ONE OF MY PET PEEVES are the Monday Morning Quarterbackers. The City of Ventura rarely makes a move without extensive feedback, transparency, numerous charettes, community meetings, Eblasts, newspaper articles, blog postings and agenda distribution.

Yet inevitably I hear somebody complain here or elsewhere about the decisions made in these public forums. So you'd think when the opportunity arises, citizens would be knocking down the doors to provide input. Not really.

At every single community meeting I attend, I see the same bunch of folks. Our little band of chronic city volunteers manages to get around. But we are lonely.

Sure there are the one-issue folks who get fired up for their pet causes, but at most city forums the attendance is pretty spartan.

So here's an opportunity for everyone that shouldn't be missed: Tomorrow the City of Ventura, in conjunction with the Chamber of Commerce, will be holding an Economic Summit to help chart the future of our community. The event is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at City Hall, 501 Poli St.

The event is free, and participants are asked to pre-register online at http://www.venturachamber.org or by calling 676-7500.

The culmination of the event will be 90-day, one-year and five-year work plans for the City Council to consider. Workshops will include ways to improve the city's bottom line, fostering smart growth, greening the city's economy, enhancing the local business climate, and retaining and expanding jobs and existing businesses.

It's also a way to get all those one-issue folks talking to the other one-issue folks. Like Wal-Mart? Come talk to those who hate it. Are you pro-growth? Share your thoughts with those who aren't. Do you think arts and cultural tourism are a smart economic investment in our future? Or do you think it's all a waste of money? Come prepared to talk it out. (But if you hate the arts, you might want to avoid me!)

I know it's early on a Saturday morning and you need to mow the lawn and attend your kid's baseball game.

But, to mangle a John Lennon lyric: A city is what happens when you are busy making other plans.

Please join us tomorrow.

ONE OF MY EARLIEST POLITICAL memories as a kid growing up in Iowa was standing in a rally for Richard Nixon's 1968 presidential run. I still have the photo: my hair cut in a terrible pixie style popular at the time and wearing a loud geometric print shirt, I am holding a "Nixon's the One" sign and looking quite pleased about it.

I was raised in a Republican family with long-held Midwestern Methodist traditions of fiscal responsibility and honesty coupled with a strong social conscience. My grandfather, a respectable commercial real estate businessman who never drank and counted a U.S. Supreme Court Justice among his friends, walked in the voting booth every other November, pulled the Republican lever to vote a straight party-line ticket, and walked out.

We visited the White House when I was a teen-ager and attended a reception for the Shah of Iran, oblivious to the Watergate hearings going on at the same time. In college I worked on George H.W. Bush's first presidential campaign. It never occurred to me to be anything other than a Republican.

And then, three years later, I moved to California. Surrounded by liberal Democrats in my second newspaper job, I remember wearing an elephant-nose disguise one election night just to annoy my fellow reporters. Snorting with disgust, my desk mate stalked off and complained to our editor. But I was given a reprieve by the advertising manager, a stalwart GOP fan who used to give me free Lakers tickets.

I was a rebel! The only Republican reporter in this little California newsroom.

AND THEN THE WORLD began to change around me. President Ronald Reagan ran up huge deficits. Iran-Contra happened. Oliver North and his pals were indicted. The stock market dropped precipitously, blamed partially on rising deficits. Newt Gringrich came into power and criticized Reagan for compromising with Democrats. The poison pen of William Kristol began to influence public policy. Tom DeLay exacted political vengeance. And the 1994 election handed Republicans a heady victory of control of both houses and no reason to ever compromise again.

The tone and hypocrisy disgusted me. I found that I had very little in common with this new wing of the GOP. By the time my grandfather died in 1994, I was a Democrat.

Eight years of rule under Project for a New American Century-inspired neoconservatism left me even more certain I had made the right decision.

I THOUGHT OF THIS TODAY as I learned Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania left the Republican Party to become a Democrat. Part of a triumvirate of Northeastern Republican senators which included Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, they were the last holdouts of the "Rockefeller Republican" era.

California millionaire Republican donor Howard Ahmanson recently jumped ship, too.

