic Wilson Neighborhood, I am dismayed by the lack of participation by Oxnard citizens in their Neighborhood Council program and with the majority of Neighborhood Chairs who blow off the INCF monthly meetings.

Overall, not enough people care to get involved and 99% of Oxnard residents don't attend their own Neighborhood Council meetings. The only aspect of the neighborhood program that residents seem to care about is the yearly clean-up. Other than that, leave us alone, we've got our plasma big-screen and our ESPN. But perhaps, this is what the City Council wants, the fewer the people who know or care about what the City does, the least attention there is to what the Council does, ergo, the least resistance there is.

So this is the sad state of a grand program, that should work, the only flaw in the neighborhood program is that it takes citizen participation to have any meaning. All neighborhood council meetings, to be legal, must have a 'quorum' for the meeting. A quorum is ELEVEN- 11 - residents, that's all. In a city of 200-thousand plus souls, we can hardly get eleven people to come out to any of our meetings. This isn't always the case. Wilson Neighborhood usually has a good turn-out. Wilson has hot issues, like the Old Saint John's Hospital, and Cornell Corrections, and the county-wide draw of Christmas Tree Lane.

Since the City fathers see that no-body cares or gives a hoot about their neighborhood council and their city, then, why should they and why should the Council spend city money on a program that few seem to give a flying flock about.

So the stage is set for the Tuesday, Jan. 27 City Council meeting, when the Council will hear a city staff report about Oxnard's neighborhood program. A report by city staff will be an interesting mesh of the desires that the City Council wants to thrust upon the neighborhoods. If anyone cares about their neighborhood, then they should make it a point to be at city council chambers to show their support for Neighborhood Services and the neighborhood council program. I know I'll be there. I hope I'm not the only one who cares.

Bill Winter

Chairman - Wilson Neighborhood Council

Member - Oxnard (former) Inter-Neighborhood Council Forum