PASTOR SAM GALLUCCI called me early this morning. Worry colored his voice. After months of dotting every I and crossing every T, endless fundraising, outreach and lots of prayer, his beloved Kingdom Center project for the homeless was on the verge of getting final approval from the Ventura Planning Commission. Yet, he had hit a snag.

It seems a certain neighboring and rather powerful law firm was kicking up a fuss over the project. And despite having the considerable legal muscle of the Ventura County District Attorney and incoming Ventura Police Chief on his side, a recent meeting with the lawyers left this tireless advocate for the homeless even more disconcerted.

"Come out and support the project tonight," Sam asked. The most persuasive guy in Ventura, Pastor Sam of the Harbor Church could sell me swampland. He can even get me to sit through a long, long Planning Commission meeting.

As it turned out, Sam's worries were for nothing. To a standing-room only crowd, the commission unanimously approved a conditional use permit, variance and coastal development permit for the project located in the old City Center Motel at 837 Thompson Blvd.

"This is God's work you're doing," Commission Chair Martin Johnson told him. "This is really, really something."

I'VE BEEN A BIG cheerleader for this project since I discovered it last summer. And it is heartening to see the groundswell of support come for it from every corner of the community. Thirty local churches representing 20,000 people have signed on to help renovate the formerly run-down motel which sits right in the middle of an area frequented by much of the city's homeless population. 

The 30 transitional units will house individuals who are looking for a way out of their situation. The program will be run by Lutheran Social Services and will have 24-hour on-site professional security.  A separate daytime outreach program will operate between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. "What we provide is an alternative during the day to where they already are -- sleeping in yards, hanging around in neighborhoods," Gallucci said.

"It's well thought out," the pastor said of the project while pointing to his already existing program for the homeless at the Harbor Church on Preble Ave. "The current program is operating very successfully next to an elementary school and a day care," he added.

Yet the Kingdom Center had a few detractors tonight -- nearby property and business owners and the aforementioned law firm who voiced fears about some negative behaviors among the local homeless population and wanted assurances their concerns would be addressed.

However, as many others pointed out, these issues existed long before the project took shape. "The area around this project will never be safer than when we are there," Gallucci said.

"I think this is a wonderful thing," Commissioner Dan Long said. "They've got all their ducks in a row now."

The project's approval brought cheers and many smiling faces from the large crowd of local pastors and others who had gathered. The Harbor Church's work in uniting the faith community around this project has been precedent setting.

The first residents will move in soon. "We want to help 12 families get in by Christmas," Gallucci said.

To donate to the project, go here.

NOTE: I first wrote this blog entry back in March of 2008 and my opinion has not changed. I have, however, gotten to know some of the folks involved with this measure. I think they are well intentioned, but have a measure which has some clear problems, including the overly restrictive 26-foot moratorium, which they themselves have admitted was a mistake.

I also wrote an exhaustive entry back in February on the good work the already-established View Protection Task Force has accomplished toward protecting our views.

In general, I am not a big fan of the ballot initiative process. On the state level, it has been hijacked by special interests who have tied up a good portion of the state's general fund with costly mandates which are difficult to later overturn. These measures have contributed mightily to our state's budget difficulties.

HERE IS A PORTION of my March 2008 entry on what is now known as Ventura's Measure B:

Here in a nutshell is what you'll be voting on: The establishment of a View Resources Board made up of people appointed for the most part by a special interest group, the Ventura Citizens' Organization for Responsible Development (VCORD). This group would then draft restrictions on building heights which would affect approximately 93 percent of the properties in the city.  VCORD was originally set up as a watchdog group to keep buildings from springing up which block views of the hills from the bungalow homes in Midtown.

I called City Attorney Ariel Calonne and asked him to clarify the legalities of the measure. Letting the board of VCORD, a 501 (c)(4) political organization, decide who appoints the View Resources Board violates the City Charter, he said.

"I'm not for or against it," Calonne said of the measure. "I've given an opinion that a lot of it is illegal."

It's like letting the ACLU appoint judges, or letting the AFL-CIO appoint the National Labor Relations Board or ... well, you get the picture.

AND THERE'S MORE. If the initiative passes in 2009, a moratorium restricting building heights to just 26 feet will be put in place for up to 2 years until this board is appointed and drafts a view protection ordinance, with the contents still to be determined.

The ordinance is intended as a General Plan amendment, yet the process completely bypasses legally required review by the Planning Commission. Whatever the board comes up with will eventually be voted on by the City Council. If they vote it down, the measure will go to the voters in a far-off municipal election. If that fails, then what?

To their credit, VCORD has exempted a few business areas such as Downtown, Victoria Ave., and the hospital zone.

If you're looking at your property as an investment, be aware that potential buyers may be casting a wary eye your way. If the measure passes, the city's already established guidelines will then be in limbo and it could be a significant time before you will know what can be built there.

The City Council and a majority of the citizens support protecting public views and the quality of life in Ventura. But this is not the way to do it.

The city attorney's analysis of this measure can be viewed here: Download file

The Community Development Director's analysis of the measure can be found here: Download file

I HAVE BEEN a big supporter of San Buenaventura Friends of the Library's dogged efforts to save their beloved Wright Library from closure due to cutbacks in the Ventura County Library System. They've done event after event and even invited science fiction legend Ray Bradbury to be the featured speaker at a fundraiser. So far they've raised $92,000.

But there comes a time when even the most devoted volunteers get tired. Volunteer-driven fundraising efforts cannot always be sustained. I've been there, done that myself when in 2003 as part of an equally determined group of moms we raised $84,000 to save the School Resource Officer program in Ventura's middle schools for just one year. We couldn't do it again the next.