While my progressive friends sometimes mock my stuffy Midwestern values, I have found that differences of opinion are far more accepted within the Democratic Party, allowing moderates like Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia to thrive, while the Specters of the world are becoming politically extinct on the other side of the aisle.

We didn't leave the GOP. The GOP left us.

WOULD YOU SUPPORT a program developed with years of solid research that puts young children and their parents on the right track for a lifetime of success? What if you could find a dedicated source of funding for that program, paid for by taxes on tobacco products, and the programs had local control and strict oversight?

That's exactly what the successful Five 5 programs have done since Prop. 10 was passed in 1998. Yet these programs seem to be a continual target of legislative raids. In 2000, voters overwhelmingly rejected a measure, funded mostly by tobacco interests, to overturn Prop. 10. Voters are being asked to circumvent it again through Prop. 1D on the May 19 special election ballot.

What Prop. 1D would do is take approximately $1.68 billion in dedicated funding away from established, locally controlled learning, health and family programs for preschoolers and their families and give the money instead to the state legislature to appropriate for non-specified state children's programs.

According to information provided by the Community Commission of Ventura County, "in Ventura County this would result in the loss of as much as $24.4 million over the next five years meant for sustaining current local First 5 Programs for our young children."

Yet, that is ISN'T made clear in the ballot proposition at all, as the video I've linked to above shows.

State Sen. Dave Cox has been trying to take down Prop. 10 for years. The Republican senator, who has seen more than his share of contributions from the tobacco industry, was one of the few GOP votes for the budget back in February, and many believe the run at Prop. 10 funding to help balance the state's budget was inserted to get the termed-out senator's vote.

Cox and others point to nearly $2 billion in county commission fund balances that is seemingly ripe for the taking. But, according to Michael M. Ruane, Executive Director of the Children and Families Commission of Orange County, "About half of the total, cited statewide fund balance is in two counties, Los Angeles and Orange counties. Of the Los Angeles total, over 60 percent is encumbered in a single multi-year program to provide preschool in the county's lowest income communities."

Ruane's letter can be downloaded here:

OC fund balance Ltr to Correa.doc

First 5 commissions are also hoping to use reserves to backfill funding as people quit smoking and tobacco tax revenues decline. Revenues are projected to decline about 3-4 percent each year.

FIRST 5 PROGRAMS are based on established research from many sources which indicate early childhood programs and intervention have long-term and profound impacts on keeping children in their important early formative years interested in learning and on a path to success.

The Ventura Neighborhood for Learning (VNfL) is a focus area for the Ventura Education Partnership and I have personally observed the good work they do. I spoke with VNfL Director Cathy Puccetti, who explained that an analysis she had read stated Prop. 1D would divert up to 65 percent of her program's operating revenues over the next five years.

Local First 5 funds are used for services such as childbirth preparation; parent and infant/toddler classes; preschool programs; summer pre-kindergarten; developmental check-ups; early dental care and education; health insurance access; parenting support and education; and resource and referral services.

"If the children don't get these services now they will need more later," Puccetti said. "We are also trying to get the parents to value education and their role in the family." VNfL's programs are neighborhood-based, and housed primarily in schools serving low-income populations. They are highly utilized by poor, hard-working families, Puccetti said. And some of these children have severe behavior issues that need to be addressed. "We provide services before children meet eligibility requirements for other funding streams."

Puccetti bristles at the often-heard charge that First 5 serves a primarily illegal immigrant population. "Some of our most needy families are not immigrant families," she said.

As tempting a target as preschool programs are to help solve the state's budget crisis, I urge the legislature and the voters to look elsewhere. Cutting off these thoughtful, long-term programs as a means of short-term financial gain is unwise.

"It's hard for people to think proactively," Puccetti said.

But we must try.

Note to my bloggers: We have recently moved the Star blogs to a new server which seems touchy about hyperlinks. If, while posting with a hyperlink, you receive the message that your comment is being held for approval, send me an email and I will fish it out of my spam filter.

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."

DEMOCRATIC ACTIVISTS from across the state will gather this weekend in Sacramento for the State Democratic Convention in what will likely be a continued celebration of the Obama win tinged with disagreement within the ranks over the series of ballot measures up on May 19.

