How transparent is your local government?

Updated Campaign finance reports are posted on the city's website. Any surprises?

There was recently a robocall that went out to Simi Valley voters. The group that paid for it has not been identified. I wonder if we will ever know who paid for it. Transparency in campaign finance is important to follow the money in politics. We need better disclosure.

I haven't agreed with many of the priorities Mayor Bob Huber has chosen but I am glad he continues to hold town hall meetings. Does your Mayor hold town hall meetings?

Bob Huber has announced he intends to run for re-election. Do you think he will face serious competition? The last campaign between Steve Sojka and Bob Huber was among the competitive election for Mayor in Simi Valley that I remember. It would be great to watch Bob Huber make the case of why he has deserves re-election and why his priorities have helped Simi Valley.

Who do you want to run against him? I have heard that Glen Becerra has been considering running.

Steve Sojka and Barbra Williamson are also up for election if they run again.

You don't have to register to comment but keep it classy.

I have a new feature on my blog where I ask elected officials, staff members, and activists questions. Some of the questions will be quirky but they are designed for my readers to better know our local politicians.

Bob Huber is the Mayor of Simi Valley. I have talked to him a few times during the campaign on mostly policy issues, like supporting the Arroyo Greenway Plan, but I don't know much about him personally.

Mayor Bob Huber:

What motivated you to become a lawyer? What types of law have you practiced over your career? Who is your favorite fictional lawyer.

You can post your answer on this entry or email it to me.

Here are Mayor Bob Huber's answers:

Hi Brian,

Happy Father's Day! I hope you have a great day with your family!

Here's the answer to your questions:

#1. After 13 years as a Mortician I decided to help others in need from another direction. What drew me to the law was the opportunity to solve different types of problems for people everyday.

#2. Over the years I have practiced criminal law (both as a Deputy District Attorney and a criminal defense attorney); Family Law; Business Law; Homeowner's Association Law; Personal Injury Law; and General Civil Litigation. My current specialties are Personal Injury and Civil Litigation. I have been a Ventura County Court Judge Pro Tem since 1981 and served as a Mental Health Judge from 1988 to 1998.

#3. My favorite fictional lawyer is Atticus Finch from the movie "To Kill a Mockingbird".

Kind Regards,
Bob

Thanks for participating in this new series of blog posts where I ask brief questions.

From Bob Huber's Facebook page:

I am glad that Bob Huber is meeting with the public in a free and scheduled event. He joins the large crowd of Ventura County leaders that see the value in holding these type of meetings.

Rep. Elton Gallegly does not schedule townhall events that are open to the public but Rep. Sherman (D), Rep. Capps (D), Rep. McKeon (R), State Assembly Member Jeff Gorell (R), State Senator Tony Strickland (R) and many other local elected officials continue to value interacting with the public long after the elections are over.

This was among Bob Huber's many campaign promises. I will continue to monitor his performance but it is too early to evaluate his leadership.

The Simi Valley Police Officers Association got involved in the recent city elections in a way they haven't done before. They have argued that the city hasn't dealt fairly with them in recent contract negotiations and that the contention was over more than just benefits. They announced their intentions to get much more involved in local elections long before the final field was settled.

They endorsed Bob Huber for Mayor over City Council Member Steve Sojka and Keith Mashburn for City Council.

The race for Mayor was an open seat election but the city council election had two incumbents running and several challengers for two seats. The POA wanted to defeat incumbents with Steve Sojka, Glen Becerra, and Michelle Foster on the ballot they had their targets.

Huber was also able to earn the support of Rep. Elton Gallegly, State Senator Tony Strickland, the Ventura County Republican Central Committee, and two former chairs of the Ventura County Democratic Central Committee.

Their endorsement of Huber over Sojka wasn't much of a surprise as Bob Huber was the only other candidate for mayor on the ballot and their goal was to defeat an incumbent. Steve Sojka counted as an incumbent because he was already on the city council.

What was much more interesting is their endorsement in the city council race. They had two strong challengers to choose from: retired firefighter Keith Mashburn and LAPD officer Mike Judge. They chose to endorse just Keith Mashburn, although they had many complimentary things to say about Mike Judge. They could have endorsed both of them and tried to get them to run as a slate. I haven't studied slate elections in nonpartisan elections enough to give a well informed opinion, but I am very interested in your opinions on this strategy. You don't need to register to post a comment but keep it classy.

That's academic for now as they chose to endorse just one challenger. I imagine one of the reasons they endorsed Keith Mashburn over Mike Judge was that they thought Mashburn was more electable. That of course turned out to be funny because Mike Judge won without their support.

I am very impressed with Mike Judge's campaign. He had very little money and almost no endorsements. His fundraisers were mostly attended by actual friends of his. That's unlike when other politicians call big campaign contributors that have business in front of them "friends".

The POA most wanted to defeat Glen Beccera on the city council but they ended up contributing to the defeat of Michelle Foster instead. The official score records their endorsed candidates going 1 for 2 in this election but they came out as clear victors. They were able to defeat two incumbents and a police officer was elected to the council.

Click on continue reading for their press release.

It will be interesting to see how involved they will be in two years when Bob Huber will be up for re-election and the two seats currently occupied by Steve Sojka and Barbra Williamson will be up for election.

Both of those incumbents have significant strengths that might deter many challengers from running against them if they both run again. Steve Sojka obviously has a large base of support he built upon in the last election and Barbra Williamson has been very open in her opposition to the landfill/dump expansion plans.