So the Friends are pinning their hopes on the passage of Ventura's Measure A, the 1/2-percent sales tax measure on November's ballot. The estimated $8 million raised locally by the measure would stay in Ventura and wouldn't be subject to a raid from Sacramento. The state is taking $4 million from the city's now balanced budget to solve the state's budget crisis -- "borrowing" $2.8 million in property taxes and taking an additional $1.2 million from the city's Redevelopment Agency.

The spending plan for the revenue measure, which sunsets in four years, would do much to restore some of the service cuts our older, full-service city has had to make in the last few years to balance the budget. Supplementing the county's funding for our libraries would keep Wright open and maintain hours at our other library facilities.

Today the Friends and other community leaders and local families officially kicked off the campaign for Measure A in front of the Wright Library. The measure has broad community support if the endorsement list is any indication. On the growing list is the Ventura Auto Center Dealers Association and other local business leaders. 

SBFOL President Will Thompson put an impassioned plea in the group's latest newsletter: "So, it will be up to us voters to save Wright Library. ... We are, in the face of so many voters in previous elections who just said "NO," the voters who now have the opportunity and the privilege to say "YES." We love Ventura and are eager to save our Wright Library!"

IT SOMETIMES TAKES the threat of losing an old friend to make you appreciate just how much you need him, and so it has been with the announced closing of the H.P. Wright Library in Ventura.

A source of comfort, entertainment, and a home away from home for many Venturans, the Wright is a victim of budget cutbacks in the County Library System. The closing has sparked an uprising of sorts in Ventura which has secretly pleased me. To see an organized effort of this sort for a facility of knowledge is truly remarkable in an age when so many other things compete for our attention.

Long supportive of efforts by the San Buenaventura Friends of the Library to privately raise money to keep the facility open, I recently joined a group of my fellow Venturans on the newly convened Ventura Library Plan Steering Committee.

In these dog days of budget cuts, our group of motivated citizens is the substitute for the $100,000 library plan exercise axed from the city's budget last year.

"It's time to have this conversation and see it through to the end," Deputy Mayor Bill Fulton told us last week.

The Wright is losing its lease from Ventura College in 2015 and chances are it won't be renewed. A smaller facility than the E.P. Foster Library Downtown, it's unable to house the collections of both libraries and does not have a meeting room or computer center. The much smaller Avenue Library receives money from federal sources. So the Wright was targeted for closure by the county in an effort to consolidate and save money it doesn't have any more.

But it's the most popular library in the city, with a circulation of 210,556, thus the uprising.

San Buenaventura Friends of the Library has raised enough money to keep the facility open until late October. If the Ventura sales tax measure passes in November, with the added revenue, the facility could potentially stay open until the lease is up in 2015, at least. If not, well, it's likely the Friends will give up the effort and the facility will close.

A DENIZEN OF THE EAST END, I must admit to traveling more frequently to the Oxnard Library when my children were very young in the late '90s. A larger, newer facility with a better children's collection, the city-run library had predictable hours, which our three Ventura libraries have never had. The now-closed bookstore Adventures for Kids drew us out as well.

But we've also spent time in the comfy beanbag chairs at the Wright, talked to the friendly librarians who obviously love their jobs, and watched the students trail over from Foothill High after school.

The city has property available in the Community Park on Kimball Road near the 126 Freeway to build a large, new facility for the entire city, but doesn't have the funding identified. I envy the cities of Camarillo and Oxnard for their new state-of-the art facilities. In 1997, a comprehensive study recommended the city withdraw from the County Library System altogether, but we never followed through.

LIbraries of the future may need to look very different than they do today. Books can be downloaded digitally and reference materials are available online. When surveyed, our group lamented the lack of community programs and activities offered in Ventura libraries. Meeting facilities, an auditorium and possibly a coffee/juice bar would be great additions.

Our group has a big, lumpy piece of clay to mold. Citizen input will be very important. The entire community is being invited to weigh in. The idea is to have a strategic plan to present to the council by May of 2010.

Your constructive thoughts are welcomed in this space, or you can send me an email.

A RECENT POLL conducted by True North, Inc. confirmed what I already knew: Ventura voters are content here and are willing to invest in their city.

Despite a round of new temporary taxes from the state, nearly 60 percent of those surveyed said they would likely vote for a temporary 1/2-cent hike in the city sales tax to support public safety, libraries, local infrastructure, economic-generating activities and building financial reserves.

This figure has held steady through surveys conducted in May of 2007 and December of 2008. True North talked to 400 likely voters between May 27-31 of this year. (The survey had a 4.86 point margin of error.) The sample was "a perfect representation of your voting electorate," True North President Timothy McLarney explained.

What else did they find? Seventy-five percent are somewhat or very satisfied with the job the City of Ventura is doing to provide services. Sixty-one percent feel things are going in the right direction in our city, compared with 22 percent who weren't sure and 21 percent who thought they were going in the wrong direction.

The state didn't fair as well in the poll, however, with only 11 percent responding that California in general was going in the right direction.

And just who is the typical Ventura voter? She's more likely to be female, over age 50, own her own home and have lived in the city at least 15 years. She isn't too worried about finances and is a Democrat. She doesn't own a business here.

THE CITY COUNCIL will make the final decision on the sales tax measure at its June 22 meeting. The Citizen Blue Ribbon Budget Committee, a 15-member group appointed by the council, voted in March to recommend the measure be placed on the fall ballot.

The 1/2 cent sales tax increase would sunset in four years and would be used to support the essential services recommended by the committee, which the poll respondents also responded favorably to.

