WHILE WRITING IS A CATHARTIC experience for some, putting painful episodes of my life into words has always been difficult for me.

And so it went with the final outcome of the state senate race between Hannah-Beth Jackson and Tony Strickland. Jackson lost by just 857 votes to an opponent who ran the dirtiest, most deceitful campaign I have ever witnessed.

It was the blog entry that never got written.

But today brought news that finally drew me out of the deep well I had been residing in, a well dug by a temporary loss of faith in our system of democracy. It was a pit dug even deeper by an incident that I witnessed last summer in which I once thought justice would never be served.

Today I heard that Assembly member Audra Strickland's chief of staff -- and Tony Strickland's former chief of staff -- will indeed go to trial for actions that occurred June 17 outside a Westlake fundraiser for Tony's campaign.

The State Attorney General's Office has filed a complaint in Ventura County Superior Court against Joel Angeles on four counts: interference with civil rights (involving Louis Pandolfi of Simi Valley); battery causing serious bodily injury (involving Jack Phillips of Camarillo); battery (involving Pandolfi); and battery (involving Sandy Quiring of Simi Valley). The trial is scheduled for Feb. 6.

These incidents allegedly occurred against three people gathered to protest the acceptance of more than $130,000 in direct and indirect campaign contributions from the tobacco industry for Tony Strickland.

As one of more than 50 anti-tobacco protesters at the Hyatt Westlake, I am also one of 11 witnesses who had to provide a statement about what I had seen that day. I remain unwavering in my account that Angeles' actions were unprovoked and I watched as 67-year-old Phillips, a minister, was knocked to the ground. Phillips later underwent surgery to repair a torn rotator cuff.

LEGAL EXPERTS TELL ME that Angeles could serve a year in jail for each offense, and while he could work out a plea bargain arrangement, the civil rights complaint will make it harder to do so. The violation of Pandolfi's civil rights was filed as a "hate" crime and the battery against Phillips was filed as a major crime with great bodily injury. These charges were carefully crafted to open the door for a civil lawsuit as well as restitution.

No doubt forces were at work throughout the election season to keep the story under wraps. And the file seemingly languished on Ventura County District Attorney Greg Totten's desk for an eternity before he recused himself and passed it up to the State Attorney General's office.

Despite the sensitive nature of his office, Totten was a most ardent campaigner for Tony Strickland. The recusal was certainly warranted.

I am more than happy to let the courts determine the final outcome and have no wish to try this case via the press. But the decision today restored my faith that sometimes people determined to do the right thing can prevail.

THERE ARE FEW topics in our country that ignite more fiery debate than immigration.

According to the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), there are now a record number of immigrants living in the United States -- about 37.9 million. But it is the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants who generate the most controversy. California has more illegals than any other state -- an estimated 2.4 million, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

In an era of government cost cutting, the public costs of recent immigrants to our nation, both legal and illegal, have come under scrutiny. It is thought that as many as one-third of recent immigrants use some sort of public assistance. Because of their lower education levels, a very large share of immigrant households have meager incomes, and thus qualify for these services. About a third lack health insurance as well, so no debate about health care in this country can ignore this fact.

While illegals cannot use the welfare system themselves, their U.S.-born children can be enrolled in Medicaid and receive food assistance. And the total cost for educating illegal aliens and the U.S.-born children of illegal aliens likely comes to over $30 billion a year, CIS studies show.

On the other side of the argument are those who say the immigrant workforce is a necessary component of our economy. More than 90 percent of illegal households have at least one worker, much higher than the rate for native households.

"Undocumenteds actually contribute more to public coffers in taxes than they cost in social services," writes Francine Lipman, a professor of law at Chapman University. "Moreover, undocumented immigrants contribute to the U.S. economy through their investments and consumption of goods and services..."

And while it is probable those undocumented workers with school-age children do take in more than they pay out, that is true for native families with children, as well. Education is undoubtedly the key to bringing these families out of poverty.

Yet despite all the turmoil, we cannot forget we are a nation of immigrants. Nearly every family has an ancestor who came to the United States looking for a better life.

