ONE THING THAT YOU CAN ALWAYS count on Mayor Christy Weir for is an eye for the aesthetics of her city. Since initiating her "Beautify Ventura" award several months ago, she has honored a citizen or business every month who has contributed to the attractiveness of our surroundings.

So that graffiti-covered atrocity of a train bridge over the 101 Downtown has been on our mayor's hit list for a long time. It's one of my pet peeves, too, as I reported in an earlier entry.

"It's such an eyesore," Weir said. "And because of its prominent location, people
traveling on the freeway identify it with Ventura, which isn't good for business."

So recently Weir went to Assembly member Pedro Nava and asked for assistance. Nava in turn wrote a letter to CalTrans. And slowly the wheels of change are grinding along.

There's been lots of finger pointing going on between the City, CalTrans and Union Pacific over who is actually responsible for this unwelcome mat to our city. "Both CalTrans and Union Pacific could not agree up until almost a month ago," explained Jerry Breiner of the Downtown Ventura Organization. "Finally CalTrans took the ownership of the maintenance."

The goal is to not just paint the bridge, but prevent future graffiti with increased security, fencing, and perhaps lights and cameras, Weir said.

The Downtown Ventura Organization has even grander ideas, Breiner said. "There has been much talk from the Downtown community to do something special there, to make it a true gateway with something other than silver paint. Public Art could get involved: pretty much anyone other than CalTrans painting it would be great."

In the mean time, if you know of an uglier bridge anywhere in the world, please send me a photo. I'll post it.

BY NOW, DOWNTOWN VENTURA Organization Director Rob Edwards is probably sick of going to City Council meetings with yet another request.

The energetic and savvy DVO head has asked for increased police presence, better lighting and sanitation in an effort to amp up business and tourism Downtown and improve property values. City budget cuts have foiled some of his efforts. So Edwards and other Downtown stakeholders have a better plan - a Property-Based Business Improvement District (PBID).

It's a pretty simple idea: property owners form a group to determine the area's needs over and above what the city can provide and work from there to determine the costs of extra services, which could include outside marketing efforts. Extra assessments are then attached to property tax bills and the money is collected by the county and returned to the non-profit group formed by the stakeholders to oversee expenditures. Unlike a tax imposed by a government, assessment rates are determined by those paying and thus they also decide how to invest those pooled resources.

The DVO took the first steps to get the ball rolling with a series of three town hall meetings this week to determine interest in the idea.

The plan has the support of Downtown titan Dan Frederickson, former president of Kinko's and builder of the area's newest class A office building. He has been very vocal about Downtown's safety at night and the need for a greater police presence. "Having the police visible around the area has a phenomenal impact," he said.

ALSO EXPRESSING SUPPORT are business owner and community activist Doug Halter and Chamber of Commerce CEO Zoe Taylor, who said she has worked in other cities with PBIDs in place. "By far they have become better communities."

The boundaries of the improvement area paying the assessments will be determined by a steering committee made up of property owners and any other interested individuals. That steering committee is in formation and first met on Wednesday. By state law, the assessments can be based on one or all of these three attributes: a commercial building's gross square footage, street frontage, or a vacant parcel's square footage.

Any decision to proceed would go through a petition and then a ballot process voted on by property owners with 51 percent of the vote needed to pass. Greater weight would be given to those who own more property. It would not need citywide approval, but would require ratification by the City Council and public hearings. The PBID would sunset in five years when it would be subject to another vote.

Extra services could be performed by the city or through private means.

"We are exploring this idea," Edwards said. "We'd be forming this district to enable ourselves to invest more and thus do for ourselves rather than returning to the city with hat in hand every month. Business Downtown will improve because of it. It's empowering and a very viable funding mechanism that works in over 1,000 other towns in America. It's like a homeowners association, but for commercial properties in a defined neighborhood district: Downtown Ventura."

A FULL STAFF OF SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS are about to be restored to our high school campuses after being missing in action for several years.