Ventura CFO Jay Panzica explained that the increased sales tax rate would cost approximately 22 cents per day for each resident and would generate nearly $10 million a year. Ventura's sales tax is now at the state minimum. Currently, for each dollar residents and visitors pay in, the city only receives 9.82 cents back, Panzica said. The lure of the new measure is that 100 percent of the increase would stay right here in Ventura.

After cutting its budget $11 million this year and $6 million in 2008, the city stands to lose another $2.8 million in the current city revenue grab proposed by the governor.

"If we choose not to put this on the ballot ... then we will be surrendering our destiny to the vagaries of Sacramento for the next few years," Councilmember Bill Fulton said.

Update: All the questions for the survey and the sampling method used can be found here:

vensalestaxreport0609.pdf

I NEED TO DO a short followup to a blog entry I wrote back in January about my friend Melissa Wantz's contest for high schoolers, The Phoenix.

Wantz, an English teacher at Foothill High School in Ventura, came up with an idea to support and showcase the creative work of high school writers, artists and photographers in Ventura County.

I went to the presentation ceremony for the awards last night and I can now report that the arts are alive and well in our county's high schools. With hundreds of entries to choose from, the judges, who are locally renown in their fields of expertise, were blown away by the quality of the students' work.

Ventura artist Michele Chapin was so enthusiastic about the work she saw she plans to help expand and promote the contest next year.

The contest awarded cash prizes and an opportunity to be published in a book compiled by the journalism class at Foothill High. A Ventura Education Partnership grant helped pay the expenses.

Both the book and contest take their name from a mythical bird which dies in a fiery death and rises to live once again -- the Phoenix. "Our motto, 'Rising from the Ashes of Standardized Testing,' is taken from this idea of life after death," Wantz wrote on her Web site.

As wonderfully talented as these kids are, the contest would not have happened without a dedicated teacher who spent hours of her own time on the project. Thanks, Melissa!

AND SPEAKING OF the Ventura Education Partnership, our biggest event of the year, SummerFest, is being held from 9 a.m. - 2 p.m. Saturday (5-30) at the VUSD Education Service Center, 255 W. Stanley Ave., Ventura.

SummerFest brings our children and community together in a day-long event of fun, physical fitness events, music and healthy foods. This event celebrates our healthy community and also raises funds for nutrition and exercise programs through sponsorships. It is a free, family-friendly event. Join us!

WHILE THE STATE ELECTORATE may be in no mood to pass Prop. 1A and thus extend the taxes used to balance this year's budget, Downtown Ventura's property owners just voted to assess themselves a little more to pay for a cleaner, safer business district with better marketing efforts for merchants and other special programs designed to draw visitors to the area.

The Property-Based Business Improvement District (PBID) will add a small percentage to the property tax bills of landowners in the Downtown core. Those in the central areas who will receive the most benefits from the PBID will be assessed more than those in outlying areas.

The plan had the full backing of the Downtown Ventura Organization and the Chamber of Commerce.

While the plan was conceived, executed and drawn up by a citizen's committee, the City Council had final approval on the deal and officially gave it its blessing last night on a 5-1 vote, with only Councilmember Jim Monahan voting against it.

"Despite a year of city-imposed fees, declining investments, and weak consumer confidence, it was very reassuring to see that a majority of property and business owners Downtown have confidence in the work of the DVO," said Executive Director Rob Edwards.

I'VE REALLY BEEN ROOTING for this plan to pass. Our unique Downtown is a thriving entertainment center which sets us apart from the cookie-cutter retail in nearby cities. Most of the businesses are locally owned and operated. The city gave the DVO some seed money from its redevelopment agency to hire a director and jumpstart activities, but those funds are nearly gone.

Since its inception over three years ago, the DVO has become a dynamic, nationally-recognized organization. In the past year it has won multiple advertising awards and was named Non-Profit of the Year by the Chamber of Commerce. The passage of the PBID will keep this momentum going.

The assessments will be collected by the county and turned over to the non-profit PBID board of directors for use. This group, made up of both property owners and Downtown business owners, will decide how to spend the money per the management plan that was approved by the council in March. In five years, the PBID will sunset and it is up to the property owners to determine if it is working and whether or not to renew it.

"Those that have been paying attention to the incremental, but positive changes Downtown realize that our work needs to continue to stabilize property values. And that would not happen without a funded operation with one full-time director," Edwards said.

"This is a very modest budget in a very small district but we will certainly deliver even more upgrades to the neighborhood than we have in our start-up phase these past two years."

Congratulations to the DVO on their hard work in laying the groundwork for this plan and helping to nurture an economic center for our city

AFTER A SIX-HOUR MEETING, and many years of revisions, the Ventura City Council finally approved the long-anticipated planning code for Victoria Avenue. It is a document which follows closely the spirit of the city's 2005 General Plan, which was developed after years of citizen input.

The plan spells out the city's desire to avoid "big-box, mega-block, auto-oriented strip development" in the Victoria Corridor, and instead move toward an area with high-wage jobs and walkable blocks. Passing the new code, however, has the adverse effect of rendering some existing buildings non-compliant. In an effort to be fair to property owners while transitioning to the new code, the Council on Monday night passed a few exemptions which would allow modernizing changes for facades, loading docks and energy efficiency without requiring a variance.

All this would be pretty standard planning stuff, if not for Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.'s stated intention to occupy the now-vacant K-Mart building. When first heard from, the retail giant presented a plan for an attractive, multi-level mega-store with underground parking. It was not a fit for this particular location with its General Plan mandate against big box development. Recently, Wal-Mart returned with a plan to reoccupy the existing K-mart building and two adjacent stores for a total of 130,955 square feet.