I AM TURNING OVER the bulk of this entry to my daughter, Amber, who is a freshman at Emory University in Atlanta. Amber volunteers every week at DeKalb Technical Institute as an English tutor for recent immigrants to the United States. She has also worked with many young immigrant families through the Neighborhood for Learning project in Ventura and Head Start in Ojai.

I am sharing her stories here because I recognize there is a common bond between those she tutors in Atlanta and the immigrants who live here in our community. My daughter has recognized a work ethic and fierce determination in these people and it has inspired her:

WITH TALES OF NAUGHTY DOGS sure to be told around the country with the opening of the film "Marley and Me," I thought I'd recount a canine story of my own. Ventura County's own version of Marley, a yellow Labrador retriever named Trigger, really takes the cake - and he ingests everything else, too.

Trigger is the semi-beloved pet of the towheaded Tappin clan, a family blessed with a great capacity for forgiveness and a sense of humor. Beth Tappin has even written a short manuscript on her dog's many escapades.

The Oxnard family of four lives in a house set up with a system of baby gates and locks to deter their food-stealing animal. But this canine, who has been dubbed "Garbage Gut" by his veterinarian, knows no rules. He has yet to determine what is actually food.

Now I thought I had it bad the day my own dog ate the notebook containing all my Internet site passwords, but I really do feel sorry for the Tappins.

THE FAMILY FIRST NOTICED something was amiss with one particularly bad habit. Basic biology teaches us that what goes in must come out, but in Trigger's case what goes out goes back in too... "The first time we witnessed this habit," Beth Tappin said, "my only thought was, 'And this dog kissed my kids!' We read about this online and rushed to PetSmart to buy the products they suggested. The gentleman at the pet store said, 'Oh, don't worry, these tablets will make his business taste like ****, no wait, it must make it taste worse than that.' "

Later, the Tappins heard a comedian talking about a neighbor of his who had a dog with this same habit. "He would call his neighbor and ask to borrow his dog for a few hours to clean up his yard," Beth said. "I know it's gross, but I had to wonder if there was money to be made with Trigger."

But Trigger has a very varied palate. He has eaten two couches, acrylic paint on a paper plate (paint, plate and all), the entire contents of many Easter baskets and Halloween bags, cat food cans (whole can, pop top and all, chewed and swallowed), one four-pack of food dye on the area rug (very colorful dog and rug), entire batches of freshly made cookies, whole loaves of bread in their wrappers, cooking utensils, half a can of coffee, seven bottles of Terro ant killer (it apparently only kills ants), one bag of Bertie Botts Every-Flavored Jelly Beans (bag, drawstring and all), four or five soft-sided lunch boxes, two new bags of marshmallows (they came back up in much the same form), and the list goes on and on. He's made numerous runs in the pantry, eating everything from the third shelf down.

THE TAPPINS NEVER KNOW what they will find when they come home or awaken in the morning. "I find myself yelling, "No! No! No! Not the (fill in the blank)," Beth said. "Usually as soon as we get into the hallway you begin to see the problem. It begins with a few scraps of something.

"I am not always the calmest person in the face of disaster," Beth confessed. "I really don't like to admit this, but once I even said, 'I am going to kill you dog!' But that was after five quarts of home-made Albondigas soup was spilled all over the kitchen floor and I had carrots, peas, green beans, corn and meatballs from cabinet to cabinet and in between every mini-blind.

"It took 45 minutes and a shovel to clean that one up."

The rather portly yellow lab is amazingly nimble when leaping from nearby chairs to kitchen counters. "I have even seen him eyeing vegetables in a basket that we hung from the ceiling!" Beth said. One day in desperation the family tried to deter him from the counter by putting masking tape all along the edge with the sticky side out. "That just left us with a dog with eight yards of tape all over his front half," Beth said.

If you put him outside, he digs, roots through the compost bin and snacks on dead gophers and the aforementioned "business." He has gone through four metal trashcans.

SO THE TAPPINS HAVE DECIDED to view life with their soft and gentle-natured eating machine as a character-building experience. What have they learned?