It's a place for candidates on the 2010 ballot to network, too. In advance of the convention, Assembly member Pedro Nava's staff sent me a video promoting his 2010 run for Attorney General. While current Attorney General Jerry Brown, 71, has not officially jumped ship and declared he's running for governor instead, he's widely expected to. Brown's Web site is sufficiently vague as well, with "Jerry Brown 2010" as the main thrust without specifying what he really wants to do with himself next year.

Nava, a former deputy district attorney, civil litigator and one of the best public speakers around, represents Assembly District 35, which covers Ventura. He joins a crowded field of Democratic contenders for attorney general including San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo and fellow Assembly members Ted Lieu and Alberto Torrico.

State Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, once a state senator for Ventura, has also considered a run for governor, but will need to keep up with the fundraising titans who have already jumped in, including former eBay executive Meg Whitman, who just threw $2.8 million of her own money into her campaign last week.

It's never a recession for politicians.

I NEVER THOUGHT I'D SEE THE DAY when my friends over at the progressive political blog Calitics would agree 100 percent with the state's GOP leaders on anything. But they've both denounced all six of the May ballot measures.

In more strange bedfellows news, Democratic Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg have joined forces with Republican state Sen. Dave Cogdill and Assembly member Mike Villines in supporting the propositions. The California Teachers Association also supports them and Ventura County's school superintendents have taken a stand of support for just 1A, 1B, and 1C.

To muddle things further, the Service Employees International Union's California State Council  has joined the California Faculty Association and the California Federation of Teachers to oppose Prop.1A.

So what's a good Democrat to do? Celebrate the Obama win!

TOMORROW IS APRIL 15, and as many of you are hurrying off to the post office to mail your tax returns, Dr. Robert Dodge will be doing what he does every Tax Day: speaking out about the costs of nuclear war. And they are extraordinary, both in terms of the threat to the planet and the cost to taxpayers.

Last year, according to Dodge, the U.S. spent in excess of $52 billion on nuclear weapons programs. Ventura County's share is estimated to be $160 million alone.

The president of Ventura County Physicians for Social Responsibility, co-chairman of the Citizens for Peaceful Resolutions and board member of Beyond War is a local hero for his many efforts on behalf of bringing peace to the planet. I was fortunate to get him to slow down for a few minutes to answer a few questions about his April 15 event and his volunteer work:

What led to your passion for speaking out for peace?

As a "child" of the fearful "duck and cover" '60s, Vietnam and the original environmental and Earth Day movements, I was raised with a sense of speaking out for peace, perceived injustice and the planet. My medical education instilled the horrendous dangers of nuclear weapons and lack of any useful response to their use. It also afforded me the possibility to speak out as a physician to these dangers and health effects. My passion peaked with the birth of my first son, David, and the sense of responsibility as a parent and leader to him and future generations.

What was the last eight years like for you under President George Bush?

The past eight years are what reinvigorated our movement after the Nuclear Posture Review of 3/02 advocating: New usable nuclear weapons, Nuclear First Strike scenarios, and the Axis of Evil. This was a serious and dramatic reversal of U.S. nuclear policy. Needless to say these eight years have been challenging as one nuclear weapon system morphed into another each budget year. It required ongoing vigilance to work out the science of these complex and catastrophic systems.

President Barack Obama seems to be making progress quickly in talking about nuclear disarmament. What are your thoughts here?

This is an incredible point in the nuclear age. This is the first time a U.S. president is articulating a vision of a world without nuclear weapons. This effort has been gaining tremendous international and bipartisan support in the past 2-3 years. See the www.Globalzero.org campaign website. I have termed this "An age of possibility."

Are you feeling more hopeful these days? How much do North Korea and Iran's efforts trouble you?

I have hope that we can start the long process toward eliminating nuclear weapons. We must lead by example. It is very difficult for us to dictate international policy or expectation if we don't. We have between 5,000 and 7,500 nuclear warheads with Russia having a similar arsenal. North Korea and Iran may obtain the capability to develop less than 10 weapons at some future time. If we lead by example and participate in a collaborative international process they will be more inclined to join.

Why the event on April 15? Is this a part of a larger effort?

I have coordinated the "Nuclear Weapons Community Costs Project" in some form or another for over 20 years. Physicians for Social Responsibility in Washington and Beyond War have had me do calculations for my communities around the country for years with similar presentations, OpEds, and events. With this year's economic crisis and curtailment of many critical human services, budgets are indeed moral documents and these expenditures are even more problematic.