There are many arguments over the validity of expanding the landfill but it is a fact that enlarging the landfill to take more trash from outside areas is very unpopular. A smart politician might come out and convince people that it is in the best interest of the city to support the expansion. But so far that hasn't happened. That means Barbra Williamson goes into the next cycle with a a strong advantage.

I read this post and the comments on it on the Simi Valley Facebook Page. You can go read it by going to that page and scrolling down the page.

I know that parties and activists want to promote people they agree with because candidates for one office might run for another office later. But I don't find this issue compelling in the race for mayor of Simi Valley. Do you?

I do find it interesting to learn how people make their decisions on local candidates.

Bob Huber is having another campaign event at a local park. Here are the details:

Until the election I am running a contest for candidates to get free coverage by sending in a picture of their signs. The goal is to make it difficult, but not impossible, to guess where the picture was taken.

This picture was sent in by a Bob Huber supporter. You don't need to register to post a comment but keep it classy. So, what's your guess? Post as specific as you can the location of the sign. Before the election I will post who correctly answered the most challenges and I'll post who submitted the winning pictures.

You can submit your own photos or view more photos on Facebook.

Note about comments: I respect the privacy of my posters but I don't allow people to create fake screen names to make their opponents look bad by posting outrageous statements supposedly from a rivial's supporters. If it was done to be humorous consider this a warning that I don't tolerate that practice.

Yesterday I went to an event organized by education activist Donna Prenta, School Board Member Rob Collins and Former School Board Member Diane Collins. The meet and greet was put together to support candidates for SVUSD School Board Arleigh Kidd and Jeanne Davis plus candidate for Mayor of Simi Valley Bob Huber. I talked with Bob Huber and his campaign manager Scott Santino about the negativity in the campaign and other issues. Bob Huber agreed to be interviewed on camera without me telling him all of the questions first. I did tell him that I would ask about the plan to fix the Arroyo bike path, which is an important issue for me.

Overall the event was well-attended and have people a chance to talk to many community leaders. I finally had a chance to talk with June Ewart who has been helping me with the Shop Simi Valley First Facebook page. If you ever want to discuss intervention strategies for at-risk youth in Simi Valley you should contact her.

To see the other videos and pictures from the event go to my Facebook page for my blog. I don't have a budget for fundraisers but if you would like to invite me to take videos and pictures send me a message. I don't need to agree with your candidate to attend.

( Simi Valley Blogger Mike Chandler took this video at Bob Huber's event.)

Sheriff Bob Brooks might be retiring but he has one last election cycle when he can use his title and he is using it to endorse Bob Huber for Mayor of Simi Valley. Click on continue reading for the official press release. His endorsement of Dennis Carpenter for Sheriff wasn't enough to stop Geoff Dean's momentum last June but will it hold more sway with Simi Valley voters?

I see this as more evidence that the Ventura County Republican Party establishment has lined up behind Bob Huber. With the support of Tony Strickland, Audra Strickland, Bob Brooks, Elton Gallegly and the official endorsement by the Ventura County Republican Central Committee he has a solid claim to uniting the party behind him.

But what's strange is that he has been able to get support from Democratic Party leaders and unions while having the Republican Party united to support him. His supporters will claim that's because he is able to unite people in pursuit of common goals. There could be a element of truth to that position but his critics will wonder how he has been able to get support from so many public employee unions. I do have a video of him explaining how he switched to being a Republican to support his personal friend Elton Gallegly but the audio quality is really low. So far I'd have to say Bob Huber is running the most bipartisan campaign and Steve Sojka is running the most nonpartisan campaign. Although the two statements seem similar the nuance between nonpartisan and bipartisan is important.

All of the arguments aside Bob Huber's last few weeks of campaigning have been really solid. He has been announcing more endorsements and his campaign is now addressing the landfill expansion with a more specific plan than his opponent. I am not sold on the plan to annex the landfill into Simi Valley but I like that he is addressing specific policies. Click on continue reading to see his press release on the landfill expansion.

The most important issues in this election to many people include the economy, the landfill expansion, and public safety. All of those should be priorities but I also think we should plan for the future by moving forward with the plan to expand and fix the Simi valley Arroyo. When I catch up to Bob Huber next I will ask him about it. That's what is great about being a blogger. I can bring up issues that candidates might otherwise ignore.

I haven't been able to get them to make a music video but their campaign has a new video that is an improvement over their older videos.

I haven't heard anything about formal debates between the two candidates. Can some of you insiders fill us in on what might be planned?

( Simi Valley Blogger Mike Chandler took this video at Bob Huber's event.)

Simi Valley candidate for Mayor Bob Huber had a strong week starting with the endorsement of the Ventura County Republican Central Committee and ending with a casual townhall event at Ranch Park called Burgers with Bob.

The Republican Central Committee endorsement has the potential to backfire on him but with his strong support from Democrats like Simi Valley School Board Member Rob Collins and former Chair of the Ventura County Democratic Party Hank Lacayo he is able to accurately claim he has bipartisan support.

He also has the endorsements of unions representing firefighters and police officers. The Ventura County Firefighters are among the best organized interest groups in this area. Their ability to mobilize is impressive. I have seen them to great GOTV work. I am not sure how much support either of those unions intend to give beyond their endorsements though. If you are a member of either let me know what you have been seeing.

I didn't go to Bob Huber's event today but from what I am seeing it went great for him. The true test will be to see what sort of media coverage he is able to get from it. I missed his event because a friend of mine that I greatly admire was in town. Rob, I may not have said it to you before but if you didn't know I think you are an awesome man and you have served as a role model to me. Over the years you have said things that have really stuck with me.

For more of Mike Chandler's coverage go to his blog.