On Monday night, the City Council will vote on authorizing an agreement between the Ventura Unified School District and the Ventura Police Department to reinstate this valuable program citywide and I couldn't be more thrilled that this is finally happening. I expect it to pass overwhelmingly.

The city and schools partnered to bring back this much-needed program which was whittled away year after year and finally pulled due to a loss of grant funding and the city's need to put the officers back out on patrol to reduce 911-call response times. One officer was put back at Buena High School in January but more were needed.

The SRO program is a true example of "you can pay a little now or a lot later." The right intervention can make all the difference in a young life. These three officers will also respond to calls around the areas of the schools, provide law-related information to students and parents, maintain a safe environment and perform a myriad of other duties.

The SROs will also work with the School Attendance and Review Board to visit the homes of children who are truant from school. There is often a reason why these kids aren't in school and it isn't pretty.

I KNOW WE'D ALL LIKE TO THINK that there aren't drugs, alcohol and gangs at our campuses, but sadly, it's all there. In the past, the SROs have even been able to solve outside crimes by working through tips gleaned from students.

I've been helping to highlight the value of this program for years. One year through Save Our Schools we privately raised enough money to buy back the middle school SRO for one year. I volunteered my time to make phone calls for the city's Public Safety Initiative which would have restored the program. It failed after receiving 61 percent of the vote. I have addressed the City Council numerous times on this issue and sat on a task force with the Chamber of Commerce to help study ways to privately raise funds. None of this solved the problem.

Where is the city's half of the funding coming from now? It will come from the new 911 fee, which will offset the city's costs for operating the 911 call center and free up dollars for the SROs and a roving team of officers for trouble spots in the city. In all the hubbub over the fee, what it will actually pay for has been lost in the squabbling.

It hasn't been easy for the school district to come up with its half of the funding, either, in these troubled budget times. But they considered it a priority and made it happen.

If the program helps put just one young person back on track, the long battle will have been worth it.

IN "BLEAK HOUSE," Charles Dickens wrote about an interminable legal case, Jarndyce and Jarndyce, which dragged on for many generations. In the end, the heirs to a once enormous fortune were left with little more than legal bills.

I thought about Dickens a bit Monday night as I watched City Attorney Ariel Calonne's presentation on affordable housing litigation involving Tolman and Wiker Insurance. He didn't hold back his feelings about wasted tax dollars as he relayed the details of lawsuits which have consumed the city's legal staff and outside counsel for many years.

Calonne blames the insurance company's out-of-town lawyers for stringing out a case which has cost the taxpayers nearly half a million dollars.

"I don't know where all the blame should be assessed but I do know the lawyers representing Tolman and Wiker deserve a big share of it. It's one of these multinational law firms that I think is only accountable to the profits they can make," Calonne said.

THE SUIT IS ONE of a series of lawsuits stemming from the claims of owners of affordable housing units on the city's west side that they were not told when purchasing the units that they were part of the city's affordable housing stock. The city's Housing Authority sent its claim over to Tolman and Wiker asking that the company tender its defense to an outside insurance carrier. But the claim was not tendered and a suit was filed by the city.

"We believe we are owed a substantial amount of money from the insurance companies which protect Tolman and Wiker from their professional negligence," Calonne said.

I think Calonne sometimes gets a bum rap. He started his time as our city attorney with a bit of bad press surrounding a dispute he had with a neighbor in his former city and received more negative publicity when it was revealed how much he is paid -- a lot.

But as a member of the media, I have to admire his honesty. He's highly quotable and always calls it as he sees it.

The case is scheduled to go to mediation on Aug. 19, but Calonne didn't seem at all hopeful that it would be resolved soon.

"We have encountered a very hostile response from the insurance defense lawyers representing Tolman and Wiker," Calonne said. "A response that is almost cavalier about any desire to meaningfully resolve the case."

COUNCIL MEMBER Neal Andrews, always watchful of how public money is spent, said the dragging out of the case "frosts" him. "This is all in the hopes ... that we'll drop the case and settle for less than we should."

