People Really Don’t Pay Attention

The city of Oxnard has been loosing about one million dollars per year to the River Ridge Golf Course.  In another deep hole for money to sink into, the city is building a 12-screen theater complex.  For the theater, under the agreement the city has put to the developer, the city will guarantee the developer $1.6 million each year for the next 25 years.  Theaters don’t make much money on film showings so they will have to sell a whole lot of popcorn to make $1.6 million each year.

Another famous Oxnard sink-hole was the cellar at the former Sears at the old Esplanade mall.  Somehow, the city neglected to check and when the new Esplanade developer found out the Sears had a basement they had to fill for the big box stores, it cost the city about a million dollars to keep the deal going.

Then there was Cornell Corrections.  The halfway house was being planned for the Wilson Neighborhood, but active citizens and some city insiders got the deal squashed in the very last minute.  The City needed a scapegoat and that came in the form of Joyce Parker who was forced to leave her job with the city while the city, paid off by the city to settle what would be a nasty "Phil Molina-style" lawsuit while the city officials responsible for the mess up, kept their jobs.  Oh, and Oxnard ended up paying Cornell just under a million dollars to compensate for the lack of a special use permit and not allowing Cornell Corrections to put a half-way house in the downtown.

Who can be credited for all these wonderful uses of the city and citizen’s money?

Dr. Holden, who wants to be mayor, was on the council when these decisions were made.

John Zaragoza and Mayor Lopez, who want to be Supervisor, were both on the council and participated in these decisions.

Keep looking and you will see how the city of Oxnard hired a private attorney to sue the city of Ventura because Robinson-May and Sears wanted to leave Oxnard for the new Pacific View Mall in Ventura.  This cost the city and where did it get it?

Now, the new thing is “redevelopment” and this is overtaking the city and our taxes to be used for pet projects by certain favored developers.  Look at how the city handled the Petit house at heritage square.  Lopez and Zaragoza knew all about these bad deals and allowed them to happen.  Do they explain these things to the people?  No they don’t.

John Zaragoza is in real estate.  He should know about redevelopment.  Do we hear from him?  No. 

Redevelopment is the unknown government.  All it does is put the city in debt.  Chris Norby, a member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors is coming to Oxnard on Wednesday, the 18^th.  He will discuss redevelopment at the South Oxnard Center, 200 E. Bard Road at 7pm.  I hope the city council comes to hear about what they are not telling the citizens of Oxnard.  I hope more that the citizens of Oxnard wake up and smell the roses.

Ventura Fernandez