Council member Bill Fulton pointed out the irony of forcing Wal-Mart into a "crappy building with minimal improvements" while requiring good design for other Ventura projects. "This is not raising the bar," he said.

Council member Ed Summers countered that he preferred to see the General Plan's requirements followed for that area. "I'd rather force them to a smaller footprint than let them make a larger, prettier footprint" or mega-store.

THE COUNCIL ALSO APPROVED staff's recommendation to limit retailer size in the area to 100,000 square feet. So Wal-Mart is free to occupy the old K-mart building, but they are unable to substantially add to their space. The passage of the anti-big box initiative on the November ballot would underscore this mandate with a provision to limit retail with non-taxable items such as food to 90,000 square feet citywide.

Mayor Christy Weir pointed out that the initiative would also prevent stores such as Super Targets. "The initiative targets Target and doesn't capture all Wal-Marts," she said.

The Stop Wal-Mart Ventura Coalition, a mix of citizens and others from labor groups and the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Community (CAUSE), filled council chambers Monday night with those who had undoubtedly received mailers and emails over the last few weeks urging them to attend. And the focus seemed to be on the addition of the loading docks to the revisions.

City Manager Rick Cole assured the group that the revisions were added to ease the burdens on all property owners and retailers in that area. "The recent direction ... is to not create a ghost town of retailers and office buildings as we move toward the transition of the Victoria Corridor Plan."

I'VE WRITTEN A LOT HERE about the economic value of the arts but little about their community-building effects. Ventura's arts community is close-knit and eclectic -- a group of people who choose to live here because their work is appreciated and valued. "Arts events actually encourage a camaraderie," internationally known arts advocate Jerry Yoshitomi told me.

Artists sure know how to pack a City Council meeting, too. From poets to painters to sculptors to actors to the Ventura Music Festival's Nuvi Mehta and his violin, creative types showed up Monday night to protest budget cutbacks to Ventura's cultural arts programs.

Somebody even brought a dog.

The artists and arts organizations in Ventura are one of the reasons I choose to live here. As a member of the city's Cultural Affairs Commission, the proposed cutbacks in the city's cultural programming and staff have been distressing to me. Our cultural grants program, which helps support the budgets of regional entertainment luminaries like the Rubicon Theatre and the Ventura Music Festival, was up for a nearly 50 percent reduction.

Despite the impassioned pleas of 32 public speakers, the City Council voted for most of the cuts proposed by the Budgeting for Outcomes teams. Gone will be ArtWalk (unless it is resurrected privately), the Holiday Street Fair, a film series, all operating hours of the Albinger Museum, technical assistance for artists, and Plaza Park events, along with some staff.

TO RESCUE A FEW THINGS, staff and council got, well, creative. With the potential for two federal stimulus grants in the offing, the council voted to provide "bridge" funding to save one staff position which will work with the new non-profit foundation to raise funds to support cultural programs, which will hopefully include our city's now county-run libraries.

The cuts to our community services grants programs may only get a 25 percent reduction if revenues from our fee-based programs come in over projections. They could also be rescued with grants from the National Endowment for the Arts.

A lot depends on the $100,000 in NEA money the city is applying for, a gamble city staff is hoping will pay off. Volunteers will be needed now more than ever and our commission will be expected to step up its efforts.

"We will make it happen," Mayor Christy Weir said. "We won't let these programs die off."

The Cultural Affairs Commission meets the fourth Thursday of every month at 5:30 p.m. in City Hall.

ARE YOU HAPPY NOW? That was my first reaction to the long list of projects that are scheduled to be axed tonight from Ventura's often-maligned Public Art Program, including funding for the design of a memorial at Cemetery Park.

I've written about this art program's complicated and misunderstood funding system so many times since I started this blog that I almost find myself reciting it over and over in my head as I go to sleep at night:

"It is an actual ordinance, passed in 1992, allocating 2 percent of eligible Capital Improvement Project (CIP) costs for the commissioning of artist services which tie into a project. Not very many projects are selected for this program. Most of the money comes from specific CIP funds which cannot legally be used to pay for police and fire personnel or libraries. ... blah, blah, blah."

Why, I found myself reciting it once again to long-time Star columnist Chuck Thomas just last week as I explained the difference between funding for the Public Art Program, which comes from the CIP fund, and other cultural activities which come from the General Fund. Chuck and I have been locked in a public battle over the merits of government funding of cultural programs for several years now. Sound economic strategy, I say. Waste of tax dollars, Chucks says.

But we had a very amiable phone conversation last week. He understands the Public Art Program funding process better now and while we still don't agree on government funding of cultural activities in general we did agree that it is easier to be a print columnist than a blogger.

IN THESE DAYS of budget cutting in cities around the country, cultural arts programs seem to be the mushrooms growing at the bottom of the totem pole. We're now cutting essential services like police officers and street paving and sidewalk repair.

Former Star writer Charles Levin wrote a great opinion piece Sunday on our city's public and private investment in revenue-generating cultural activities such as ArtWalk. I've written a few pieces like this myself. But his trumped all of mine.

Congress recently passed legislation which would pump more money into the nation's arts organizations; perhaps some of it will trickle down to our community through a grant. Nationwide, arts organizations are facing huge budget deficits. The nonprofit Americans for the Arts estimates 10,000 arts organizations could disappear in 2009.

Tonight the City Council will take another look at the list of cuts the Budgeting for Outcomes teams proposed, as well as the cuts to Public Art, and may vote on finalizing them. Several of our city volunteers, including myself, are looking into forming a non-profit to prevent some of our cultural programs, like ArtWalk, from disappearing from the local landscape. Our efforts may extend to helping out our county-run libraries.