1. A body can process way more than trace elements of aluminum.
2. When life gets you down, raiding junk food is very good.
3. Sometimes there is a very fine line between wanting to hug a pet and kill the pet.
4. Stay away from dead and/or rotting things. They rub off and make you smell bad, too.
5. Your family will still love you when you make a terrible mess of something.

My thanks to Beth for letting me borrow from her very funny manuscript. Happy holidays, everyone!

IT'S HISTORY. With a unanimous vote tonight, the Ventura City Council took steps to erase the controversial 911 fee from the books. Anybody who wants a refund will be able to get one.

No doubt a very vocal portion of the city, including the editor of the Star, did not like the fee. And there are those, such as an Orange County law firm which specializes in class-action lawsuits, who saw an opportunity for litigation and fat legal fees.

City Attorney Ariel Calonne explained that the legal environment has changed dramatically since the fee and its opt-out were first proposed last January. A ruling last spring opened the door for class-action suits on this issue.

When the opt-out provision was first presented, I knew it would be an administrative nightmare. That has proven to be true. Service providers and city staff have struggled mightily with it. Fifteen percent of the city's telephone lines were opted out. But because of technical delays, Assistant Police Chief Ken Corney said, not one person has yet been charged the $17.88-per-call fee which would have been imposed for those who opted out of the monthly fee.

It's also been a public relations nightmare. Many still don't understand that if you opted out, you would not be charged for calling 911 on behalf of somebody else. Nor did they realize the fee would've been waived for first-time callers.

BUT MY FAMILY DIDN'T opt out and we willingly paid the $1.49-per-month charge on two land lines and three cell phones because we knew the money saved through funding the costs of the city's 911 system in this manner would be used to pay for our badly needed School Resource Officer (SRO) program (which I explained about in an earlier post) and a team of officers for trouble spots in the city.

Since Council member Neal Andrews has taken the unilateral step to end the 911 fee by proposing this policy consideration, I hope he will also be a leader in efforts to maintain a sufficient revenue stream to keep our citizens and our students safe and healthy.

With the possibility of $8 million being trimmed from the general fund by next year, coming on the heels of $7 million in cuts made in the last year, there isn't much left to cut that won't hurt. The public safety budget makes up half of the general fund. Every single attempt at cost recovery for public safety services in the form of fees has met with resistance from some corner.

The Police Department pulled in officers from patrol for the SRO program when school started this fall in the hopes of replacing them when the 911 fee revenues kicked in, Corney said. The school district, which pays for the other half of the SRO program, can't afford to pay for it in its entirety. The schools are looking at devastating mid-year cuts of their own unless the state legislature can get its act together. (And today the state's Republican leaders proposed a $10.6 billion cut in the education budget.)

THE $35,000 THE COUNCIL allocated last summer for Downtown foot patrols on Friday and Saturday nights is nearly gone and won't last until the end of the fiscal year in July. This would've been supplemented with 911 fee revenues, too. Add into this mix the fact that aggravated assaults are up 25 percent in the city, Corney said, and a rash of daytime burglaries have been going on in east Ventura.

Since public safety is such a priority for our city, the budget-cutting teams now being assembled will likely look at other areas. Perhaps we will have to quit heating the pools in the aquatics center in the winter, which will greatly affect our swim teams, or stop cutting the grass under the city's soccer fields on a regular basis. Many items will be looked at.

The Star's editorial writers called for us to think seriously about joining Oxnard and Port Hueneme in putting forth a general-purpose sales tax hike, which would require just a simple majority vote.

It's an idea worth exploring.

"SHOP LOCAL!" The cry goes out every holiday season from chambers of commerce and city officials everywhere. And the reasoning is sound. By spending your money locally you are not only investing in your city's infrastructure through your tax dollars but also keeping your friends and neighbors employed.

It seems like a no brainer to me. But I recently read a letter to the editor which quibbled with that bit of wisdom. "It's a tough economic world out there right now, and while merchants' struggles to compete are hurtful to watch, we are all guarding our money and looking for the best deals," the writer said.