The Council has been hearing about this in closed session for many years, but it was time to bring it out into the open, Council member Ed Summers said.

"When it has this level of financial consequences, I think we need to take it beyond the Council. The public has made this clear in the past," he pointed out.

Speaking on behalf of the taxpayers, I hope all the parties resolve this sooner, rather than later.

ONE OF THE "FUN" things about moderating a blog is that every now and then somebody drops an anonymous bomb in your lap. I can often diffuse the bomb myself, but I received a post the other day that I didn't know how to answer and it intrigued me:

Has anyone ever questioned why the City of Ventura and King Cole have
been quietly assembling a database that contains all of the following?
If you are a registered voter- they have the VOTER REGISTRATION
DATABASE. If you have paid water/sewer/trash in the City of Ventura - they have
the Water/Sewer/Trash customer database. If you own property - they have the County Parcel database.

If you have OPTED OUT OF THE 911 FEE - you are recorded in the database
All of these databases and others have been combined into one big big brother database called my ventura access and anytime you call the City for ANYTHING - your account is pulled up and all of the above and more can be looked at BEFORE they decide to speak to you DOES ANYONE EVER ASK WHY????? -- posted by unfettered in ventura

WELL, YES, UNFETTERED, I ask why. The "King" himself responded as did our current and former mayor. I will try to distill their answers here.

According to the city's web site, "My Ventura Access is the most direct way to send your questions, complaints and compliments to the right city staff person." It's a way for citizens to get their questions answered online. Each user is given a way to log in and track answers. If they call and leave their name with their concern or write a letter, the inquiry is also posted there.

"It was set up to better track complaints/concerns made to city officials as to how they were being handled and responded to, hopefully in a timely manner," Council member Carl Morehouse explained. "Staff also now knows who calls to register concerns and how often."

City Manager Rick Cole agreed. "It's a tool to make sure that when someone calls, writes or emails that they don't fall between the cracks." It avoids the perennial " 'I talked to someone at City Hall and they told me ...' with absolutely no way to verify this or 'I called so and so and he NEVER called me back' or 'I've written 20 letters and emails and never gotten an answer" etc.,' " Cole said.

But what's in that database anyway? Is it a Machiavellian plot to get your personal data or is it a way to keep you informed? The trash data isn't there. Only E.J. Harrison & Sons has that. Neither is parcel data. The utility billing is in a separate place. "That old system remains incompatible," Cole explained. "But we are combining our arts mailing list with My Ventura Access and eventually hope to no longer have overlapping, duplicative, stand-alone lists and databases in different software programs that cause us to miss people, mail duplicates, mail to people who are dead or who've moved etc."

He didn't answer whether or not the city has voter data. But that information is readily available through the county, Mayor Christy Weir said.

OUR PERSONAL INFORMATION is spead far and wide these days. Do you have a Vons card? They know what brand of toilet paper you buy. If you're reading this, you surf the Internet. Every Web site you visit knows what service provider and what sort of computer you use and the region in which you live. If you Web surf from work, they may know who employs you.

Google knows more about you than your mom does.

"This may all sound creepy," Cole said, "but every major private business keeps careful track of their customer information in a consolidated database. Each has a privacy policy and all have occasionally had slip ups, but by and large they do a reasonable job of safeguarding the data."

City Hall's new system seems to be an improvement on the old way of doing things, which Cole said was a combination of Post-It notes, email, letters and phone messages.

Note: If you call and complain about the new database and leave your name, that will probably be there, too.

MUCH HAS BEEN MADE recently of the 911 fee and the efforts to generate more revenue for our police department. While our city goes through a series of budget cuts, the police budget is taking a big hit. As the biggest recipient of dollars from our general fund, ($31 million) that's to be expected.

Opinions vary on how best to boost public safety funding, but I heard something the other day that I really feel like I need to share: in order to save a valuable Public Service Officer (PSO) position, the Police Officers Management Association recently voted to forgo raises for three months.