If you're interested in helping, email me.

I ALWAYS ENJOY being a fly on the wall at these citizen meetings spun off by the city. The interaction between the various factions represented at these gatherings is always fun to watch. Put some of our most opinionated citizens in one room and you can see the sparks fly. The View Protection Task Force was interesting, but this new Citizen Blue Ribbon Budget Committee is much better theater.

People arguing about taxes is great sport on this blog; it gets pretty heated. That's why you would think more of our citizens would be jumping at the chance to give public testimony to this 15-member citizen's panel charged with deciding whether or not to put a sales tax measure on the ballot in Ventura to help plug part of a $11.4 million hole in our city's two-year budget. It's been well publicized.

Yet tonight I watched the usual suspects up there saying their usual things. Most of these folks stand before our City Council nearly every Monday and they were back in action again at tonight's meeting. There were a grand total of five speakers and that included the one who stalked off because he was asked to fill out a speaker card first.

So I guess the task is left to the group assembled by the City Council and their alternates. It's a diverse crowd and represents the city and its opinions fairly well. But again, the outspoken few seemed to dominate the conversation.

THE FIRST FEW MEETINGS have been filled with a crash course on city finances. I am always amazed at how well our city's Chief Financial Officer Jay Panzica can explain these things. He recounts facts and figures in a simple, easy tone devoid of "cityspeak." I hope they keep him around. He's smart and we need him.

There was talk tonight of putting up a website for citizen comment, since they aren't attending the meetings. I would highly encourage this.

If you were to ask me -- and nobody did -- I'd say just put it on the ballot in November and let the citizens decide whether or not they want to pay extra for the city services they will soon be missing. If not, well that's democracy -- by the many.

The remainder of the Citizen Blue Ribbon Budget Committee meetings are March 18 and 25 at 6:30 p.m. at the Ventura Unified School District - Christa McAuliffe Room, 255 W. Stanley Avenue. For more information, go here.

Updated to include new information:

I'VE BEEN SAYING FOR AWHILE that the anti-big box initiative on the ballot this fall is pretty much moot. The unveiling of the final code for the Victoria Corridor Monday night proved it. The city's own zoning for the former K-mart site will prevent any business over 100,000 square feet from being built. A supercenter is typically almost twice that size.

Councilman Neal Andrews attempted and failed to get council members to agree to drop the 100,000-square-foot moratorium, but did succeed in getting language inserted into the plan which would allow certain modifications to non-conforming buildings such as signage, entrances and loading docks. The council will vote on that language and the plan at an upcoming meeting.

Nevertheless, Wal-Mart is free to occupy the existing 84,000-square-foot K-Mart building and has submitted a plan to occupy that building and adjacent stores, for a total of 130,000 square feet, city officials said today.

Wal-Mart representative Matthew Nelson spoke at Monday night's meeting and was clearly displeased with the emerging city plan. The retail giant's current plans exceed the Victoria Corridor Plan's size limit by 30,000 square feet. Wal-Mart had at one time proposed a very large multi-level store in the same location, which was scaled down.

On Monday night, Ventura Chamber of Commerce past Chair Ted Cook spoke in favor of the Victoria Plan, which encourages more walkable areas and movement to Class A office space to encourage high-wage jobs. "We had some complaints a couple of years ago but those seem to have been mostly been addressed," Cook said, referring to a controversial portion of the original plan to reconfigure the street into three express lanes on each side, plus a right-turn only lane on the edges.

Big-box development is discouraged by our General Plan for that area, but could go elsewhere. Wal-Mart, however, seems intent on the K-Mart spot.

Since groceries are not taxable items, a supercenter with an expanded grocery section is not likely to add much more tax revenue to the city's coffers than would a regular store, Council member Carl Morehouse said.

A study done by professors from the University of Tennessee and University of Las Vegas showed that Wal-Mart would only cannibalize existing businesses in Ventura.

Most speakers at Monday night's meeting spoke in favor of the proposed plan for the area.

"Victoria is very car oriented and we are excited as citizens to see a plan that would change that culture," said Katherine Holland of Ventura.

THE FIRST WAVE of budget cuts were announced Thursday at 5 p.m. by City Hall.

Managers proposed 5 percent cuts to every department and on the casualty list are the city's roving fire medic team which has improved emergency response times; the popular Downtown ArtWalks; the children's event "Cowboys, Heroes, and Outlaws"; sidewalk repairs; drainage repairs for the rest of the year and 33 full-time positions including an assistant police chief who will take early retirement. Reductions in services include preventative street maintenance, park maintenance, tree trimming, building inspections, code enforcement, weed clearing, and many other services.

Some of the positions eliminated were vacant posts that had been left open because of the hiring freeze. Eighteen were filled positions.

Setting an example, City Manager Rick Cole agreed to take a 10 percent pay cut and asked the entire staff to do the same. While some negotiations are still in progress, all management has agreed to the slashes in pay.

Our firefighters agreed to put off a planned pension increase for at least a year and the police association agreed to a reduction in leave-time accrual equal to a 5 percent pay cut. Over 80 hours of patrolling will be lost in addition to such areas as records keeping and evidence processing. Two of the vacant positions which were eliminated were patrol positions.

For a complete list of current reductions, go here.

The City Council will be asked to sign off on the proposed reductions with an eye toward the next round of much larger cuts which will be announced in March. The looming budget gap could be as high as $12 million.

Upcoming are "deep cuts in every department, total elimination of many popular services and facilities and significant erosion in the level of almost every other service to our community," Cole wrote in an administrative report. "This alternative also exacts a heavy toll on city staff and the long-term capacity of the organization to provide quality services since it would require significant lay-offs, pay cuts or both."