Citizens for Peaceful Resolutions will hold a press conference at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 15 in the Ventura County Government Center Hall of Administration on nuclear weapons programs costs to Ventura County and the vision of how these dollars can be put to better use in our community. Speakers include county Supervisor Steve Bennett; Ventura Unified School District trustee Debbie Golden; CAUSE Executive Director Marcos Vargas; Project Understanding Executive Director Rick Pearson; and CPR Co-Chairman Robert Dodge, M.D. Everyone is welcome to attend. For more information, visit CPR's website here or call (805) 850-5849. For Dodge's recent Star OpEd, go here.

Note: another event will be going on at the same time outside which is NOT my cup of TEA. Please steer clear and go inside for the CPR event.

AT $26.5 BILLION, California sits at the top of the heap among the first wave of state allocations for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds.

In a state wrestling with a ballooning budget deficit dependent on a series of unpopular ballot propositions in the May 19 special election, the federal stimulus money is being eyed with great interest.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wasted no time in being one of the first governors to ask for education dollars. Early last week he applied for nearly $1.2 billion in funding for schools with large numbers of poor and disabled students as well as for improvements in lunch program facilities. On Thursday, he applied for $5 billion more which would come with more flexibility. All told, the state is expected to receive $85 billion in federal money over the next two years.

"We've taken steps to protect our schools from the full brunt of our economic situation, and this funding will restore many of the difficult cuts that had to be made to education," the governor said. "I'm committed to passing it directly onto schools as quickly as possible."

This is in contrast to Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, who recently irritated school officials in her state by declining to accept some stimulus money because she was afraid it would permanently swell the budget.

Locally, Ventura Unified School District Superintendent Trudy Arriaga said she remains hopeful the federal money could help offset a few of the $10 million in cuts the district will need to make in the next two years. "We did not balance our budget on it, but we are absolutely counting on it," she said.

OUR CITIES ARE jockeying for a piece of the pie as well. Last month Ventura Mayor Christy Weir and Council member Neal Andrews joined hundreds of city leaders nationwide in lobbying for funds for key projects during the National League of Cities Congressional City Conference. Our city has secured $4.6 million in ARRA funding and is applying for $30 million more in competitive grants.

"We met with Senators Boxer and Feinstein and Congresswoman Capps and Congressman Gallegly," Weir said. "They or their staff were all willing to listen and take the materials we brought. No promises were made, but they responded positively to the importance of our Surfers' Point renovation project, which was the priority for funding that we brought to their attention."

Money may also be available for the Museum of Ventura County, Weir said. The city also plans on submitting the $10 million U.S. 101/Victoria Ave. northbound offramp project for funding when application details are provided.

Most of the ARRA funding available to cities, Weir said, will be in the areas of public safety (COPS grants could prevent cuts to our police force), transportation (street paving and traffic signals) and energy (weatherization programs, renewable energy systems, etc). Money is also available to buy foreclosed properties to use for affordable housing. "The city will use our money to buy houses and turn them over to the Housing Authority for low-income rentals," Weir said.

Ventura also hopes to receive federal money available through the National Endowment for the Arts to maintain a key position in the Cultural Affairs staff and shore up our arts grants program, which will be cut nearly in half. A grant is also being sought for homeless prevention issues.

Other California cities have also been intent on using these funds in creative ways. Six cities up north are pooling their funds. Still others, like Westlake Village and Agoura Hills, sought to swap funds with other cities until they were told the deals were improper.

This one-time money will not keep any local budgets from bleeding red ink. But a band-aid feels sure good right now.

THAT'S THE STATED MOTTO of the National Women's Political Caucus, a group I've taken a leadership role in this year. This shouldn't surprise anyone as I haven't been shy about my support for certain female candidates here.

But we haven't done particularly well in California in our stated goal our goal of 50-50 by 2020: 50 percent women and 50 percent men in government by the year 2020, the 100th anniversary of the right to vote for women. In fact, we actually lost ground in the state legislature last year.