Are we all really that cavalier about our neighbors' business establishments? Is the Mom and Pop becoming an endangered species in a world of big retail chains and Internet discounts? Two local retail fixtures in our town, Adventures for Kids and Bonnie's, have recently called it quits and the owner of at least one of those stores said the Internet and a large chain store contributed to her store's demise.

ON THE OTHER END of the spectrum are the shoppers who don't mind traveling to Thousand Oaks or Santa Barbara for a more upscale and decidedly wallet-thumping experience.

Not long ago, several friends and I went on a road trip to worship on the altar of the new Nordstrom in Thousand Oaks. The opening of that store has generated much excitement among the retail therapy crowd. Nordstrom's shoe department, especially, is spoken about with hushed reverence among some women I know.

It was a good female bonding experience. And while we greatly admired the $495 pair of Burberry shoes, the $1,200 fox-and-cashmere sweater and runway-styled fitting rooms, only I left with a purchase and it was under $75.

I haven't been back.

Many Nordstrom fans wondered why it didn't instead open in Ventura in the space now occupied by the new Target. The issue is demographics, said Alice Love, the mall's marketing manager. High-end stores look at the average incomes of the local residents, she explained. "We just haven't hit their mark."

Target decided to open at Pacific View after seeing the success of the Main Street store, Love said. Both stores are doing well, she added. The Pacific View Target carries more household items and is fashion-oriented. The Main Street store has a garden center.

Long vacant, the north end of the mall is being actively shopped to several retailers, Love and city officials have all confirmed, but they remain tight-lipped on just who. "I can't say until the lease is signed, sealed and delivered," she said.

And how has retail traffic been this holiday season? "Compared to last year, it's been pretty flat," Love said. "But retailers have new strategies to deal with this economy." Shopping local keeps your neighbors employed, Love said. And many franchise businesses at Pacific View are locally owned and operated, she reminded me.

MORE OFTEN THAN NOT I find myself shopping at the unique locally owned boutiques Downtown. On a recent trip my daughter and I found bargains at the new Rag Doll on Main Street, where owner Alisa Hoganson showed us the feathered headbands she makes herself and sells at a fraction of what a pricey teen-age boutique in The Oaks charges. She also designs her own clothing which she soon hopes to feature in her store.

"Locally owned establishments probably make up well over 95 percent of the businesses Downtown," Rob Edwards, director of the Downtown Ventura Organization, told me. "We have just a few chain restaurants and only one nationally known retailer."

The DVO has spent a considerable amount of time and energy sprucing up the neighborhood for the season. Property owners chipped in to buy eight new benches and new holiday banners. They've installed new refuse and recycling bins.

"The streets are repaved after nine long months of construction and the icing on the cake is our new festival lighting -- festive strands of flame-tip bulbs that require very little energy but have a vintage European feel," Edwards said. They will remain on the palm trees year-round.

Shopping Downtown is a civic duty, the always-enthusiastic Edwards maintains. "These business owners live next door to you and donate to our local non-profit charities at a much higher frequency than corporations headquartered out of state," Edwards said. "Ergo, your dollars are recycled back into the community when you purchase your holiday gifts from the locals -- and the service is usually much more attentive in my experience," he added.

Saving local jobs, bargains, one-of-a-kind gifts, and better service to boot. So, to our Scrooge-like letter-to-the-editor writer I ask: Why would you go anywhere else?

Special note: I've been asked by a friend to add that the Christmas tree lot Downtown at California and Thompson is donating part of their proceeds to the Police Activities League, a very worthy cause. Happy holidays!

Late word from the North Pole was routed to me from Council member Neal Andrews:

Everyone is invited to greet Santa Claus and have their picture taken with him at City Hall in the foyer on Monday evening, December 15 from 5:30 p.m. until 7 p.m. He will be making a donation to the city's Homeless Prevention Fund of the money he receives during this event.

Bring the kids and donate to a great cause at the same time!

The picture at right is from Santa's visit last year to City Hall when he met with Mayor Christy Weir and our city firefighters and helped out with a food drive. My apologies to our mayor for including this here, but it was just too much to resist!