Needless to say, the mood at City Hall among staff is very somber these days.

ALSO UP FOR Council consideration at a special meeting called for Tuesday at 7 p.m. will be a 1/2-cent sales tax measure which would require just a majority passage. The cities of Oxnard and Port Hueneme recently approved such measures. Of 19 California cities who put such measures to the voters last fall, 15 were able to get them passed.

Current polling done by the City of Ventura indicates the majority of residents would likely support such a measure. Respondents were presented with arguments both for and against the measure as well as information about the 911 fee, which was recently rescinded.

"The vast majority of Ventura voters have a high opinion of the city's performance in providing municipal services," the research firm wrote in an accompanying report, "and they consider maintaining the quality of existing services to be among the most important issues facing the community -- substantially more important than avoiding
local tax increases."

What will complicate any sales tax increase proposal will be proposed plans by the state to do the same. The Assembly has scheduled a floor session for 5 p.m. Saturday to vote on the state budget.

WITH THE POSSIBLE EXCEPTION of our battling state legislators, you couldn't find a group of people with more divergent opinions than Ventura's View Protection Task Force. Thrown together in one room are representatives from each side of the city's pro- and anti-development factions. Yet the group gets along so well that an observer might jokingly wonder if meeting at the police headquarters has something to do with it.

That's not to say it's not a very opinionated group. This 15-member committee is tasked with the nebulous goal of defining exactly what a viewshed is and how to protect it. A passel of new planning terms have been coined since Venturans started fervently worrying about their views. Viewsheds, solar fences, and skypaving are now in the vernacular.

Our city's General Plan spells out in very loose terms that we value our views and access to sunlight from our homes, yet it wasn't until a group of Midtown residents started making a fuss about proposed multi-story infill development along Thompson Boulevard that it became a real issue. Now, many City Council speaker cards later, the council is serious about it. While a ballot initiative pushed by the Ventura Citizens' Organization for Responsible Development to address the issue is slated for this fall, council members who are attempting to complete an overhaul of city planning decided they couldn't wait that long for this issue to be addressed, so the task force was appointed to get a jump start on it.

To explain further, VCORD is seeking to draw up its own view plan, based on input from its own mostly hand-selected citizen's group, a move that our city attorney has already said violates our City Charter. Legal issues plague this initiative. If the council rejects VCORD's plan, it would go to yet another municipal election.

JUDGING FROM THE differing opinions surrounding the issue the night I visited the Task Force meeting, it is not an easy thing, this protection of views, and the focus that night was clearly on Midtown residents and their views. It was not until the end of the meeting that the east and west sides of the city entered the discussion. But for now, the goal just seems to be to protect views as seen from public areas throughout Ventura.

As it turns out, View Protection Task Force Chair Rob Corley said, the group has found that lowering building heights has little to do with protecting many public views. "A 10-foot building blocks just as many views as a 50-foot building. But taller buildings hugging the sidewalk really do cramp views of the hills and ocean."

Solar access has also been a touchy issue with many residents. The night I visited, Town Architects Torti Gallas and Partners ran their first-ever simulation program of how larger buildings at full build-out, following existing planning guidelines with cut-outs in the back, would impact the sunlight filtering into Midtown homes.

AND GUESS WHAT? Because of the way the sun travels in the sky, solar access in most of the city can be protected with some simple calculations and building guidelines, the models showed. Corley estimated the group will only spend perhaps $30,000 of the $110,000 allotted to them for professional services from Torti Gallas.

It would appear that designing buildings with clear setbacks from the sidewalk and cutouts in the back seems to be optimal for protecting flatland views of the ocean and Two Trees. The Task Force will report back with recommendations for adjustments to current planning guidelines some time next month.

But how this information will get incorporated into VCORD's initiative, should it pass, is still undetermined.

"Anybody who buys a house next to a commercial lot has some impacts," Corley said. "Protecting every inch of every lot in the city is unattainable."

It is clear to me that complicated tasks such as this are best left to planning professionals with appropriate citizen input and I hope VCORD takes the current Task Force's recommendations very seriously. But it is also clear that city officials need to better communicate with neighbors about the guidelines for adjacent projects and work harder to allay fears and mistrust.

AMID ALL THE GLOOMY economic news these days comes a few rays of sunshine directed Ventura's way:

We are one of only nine cities in California to make Fortune Small Business magazine's list of the 100 best places to live and launch a small business. We pulled in at No. 68.

According to the magazine:

"We scoured the country for towns that combine a great business environment with alluring leisure opportunities. ... We built our list by assessing economic conditions, such as local tax rates and startup activity, alongside natural beauty, affordable housing, and easy access to such diversions as museums and hungry gamefish. We also pushed past the statistics and interviewed local entrepreneurs, city officials, and economic experts."

City Council member Ed Summers, chair of the council's Economic Development Committee, attributed the ranking partially to three programs the city has in place to help entrepreneurs: a business incubator program, a small business loan program and the Jobs Investment Fund.

"I think this is excellent recognition for the work that we've been doing," Summers said. "For a national magazine to select Ventura for our programs I think is very exciting."

AND MORE GOOD NEWS: Standard & Poor's has upped the city's credit rating  to AA- from A. You can view the report here:

Ventura credit rating article (2009-01-09).pdf

"The positive rating action reflects our opinion that the city's maintenance of a very strong financial position for a sustained period, coupled with a minimum general fund balance policy, positions it well to weather economic down cycles such as the one it is currently experiencing," the credit analysts wrote.

The report notes that the city's reserves are very strong, and management practices are good, but also pointed to the recent investment loss and the losses of $2.2 million in budgeted income from the rescinded 911 fee. The city's financial future will depend on "how [it] manages its budget in response to potential further revenue pressures," the analysts wrote.

