Item #6. PUBLIC COMMENTS
Clay Westling, 338 Condor Court I'm the elected City Clerk and ran on the platform of returning this position to that which is defined by the California Government Code for a General Law City.
I'm here to speak as a private citizen and comment on the statements made at the last City Council meeting by Roger Keller. We should sympathize with him for his dire financial straights.
However he should not come before the City Council and blame them for the things that happened before their election. It sounded like political disinformation. He said he was respondin'g to a letter in the Gazette that Measure I had no effect on North Fillmore. Such a letter, in the Gazette, making that statement does not exist. There was a letter in the Gazette from Councilmember Washburn that corrects an editorial by Martin Farrell regarding CFD #1.
Of course Measure I affects North Fillmore, it's about North Fillmore and the citizens effort to escape the dense development that was planned there. Mr. Keller spent a lot of time talking about problems his business has had since the federal government dropped quotas for imported goods from China. No one in Fillmore can be blamed for that disaster. No one on this City Council had anything to do with that. Everyone, then and now, would like for his business to flourish in Fillmore. He apparently hitched his star to the North Fillmore Specific Plan, perhaps thinking he could sell his property to a developer. However, the public and a very active citizens group vigorously opposed the North Fillmore Specific Plan, again because of the dense housing that the plan would put there. Mr. Keller complains about the unfair situation with the Steiger Property not being in the CFD. The boundaries of the CFD in question were created in the early 1990's, far earlier that this Council was seated. Another misstatement by Mr. Keller is that Measure I changed the zoning. It did not. Measure I reduced the density of homes from 700 to 350. Maybe he considers that a zoning change. Mr. Keller is under the impression that the members of the current City Council were leaders of the group "Citizens for Responsible Growth" and, are therefore responsible for the successful passage of Measure I. I am here to tell you that some members of our current City Council played a role in our group, but not necessarily a leadership role. Many of our meetings were called by me and were in my home on a biweekly basis. Many times I prepared the agenda for our meeting. Sometimes we met at other locations in Fillmore where there was a conference room. Our group, Citizens for Responsible Growth consists of approximately 50 people and regularly I would call the membership regarding meeting time and location. The following were accomplished by our group without help from the now Fillmore City Council members: we became good at developing easily readable relevant flyers and distributing to our supporters quickly; we had a campaign manager and following the State of California Regulations we were able to obtain considerable campaign contributions, all from Fillmore citizens; we had a quality control person to ensure that we followed all of the State Election Regulations; we were able to use a local man with a sign making capability and pay him from our campaign contributions. In total we had about 600 really good election signs, 200 of these were for Measures H & I; because of a mishap with the Deputy City Clerk and some other circumstances, we had to gather the necessary signatures to qualify our initiative for the ballot three different times. However, the public did not want North Fillmore Specific Plan and out support from the public was robust. I personally thought we would win with 80% of the vote. After the election the margin was 57 to 43%. In the course of politicking I met only 3 individuals opposed to Measure I. After we had gathered all of the necessary signatures (about 1500) to put the measure on the ballot, we offered to resolve the issued with the then City Council. This offer was rejected by the City Council multiple times. So the initiatives went on the ballot as Measures H & I and the Citizens of Fillmore got what they wanted through the ballot. Finally, the citizens group, "Citizens for Responsible Growth" and the voting public at large is responsible for the successful passage of Measures H & I. The now City Council members were involved only tangentially.