IF YOU HAPPEN TO BE shopping Downtown in the next few weeks, be sure and drop by the Ventura Visitors and Convention Bureau and the nearby Museum of Ventura County's temporary headquarters to look at the beautiful hand-painted chairs from local artists that were donated to the Ventura Musical Festival's auction.

Every year Festival organizers ask local artists to hand-decorate various items for their annual fundraiser and the results are always stunning. This time simple wooden chairs were transformed into wow by our resident creative types. Many of the artists were inspired by the Russian theme set by this year's Festival.

Half the chairs will be displayed at the VVCB, 10 S. California St., and the other half at the Museum of Ventura County, 89 S. California St., through Jan. 11. The collection will then be broken up and displayed separately in other locations throughout the county.

The "Musical Chairs" will be auctioned off on Saturday, March 14 at the Festival's White Russian Nights event at the Four Points by Sheraton Ventura Harbor. Festival organizers say the funds raised by these works of art provide an integral part of the Festival's operating revenue. Tickets for the event go on sale in January. Call (805) 648-3146 for more information or visit www.venturamusicfestival.org.

The Ventura Music Festival has become a renowned signature event for our city and has certainly helped put us on the map as a cultural tourist destination.

IN OTHER ART NEWS: Community Memorial Hospital has now officially become part of our "New Art City" with an exhibition by more than 60 local artists in the public areas of the ground floor of the hospital. The exhibit runs through March 1. It is a joint partnership between Community Memorial Hospital, Buenaventura Art Association, Leadership Ventura (Ventura Chamber of Commerce) and Community Memorial Healthcare Foundation. All the work is for sale and benefits the CMH Community Foundation as well as Buenaventura Art Association and the artists.

Update: Watch Monday night's council meeting. Neal Andrews will be introducing a policy consideration to end the 911 fee. The document can be found here. The item is No. 9 on the agenda. The meeting is packed with interesting items and could run late.

THERE'S NOTHING LIKE the mention of new fees or taxes from Ventura city staff to strike fear in the hearts of our citizens. Two-plus hours of testimony and 47 comment cards later, an exhausted City Council decided to table their own comment Monday night on five different versions of a plan to regulate one- to three-unit rentals, which are now entirely exempt from taxes. The issue will come back again on Jan. 12.

According to a staff report, there are an estimated 6,000 unregulated rental units in Ventura. These rentals make up less than 40 percent of the city's rental housing, but account for nearly 90 percent of the documented substandard housing complaints. City staff would like to be more proactive with these rentals before they become severe problems and affect the safety of tenants.

Multiple plans to finance inspections of these units did not sit well with the large crowd of landlords gathered Monday night who complained that adding a business license tax based on gross receipts plus annual inspection fee of $33 would be a hardship. This was just one of five options presented; two required no additional fees or taxes. The staff report can be found here.

The city already taxes four-or-more-rental-unit businesses and inspects rentals of three or more connected units on a property. One- to two-unit rental properties, such as single family homes and duplexes, are entirely exempt from taxes and inspections.

THIS PLAN TO RECOVER COSTS for city safety services directly from those involved went over about as well as the $99 weed abatement fee plan did in April and the 911 fee did in February. City staff backed off on the weed fee and now is considering ending the 911 fee, too.

So how DO you keep citizens safe in these challenging budget times? Perhaps 20-30 city positions will be lost in the upcoming budget process and cutbacks may include up to $8 million dollars following a round of cutbacks last year totaling more than $7 million.

A few weeks ago the chambers were pretty much empty as the City Council was briefed on these cuts. I figure it was only me, the Star's Ventura reporter and a council gadfly or two who were really listening to City Manager Rick Cole's predictions of the upcoming gloom and doom.

It seems many of our citizens only get activated when they think government services may end up costing them more. News of cuts doesn't draw much of a crowd, unless of course that government service is something that directly affects someone. And then they want it taken care of pronto.

WE'VE TAKEN ONE MORE big step toward shedding our image as a "cow town," as one former local politician once dubbed Ventura. We now have our own Film Festival. And it's shaping up to be quite an event.

The event will run March 27-29, 2009 at the reconstituted Elks Lodge in Ventura, a venue which is part of Project Encore's efforts to revitalize both our Downtown and enhance our local arts scene. Two screening rooms will be set up there.