Now in the final year of a three-year contract, the association had deferred scheduled raises until October of this year, said Lt. Quinn Fenwick, association president. These raises were meant to put police management salaries to just the median of those in comparable agencies. The savings will bring in $70,000, enough to fund the front desk position that was scheduled to be cut.

Now I suppose somebody out there will complain and ask, "Why they are taking raises at all?" And that's a fair question. But the City Council voted to remain committed to competitive compensation for city employees. City Manager Rick Cole explained at a recent council meeting: "Competitive is average and we've consistently been behind average across the board."

The front desk position was crucial to providing good service to city residents, Fenwick said. There are currently two PSOs on duty each day; one was scheduled to be cut. "Sometimes I walk out there and there's a lobby full of people," he said. "If that position will help maintain a level of service for the public, we're glad we did it."

EVEN SO, other positions will go, Assistant Chief Skip Young said. For example, a secretarial position will go by the wayside, the PSO position for the Police Storefronts has been cut as well as the PSO who worked with the Neighborhood Watch program. Much of this dealt with crime prevention programs. "We held 22 meetings last year for the public," Lt. Ray Vance said. "A lot of that is going to stop now."

Also among the missing will be five cadet positions, one crime analyst and a CSI technician position, although some of these are just deferred hiring.

Fortunately, the City Council voted to restore the Downtown foot patrol on weekend nights. That $36,000 item will come from other funding sources, Young said.

The council will go over the final budget revisions Monday night.

MY FRIEND KATHY is never one to miss a good shopping experience. If I want to go to the mall, she's always up for it. But I was surprised to learn awhile back that she avoided shopping Downtown.

Why? I asked her. "The people down there creep me out," she told me, referring to the panhandlers and chronically homeless who can often be unnerving to visitors.

So I kidnapped her one day, took her out to lunch and shopping and completely changed her point of view about Downtown. She had a great time and has returned several times since without me.

But one bad experience can have a lingering effect. As I listened to Downtown business owner Jim Rice plead last night to the City Council for the weekend police foot patrols to be fully restored, I realized just how desperate the merchants down there are feeling these days since the foot patrols were lost to recent budget cuts.

"Feeling safe and feeling comfortable where you are is what makes you go back to a place," Rice said. "The bad guys are winning here. When I bring investors to this town ... it is the single biggest issue. When I bring my friends from Westlake and Agoura, they say 'How do you live here? There's a bunch of crazy people here.' "

Apparently his speech made an impact on the council, too. They voted to restore the foot patrols through the summer months and revisit the issue this fall when it is known how much money has been collected from the 911 fee. Proceeds from the fee will go to pay for the costs of the city's 911 call center and free up money for additional police services. At this time, the plan is to hire an additional two-person team for problem areas such as Downtown.

THE COUNCIL ALSO VOTED to continue the funding for the city's efforts in the 10-year plan to end homelessness, which has brought a community outreach supervisor who works with the homeless population to get them off the streets.

In terms of the numbers of homeless, Ventura ranks second only to Oxnard in the county. And while all of these folks are certainly not causing trouble Downtown, the few who do -- along with those who have homes but are just unruly -- have the potential to cast a pall on our blossoming tourist trade, one of the few bright spots in the local economy.

These small investments in extra policing and social services will pay dividends for us all.

I am sorry to note, however, that the Ventura Visitors and Convention Bureau, which helps bring tourist dollars here in the first place, did not fare as well. The council approved a $60,000 cut to next year's anticipated funding on a 4-3 vote.

AS EXPECTED, the City Council last night pulled some items off the list of cuts for further study and I certainly agree with their choices. Some items of note:

• The Ventura Visitors and Convention Bureau was reassigned to a different budget category, which will mean a lesser blow to this entity charged with generating tourist dollars for Ventura. More study will be forthcoming on how to salvage the budget for advertising dollars and personnel to sell Ventura as a tourist destination. The Transient Occupancy Taxes collected on hotel stays in Ventura are the only revenue source which is increasing in this tough economy, as aptly illustrated by Victor Dollar of the Four Points by Sheraton: "We bought the property two years ago and our revenues have increased approximately $1 million."