City of Ventura Chief Financial Officer Jay Panzica was happy to report the news at last night's council meeting.

"It means that outsiders totally on their own who do this for a living decided the city is run very well."

THE IDEA OF PARKING METERS Downtown didn't thrill me at first. It brought to mind the time I raced through downtown Monterey dragging two small, cranky children only to find the meter had expired and a ticket was already sitting on my windshield.

But today's high-tech parking meters are a little different. The new WiFi-enabled, solar-powered variety allow you to pay with a credit card for unlimited time or you can remotely put extra time on your parking spot from any meter in the network. Some of them even call your cell phone if your time is expired.

The idea behind the meters Downtown is to allow turnover and provide spaces to people who need to get in and out of the coveted nearby slots quickly.

The idea grew on me the day I needed to get a surfboard worked on at Wet Sand Downtown and had to park nearly in Oxnard because it was so crowded. As I walked blocks and blocks with a longboard, taking down pedestrians in my wake, the idea of being able to find nearby parking seemed quite appealing.

The Downtown Ventura Organization is gung-ho on this idea. Not only will it allow turnover, but any net revenues could go to extra police, maintenance, landscaping, a new parking structure, benches and signs Downtown.

The City Council voted Monday night to officially establish a plan to install the meters on spaces on Main and side streets which are currently 85 percent utilized. Residents would receive special permits. The parking structure and lots would still be free.

Interestingly, the plan is being paid for indirectly by the City of Oxnard. Ventura is paid traffic mitigation fees from the River Park development and a loan will come from this fund.

AND ON ANOTHER FRONT: The council ended the rental housing inspection fee brouhaha quickly last night with a vote to simply shift building inspectors from the city's Construction Permits program into the City's Code Enforcement program with the goal of reducing substandard housing in general. This is a good idea, since building has slowed across town due to the bad economy. Cost recovery for the program would be paid through an already established fine system for rental code violators.

Landlords packed Council chambers in December complaining about several of the alternatives of a plan to regulate one- to three-unit rentals, which are now entirely exempt from taxes. I covered this issue in more detail in a past entry.

City staff acknowledged their lack of finesse in handling this matter, which brought out 47 speakers to a recent meeting, including the usual suspects who this time accused city staff of trying to force senior citizens out of their houses through the proposed program.

I ALWAYS DISLIKE grumbling at a fellow opinion writer because we don't get paid enough for the grief we sometimes have to take from our readers, but I am rather grumpy at my Star comrade Chuck Thomas. I sent him an email taking issue with his column today and I'll share it here:

Dear Chuck,

Even in humor pieces, you need to be accurate in what you write. Suggesting in your column today that the City of Ventura is spending millions of dollars to turn the city into the "New Art City" is reckless.

The last time I checked our city spent less than 1 percent of its General Fund budget on art-related activities and with the recent round of budget cuts, this will likely be reduced. Update: I had somebody inquire about the exact figure. The total amount spent on cultural activities in the General Fund is $1.3 million. We generate $430,000 in revenue from some of these activities, so the net cost to taxpayers is $870,000.

In this less than 1 percent figure, we are charged with taking care of historic sites such as the Olivas Adobe and providing fee-based arts classes for children and adults, among other things.

If you are speaking about the city's Public Art program, it is an actual ordinance allocating 2 percent of eligible Capital Improvement Project (CIP) costs for the commissioning of artist services which tie into a project. Specifically excluded by the Public Art Ordinance are street resurfacing and water and sewer line replacement projects.

Not very many projects are selected for this program. The City Council, if it chooses, could suspend this ordinance. But it is unlikely that redirecting the small amount of money in the CIP budget allocated to this program would allow the city to fix its infrastructure much faster.

It might, however, give uninformed critics less to complain about.

The money comes from specific CIP funds and cannot legally be used to pay for police and fire personnel. But I've explained all this to you once before and you even printed my explanation in your column.

The city's very small investment in the arts, along with the considerable private investment in the arts here, is a significant force in our local economy.

Every dollar invested in non-profit arts brought $14 back into the local economy. Ventura's artists and non-profit arts businesses generate more than $18 million in economic activity annually, according to a 2004 Economic Impact of the Arts in Ventura Report. And it is growing. These expenditures generated $768,000 for local government and $1.5 million for state government. Without a doubt, Ventura's policy of supporting the arts as "California's New Art City" has paid off.

The arts and culture sector creates jobs, too. A new study from the national arts advocacy group Americans for the Arts reports that the City of Ventura has 370 arts-related businesses which employ a total of 1,068 people.

Moreover, cultural tourism is the fastest growing segment of the tourism sector. In Ventura, cultural tourists on average spend $80.55 per person per day, significantly higher than the average visitor, who spends $62.13 per day. Cultural tourists stay a day longer than the average visitors, too.

We are gaining a reputation as a cultural tourism destination. So much so that the California Cultural & Heritage Tourism Council's 5th Annual Symposium will be held in Ventura from January 14-16. Please join us.

Sincerely,
Marie Lakin, City of Ventura Cultural Affairs Commissioner

THE QUINTESSENTIAL California girl, my friend "Nancy" is a gregarious woman with a wicked sense of humor and a perpetual tan. She's lived here her whole life. But as a single mom who is just barely making ends meet, she is losing sight of the California Dream. And now she's close to losing her home.

Nancy's plight exemplifies what has gone terribly wrong with our economy: she signed a mortgage contract she couldn't afford and she's gone into default. She hasn't made a payment in three months. And she's just one of thousands nationwide. These defaults set up a series of bank failures that have rocked the global financial system.