"We're trying to elevate this concept of home-grown festival, but it's not an amateur thing," explained festival organizer Lorenzo DeStefano, who is himself a filmmaker. "It's trying to blend local voices with global visions," he said.

I've posted a preview on top from one of the festival's featured filmmakers, Andrew Huang, a Los Angeles video artist. It's a nice piece of work. He's a USC film school graduate and hugely creative. "Doll Face" has received more than 2 million hits on YouTube. He'll be on hand to explain his vision along with the other featured filmmakers.

Another interesting entry is a film called "The Women's Kingdom," about a matriarchal society in China. Now this one really caught my attention!

THE FESTIVAL IS ALSO giving local filmmakers a chance to showcase their work, DeStefano said. The work of Brooks Institute students will be featured, plus "we're encouraging other people who aren't filmmakers to tell their stories on film," he said. These folks will be working with CAPS-TV's production capabilities.

The event has a pretty stellar lineup of locals behind it, too, people who are very good at getting things done in our town. I wish them much success and hope it becomes an annual event. DeStefano is also hoping to launch a Ventura Film Society from it.

As with any other event, it takes money to put it on, so the Ventura Film Festival is planning a fundraiser for this Sunday, Dec. 7 at 5 p.m. at the Candlelight Kitchen & Bar, 211 E. Santa Clara St., in Ventura. A $20 suggested donation will be taken at the door. Students with I.D. are $10. The event will feature previews of the festival lineup, guest directors and speakers, food, drink and a silent auction. Ojai/Ventura singer songwriter Emy Reynolds will entertain. For more information please visit www.venturafilmfest.com

"People are really geared up," DeStefano said, "I think Sunday's going to be something else."



I'VE BEEN AN ENTHUSIASTIC supporter of the Working Artists Ventura (WAV) Project Downtown since I went to the first fundraiser for the development several years ago. It encompasses everything Ventura needs right now: a tourist attraction, a cultural center and performing arts space, both affordable and upscale living, new retail plus aid for homeless families -- all in one green, innovative, and beautifully designed package. It's just plain cool.

So I was really happy yesterday to trail along on the project director's first official tour since the West Ventura development began construction. Wearing hardhats and dodging construction debris, we listened to Chris Velasco excitedly rattle off some of the development's amenities.

"This artists' community is one of a kind," Velasco said. "There's nothing else like it anywhere on earth as far as I know." The project is generating worldwide interest, Velasco said. (As an aside, today I talked to Jerry Breiner, the broker handling sales of the project's market-rate penthouse condominiums. He is also finding interest is high in the WAV. "Every day I get at least two to three inquiries," he said.)

Among the tidbits I picked up on the tour:
• A fiber optic system will run through the complex with cameras hooked up to various artists' studios, allowing them to be filmed while working. The video will be shown in the ground-floor cafes.
• An enormous solar-collection sculpture will be placed on the roof which will provide energy to the building as well as shade for theater patrons.
• The 99-seat performing arts theater will have retractable seats which can be adjusted for smaller audiences and folded up entirely for large art exhibits.
• The outdoor area will have a garden and Wi-Fi plus space for artists who need to do their work outside. The artist's quarters near this area will have garage-like doors which will roll up and down to allow studio access.
• If all goes well, the first residents will move in Sept. 1 with the rest in by mid October.
• There will be 15 residences for homeless families. "We're trying to do something to help end homelessness and like everything else we have a state-of-the art solution," Velasco said. The rents will be offered on a sliding scale and Project Understanding will coordinate all social services. Some space will be reserved for young people just emerging from the foster care system.
• The non-profit in charge of the project will ensure the rents remain fairly stable and affordable. The retail rent will also be below market, Velasco said. "We want to go out and hand pick who we think will be a good fit for this project."
• Construction was slowed by the tremendous amount of water that flowed beneath the project, Velasco said, which added to the project's costs. A million gallons of water a day were pumped out from beneath the project for four months. This water was treated and released.

I will continue to provide updates on the WAV as it progresses.