• Rob Edwards of the Downtown Ventura Organization offered to have his group do cleanup work, and thus lighten the load on Public Works, in order to buy some hours for increased police foot patrols Downtown on Friday and Saturday nights. Mayor Christy Weir suggested that the new City Corps could be called on to help with Downtown duties, too. They may also be asked to help with Pierpont sand cleanup. I can't say enough wonderful things about this new group and its organizers!

• Also pulled for further consideration were police training programs and the closing of the Police Storefronts.

• The Cultural Arts grants to local non-profit groups, whose activities generate tax dollars for the area, will also be studied. These grants are slated for a $40,000 hit which will affect some of our arts groups who depend on this funding for part of their operating budgets.

The council voted to make the rest of the cuts detailed here and will finalize the budget at an upcoming meeting.

IN THE CONTINUING SAGA of city fees, the council voted to rescind the hotly debated weed-abatement inspection fee and will look at this fee and others in an upcoming meeting. The question is, City Manager Rick Cole asked, "Who should pay for the extraordinary costs of preparing for wildland fires?"

Cole apologized to both the council and the community for not bringing the new $99 fee forward for discussion back in June when it was brought to the council in a very lengthy report. "This was an error and we regret it."

Councilmember Neal Andrews conceded he did not understand how the fee would be implemented when it was brought to him. "I thought this was an enforcement fee and not an inspection fee."

IN MORE FEE NEWS: As of today -- the deadline to opt out of the monthly $1.49-per-line 911 fee -- only an estimated 10-15 percent of the eligible phone lines in the city have been registered to do so. These lines will participate in the per-use fee of $17.88 which will be waived for first-time calls and Good Samaritan calls.

The money raised from this fee will go to offset the costs of the city's 911 call center and free up money for additional officers which could be utilized in heavy-call areas like our Downtown. Other officers will be hired to reinstate the badly-missed School Resource Officer program. The Ventura Unified School District will pay half of the costs to reinstate the program.

The series of cuts the council made last night put an approximately $800,000 dent in the Police Department budget, with about $100,000 deferred for a decision at a future meeting. According to Assistant Police Chief Ken Corney, one casualty will be the Neighborhood Watch program, which may have to go entirely online with nobody to supervise it since the Police Service Officer position has been cut.

I'll detail the cuts to the Police Department budget in an upcoming blog entry.

IN A DISCUSSION that will surely span many meetings, the Ventura City Council on Monday will start the process of cutting $4.3 million from the general fund operating budget for the next fiscal year.

The series of cuts were developed with the guidance of 12 committees comprised of more than 70 staff members and - a first this year - members of the Ventura Chamber of Commerce Budget Task Force. When looking at what to trim, the committees used the Budgeting for Outcomes process which prioritizes city services and analyzes what city tasks are best helping to meet the stated goals of the city's general plan. $3 million in mid-year cuts have already been made.

Because of the recent economic downturn across the state, all our cities are looking at declining revenues and accompanying budget cuts. The collection of sales taxes in Ventura is down nearly 20 percent and property tax collections are expected to decline.

The council is free to adjust and decline the proposed cuts, a process which is sure to draw lively discussion and multiple public speakers. "We can't absorb $4 million in cuts by buying cheaper pencils," Mayor Christy Weir said.

DON'T EXPECT A RUBBER STAMP from the council. "It will be important to protect items that strengthen or support the generation of revenues," Councilmember Ed Summers explained. "While there is a current downturn, several indicators show a stabilization at the end of this year or early next year. In looking at the impacts to Community Development and Planning, it would be negligent not to be in a position to attract capital and projects as soon as there are positive signs in the economy."