While we have two female U.S. senators, other NWPC-supported candidates only hold 12 out of 40 seats in the State Senate, 16 out of 80 in the State Assembly and 1 out of 6 in statewide office (Secretary of State Debra Bowen). Our candidates hold 18 out of 50 state seats in the House of Representatives. We hope to do better in the next few years.

What I love the most about NWPC is that it is multi-partisan. It is the only group of its kind devoted to recruiting, training and promoting female candidates who are supportive of women's issues, regardless of party.

We have a couple of networking events coming up which I'd like to mention here. If you're interested in coming, send an email to this address.

The first is a meet-and-greet with 35th District Assembly Candidate Susan Jordan on Thursday, April 16 at 7 p.m. at Marie Callender's, 1295 S. Victoria Ave. in Ventura. Jordan is an accomplished businesswoman turned environmental activist from Santa Barbara who, as a senior partner in a top New York-based market research and consulting firm had clients ranging from Russian President Boris Yeltsin to Westinghouse and HBO to California Gov. Pete Wilson and New York Senator Patrick Moynihan. She is running in what will likely be a hotly contested Democratic primary race in June of 2010 against Santa Barbara City Councilman Das Williams, who is known in Ventura for his anti-Wal-Mart activities.

We also have our most popular event coming up May 9 in Ojai, "Politics, Tea and Thee." It's an elegant afternoon of tea, good food and conversation. Confirmed for the event are city council members Roseann Mikos of Moorpark, Maricela Morales of Port Hueneme, Irene Pinkard of Oxnard, and Ventura Mayor Christy Weir who will participate in a panel discussion on the challenges facing our municipalities today.

Many more events will be scheduled throughout the year. Our local caucus is a wonderful group of smart, talented women -- and a few men, too! Check back here for more events.

I'll ADMIT IT. I haven't balanced my checkbook in years. Ever since online banking came along, I'm perfectly content to log on and let the website tell me how much money I have. So when the non-partisan group Next 10 recently contacted me to share news about their online California Budget Challenge, I naturally decided to check it out.

The challenge takes users step by step through the budget process in a manner similar to what our representatives up in Sacramento wrestle with, minus the political drama. In an easy-to-navigate interface, it allows users to assemble a budget of their own choosing based on a series of spending and revenue options. The challenge projects the budget out for five years.

It even comes with a handy little Prop. 98 alert button which glows red when it needs to be fed more tax dollars.

The program begins with the series of ballot measures up in May which were used to precariously assemble the $41-billion budget passed in February, which is already out of whack. There are arguments for and against each measure.

You progress through state spending programs with explanations for and against cuts or increases. Of course I wanted to increase education funding, but I left it at status quo.

Revenue-generating ideas which are not part of the current budget agreement, such as a carbon tax and a tax on services, are also thrown into the mix. While a carbon tax would seem to have little political viability, the bipartisan commission recently assigned by our governor to take a look at the state's outdated tax laws is currently exploring this. The group is ultimately charged with bringing some stability to our volatile revenue system, which is behind this mess we find ourselves in when the economy is in bad shape.

HOW DID I DO? Well, I couldn't balance the state's budget any better than my checkbook.

Without cutting education, I could not get within $2.4 billion of being in the black, so I just gave up. I justified my stubborn ineptitude by reasoning that other revenue measures such as those advocated by the Legislative Analyst's Office weren't offered. And restructuring of benefits other than health care for state employees, as some have proposed, wasn't on the table, either. Nor was it possible for the program to offer a write-in option for cuts.

Still, it's a useful tool and more than 80,000 have already tried it out. Anything that educates our voters and shows them how their ballot decisions influence our current budget dilemma is worthwhile. I recommend that everyone give it a try.

Next 10, which developed the Budget Challenge, was founded by F. Noel Perry, an investor behind such socially responsible companies as the educational company Leap Frog and the organic baby food company Earth's Best. The group's stated mission is to focus on "innovation and the intersection between the economy, the environment, and quality of life issues for all Californians." They've done some interesting research, too.

My only real complaint was the program mistakenly told me that according to my zip code my state senator was Roy Ashburn (R-Bakersfield), one of the few Republicans who actually voted for the current budget. It's a nice thought, but if I get to pick, I'd rather have Fran Pavley.

To take the challenge, go here.