According to a local real estate source, Ventura now has 322 properties listed for sale. Of those, 55 are now owned by banks through foreclosures and 66 are "short sales," in other words, the asking price is less than the balance the owners owe. Ventura is No. 2 in the county, behind Oxnard, in the percentage of such homes on the market citywide.

Nancy refinanced her mortgage a little over a year ago. She thought she had signed a mortgage contract with terms offering her a fixed rate for five years. But after just eight months, she received notice that her mortgage payment had gone from $1,700 to $3,800. She can't pay it.

"My principal balance went up so high I owe more than what my house is worth. Every time I make the minimum payment I end up $1,000 in the hole," she said.

Three years ago her house was worth $600,000; now it's worth $400,000, she said.

HER MORTGAGE BROKER may take issue with her claims of being completely misled, but it's clear Nancy did not understand what she was signing and should not have been approved for the adjustable rate mortgage she was unknowingly saddled with. "They don't explain things well," she said with a sigh.

Nancy has put a lot of work into her East Ventura home and doesn't want to lose it. Recently she went back to her lender and begged for mercy. "He said, 'We're going to try to get you a fixed loan you can afford.'

"But that was 12 days ago..."

Would more government oversight on the lending industry have helped my friend? Perhaps. But it's clear the free-wheeling days of risky lending are over.

On a related note: at top is a preview of a new commercial from the Hannah-Beth Jackson campaign that was filmed in Ventura in front of a bank-owned home.

NEW HOUSING PROJECTS don't come along very often in our city and when they do, they need to encompass many of the city's urgent needs and state mandates: housing for families, parks, retail space and low-income projects, too.

The new 35.67-acre Hansen Trust project on the East End of Ventura is the embodiment of an ideal. The project will have 131 market-rate single-family homes and 34 attached units. Included in the mix will be two parks totaling 5 acres and 20-24 attached units for farm worker housing. The state is now mandating that cities include diversified housing and this project will fulfill that requirement.

"It's an agricultural trust," Council member Brian Brennan explained on a recent council visit to the site. "This whole project was a model of how to do it." The property is controlled by the University of California Hansen Trust, which will use the proceeds from the sale of the property for the Hansen Agricultural Learning Center at Faulkner Farm in Santa Paula. The land is not currently under SOAR's purview and can be developed.

"We believe this project sets a new gold standard for development in the City of Ventura," Dawn Dyer of the Dyer Sheehan Group, the project's developer, said.

It is still uncertain how the farm worker units will be financed, said City Council member Ed Summers. He estimated the cost to build the units would be in the neighborhood of $6 million. The City Council has asked the developer to pay $600,000 for initial costs and architectural fees but the rest of the financing will need to be arranged by the city's Housing Authority.

The council put its final stamp of approval on the project last week.

ACROSS THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CITY is another Utopian vision: The $57 million WAV Project. Scheduled for completion in October of 2009, the project will feature affordable housing for artists, assisted housing for homeless families and market-rate ocean-view penthouse condos for upper-income residents. The project has been hailed for its ability to generate economic activity Downtown. It will also include a theater, gallery space and cafes. It is a completely green project featuring recycled building materials, water and energy conservation, and solar power.

Most of the funding came from federal low-income housing tax credits, which require state approval based on low-income housing criteria. A small loan from the city, redevelopment agency monies and the sale of the market-rate units rounded out the financing. The project is now under construction.

Guidelines for the affordable housing have just recently been formulated.

The mix of market-rate and low-income housing in one project has been done in other areas with much success. While a few of the market-rate units are still available for sale in the WAV project, most have sold, said realtor Jerry Breiner.

The lack of available land space, coupled with urgent low-income housing needs has caused us to rethink the way we build our cities and work on ways to creatively finance such projects. The WAV and Hansen projects are leading the way.

VENTURA OFFICIALS SAID TONIGHT they are uncertain what value they will recover from two 5-year corporate notes issued by Washington Mutual and Lehman Brothers, which have both failed in the tumultuous financial markets. The former AAA-rated blue chip investments were together worth about $10 million.

"Events overtook us with the bankruptcy of Lehman that came rather suddenly," said City Manager Rick Cole. "We saw these storm clouds coming but it was probably my conservative instincts that led me not to recommend that we dump these at fire sale prices. ... I was there and ultimately there's a place where the buck stops and it's me. ...

"We used our best judgment as well as the judgment of rating agencies and our bond advisers," Cole added.

The notes make up only a small fraction of the city's investment portfolio and were deferred for use until 2011 or 2013, said the city's Chief Financial Officer Jay Panzica.

Cole emphasized his wish to make the investment issues known, despite being warned by other public entities not to. "There are agencies with much greater public exposure who have told us, 'You can't talk about it because we haven't told anyone about this.' ... I think that's wrong because it's taxpayer money."

Council members Carl Morehouse and Neal Andrews, both fresh from conferences with other city leaders across the state, emphasized that many other communities were in much worse situations. "Only a fool would expect that a city or any other investor group could have survived this without some impact," Andrews said.

Other municipalities are just starting to analyze their own portfolios, Panzica said.

WHILE THE NEWS WON'T affect the current budget, the soured economy has already spurred the city to take action. Officials recently put a hold on $2.5 million in capital improvement projects, instituted a hiring freeze and cut $4 million from the budget. The city's Ad Hoc Budget Committee is looking at possible mid-year cuts.

Panzica said they have pinned some hopes to recover the money on possible litigation as well as language included in the $700 billion federal bailout bill passed last week. The bill refers to measures to ensure stability for cities and counties which may have suffered losses.