A full and rather lengthy list of the proposed reductions is available from the city's Web site. I'll highlight a few here:

• Reducing sidewalk, curb and gutter repair by 60 percent.
• Reducing the Pierpont lanes sand clearing schedule by 50 percent.
• Closing some sports-specific venues in the city's Recreation Classes and Camps.
• Reductions of 50 percent to renovations at selected parks.
• Reducing mowing, trimming, maintenance and cleaning in public parks and public areas.
• Eliminating the Pesticide-Free pilot program at the Community Park.
• Reducing the Cultural Arts Grants program to local arts groups by $40,000.
• Reducing the Ventura Visitors and Convention Bureau budget by $83,000.
• Eliminating the Sister Cities Program.
• Eliminating a support position for street fairs and festivals.
• Reducing the Community Partnerships Granting program to non-profit agencies by $44,000.
• Eliminating a grant analyst, secretary, two Police Service Officer positions, five cadets and other extra help in the police department.
• Reducing foot patrols in Downtown Ventura on Friday and Saturday nights.
• Reductions in standby and overtime pay for the police department.
• Eliminating funding for the Neighborhood Traffic Management Program.
• Eliminating the PSO position to staff police storefronts. The Montalvo site would be closed. The site at the Pacific View Mall would remain as a security area and the Westside center will be available for police activities but would not be staffed by police personnel.
• Altering two consultant contracts (Victoria Avenue Specific Plan and Saticoy and Wells Community Plan) which would place more work on staff but save approximately $215,000.
• Eliminating water testing in the Ventura Keys area.
• Reducing City Council meetings to three a month
• Mandatory 9/80 workweek for city staff (with the exception of police and fire) and shutdown of non-essential areas of City Hall during the winter holiday period.

Several capital improvement projects have already been deferred and the city is under a hiring freeze. Some programs, such as the family activities at the Westpark Community Center, will be underwritten through community partnerships. "We had a choice of reducing programs there or increasing revenue, and while it is going to be a major stretch, Westpark is so critical in the Westside, that we made the commitment to find an additional $29,000 a year," said Community Services Director Elena Brokaw.

With a list of cuts this long, it was wise to move City Council meeting start times to 6 p.m. That change begins Monday.

City staff are working on a postcard which will ask residents to list their budget priorities for the city. What do you think should be cut?

Note: The preview function in the comments is still not working. Please just hit "post."

THOSE UNEXPECTED bills for $99 probably came as a shock to the 1,252 Ventura homeowners who were recently charged by the city for weed-abatement inspections on their hillside properties.

They've been given a reprieve for now. After listening to feedback from residents, Mayor Christy Weir has asked the council to waive the fee for this year until it can be given a proper hearing.

"The proposal for a weed abatement fee wasn't given the opportunity for public input. We need to bring it back to the council and the public, explain it, debate the issue and take a look at the trade-offs," she said. "The choice is, should every taxpayer in Ventura pay the city's costs for a state-mandated weed abatement program through their sales and property taxes or should this cost fall on just the immediately affected property owners?"

The weed-abatement inspection program, which costs more than $120,000 a year to administer, has been a success, Ventura Fire Chief Mike Lavery said. "We credit vegetation management on these properties with aiding our efforts to successfully fight the School Canyon fire in 2005. The 100-foot clearance created a safe, defensible space for firefighters and no homes were lost."

RECOVERING COSTS FOR FIGHTING wildfires statewide has been a goal for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, too. He wants to levy an annual fee of 1.25 percent on all property insurance premiums in the state to generate $125 million a year for fire protection equipment and services. State Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill proposed another plan. She believes the costs should be levied only on the residences located in the 31 million acres where the state has the main firefighting responsibility.

Living near the ocean has its own set of problems. Pierpont beachfront residents are currently fighting the city in court over who bears the responsibility for clearing the large accumulation of sand from in front of their homes and implementing a state-authored sand management plan. They believe the city -- and thus other taxpayers -- should pay. The cash-strapped city has asked the homeowners to help bear the burden.

And so it goes.

In a state where homes are often built on the fringes of wilderness areas and near the unpredictable forces of ocean waves and sand, who should bear the expense of preventative measures designed to help protect these residents from the elements?

What do you think?

Note: The "preview" function in the comments system is not working. Please just hit the "post" button.