A concrete slab which had supported a temporary classroom at San Cayetano is being converted to a patio, and there will be steps from the patio to the kindergarten play area.
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Board Member Tony Prado presided over the Fillmore Unified School District (FUSD) Board Meeting on August 4, 2009. The Board reviewed salary schedules for the upcoming year, heard an update on facilities repairs and improvements, heard plans for welcoming staff back to school, and approved a bus contract.

School will start on August 19, 2009. Superintendent Jeff Sweeney said that staff were being welcomed back to school on Monday, August 17, 2009. Sweeney said on that Monday staff will receive training on the new data management system, Zangle, which Assistant Superintendent Mike Bush has been working to roll out. The motivational guest speaker for the day will be Jeff Eben (www.jeffeben.com). Teachers will be setting up classrooms on August 18th.

The Board postponed approval of the 2009-2010 Salary Schedules, because Board Members John Garnica and David Dollar were absent. Materials handed out at the Board meeting consisted of: the Certificated Salary Schedule, the Certificated Salary Schedule with Longevity, rates for Hourly Teaching Assignments, description of rates for Extra Services by Counselors, description of rates for Extra Period Teaching Assignments, the Extra Pay Schedule (Stipends), the School Psychologist/Coordinator Salary Schedule, the Management Salary Schedule with Longevity, Classified Job Titles and Longevity, the Classified Salary Schedule, and the Supervisory Employees Salary Schedule with Longevity. Substitute teachers’ pay rates were not included. Bush noted that approving the Schedules was a formality, and that the Schedules merely implemented decisions that the Board had previously made. Sweeney noted that the Certificated Salary Schedule includes the Fillmore Unified Teachers Association’s 1% raise. Bush noted that the Management Salary Schedule includes reductions to the number of days worked per year. When Prado asked whether the Schedules contained anything controversial, Bush replied that some people were not happy with working a shorter year but the Board had already considered that issue. Bush explained that he needs the Schedules approved to issue August paychecks, but said that the Board could approve them on August 18th, which is before paychecks would have been issued anyway. CONTINUED »

District Attorney Gregory D. Totten announced today that the Real Estate Fraud Division and Consumer Protection Division have concluded a civil prosecution conducted against real estate businesses owned and operated by Oscar Soto Vasquez (DOB: 11/30/71) of Fillmore and his wife Delia. Vasquez, along with his loan company, Quest Home Loans, Inc. (“Quest”), dba Quest Mortgage of Oxnard, and his realty company, Real Estate Vision, Inc. (“REV”), dba Century 21 New Vision of Oxnard, and Vasquez’s wife, Delia Vasquez (DOB: 05/25/71) of Fillmore, agreed to pay restitution, civil penalties and costs of the suit. The Final Judgment and Permanent Injunction were signed this afternoon by Judge Frederick Bysshe.

An investigation of Quest was initiated by the District Attorney’s Office in 2005 after Quest was determined to be the most prolific advertiser in local Spanish-language media for home loans and refinancing services. The Office began an investigation into whether Quest was providing written Spanish translations of loan documents written in English to its Spanish-speaking customers as required by law. The investigation discovered that Quest only provided documents in English. CONTINUED »

Pictured above (l-r) City Planner Manuel Minjares and Mayor Patti Walker. Minjares was awarded Employee of the Quarter.
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Pictured above (l-r) Community Services Supervisor Annette Cardona and Mayor Patti Walker. Cardona was Employee of the Quarter for April-June.
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Pictured above (l-r) Ginger Gherardi and Mayor Patti Walker.
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The City Council met July 28th, had many of its questions regarding FEMA flood maps and flood insurance answered by the Ventura County Watershed Protection District, conducted miscellaneous City business, and presented awards to staff.

Staff from the Ventura County Watershed Protection District (VCWPD) provided a presentation which addressed the need for Fillmore residents in certain locations to buy flood insurance before the updated FEMA maps are finalized and go into effect. The report provided updates on the Status of FEMA's Sespe Creek, Pole Creek, and Santa Clara River Flood Insurance Study, FEMA's Digital Flood Insurance Rate Maps (DFIRMs), and the District's Levee Certification Efforts for the Sespe Creek Levee. The three main parts of National Flood Insurance Program are mapping (to identify flood hazards), floodplain management (building practices aimed at reducing flood damage), and insurance (reducing the economic impacts of flooding). Flood Insurance Studies are used to develop maps which set flood insurance rates based on potential flood scenarios (specifically, severe floods which are estimated to occur only once in 100 years). Rates are set by location, with higher rates for areas more likely to be flooded. Some mortgage-holders require homeowners to buy insurance if their houses are in high rate (i.e. high risk) locations. A letter of final map determination for countywide DFIRMs was issued July 7, 2009, but the Santa Clara River and Tributaries DFIRM letter of final map determination will not be issued until May 2010. The DFIRMs are legally effective six months after the final map determination letter is issued. Fillmore and VCWPD worked together after the initial maps were issued to use technical evidence to convince FEMA to reduce the projected amount of water flow, reduce the projected flood area (i.e. the floodway), and to re-certify the Sespe Creek levee. The levee was conceptually divided into two parts for analysis and certification. FEMA is expected to re-certify the first part by November 30, 2009. Construction will probably be necessary to enhance the second part of the levee, but studies are ongoing, and the final report including a proposed solution to the levee's alleged deficiencies will not be ready until September 30, 2009. Revised Sespe Creek DFIRMs are expected in September 2009. VCWPD staff explained that flood insurance would be available until the end of 2009 at a reduced rate of $350 per year. Fillmore residents within the designated floodplain might be required by mortgage-holders to pay $1700 per year if they wait to buy insurance and the levee is not certified. Even if the levee is certified, as expected, the price for flood insurance will rise to $850 per year after 2009. The Council directed staff to post a map showing the projected floodway on the Fillmore City Hall web site (www.fillmoreca.com). FEMA insurance experts will be in Fillmore on September 30, 2009, for a public workshop at 6:30 p.m. in the Veterans Memorial Building. Flood insurance is available through insurance companies. CONTINUED »

El Dorado resident David Roegner addressed the El Dorado Rent Control issue at Thursday night’s city council meeting. The Fair Rent and Home Ownership Initiative will be the only item on Fillmore’s November ballot.
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Fillmore City Council Chambers were packed last Thursday, July 23rd, for a Special City Council and Budget Workshop Meeting. Most of the audience was there to hear and comment on the Fair Rent and Home Ownership Initiative impact reports. The Council was legally required to either adopt the Initiative or put it on the November ballot. The atmosphere was tense as audience members whispered to each other about various speakers: “Is he on our side?” At one point, Mayor Patti Walker threatened to clear the room because a few who were apparently in favor of the Initiative were booing while people tried to speak. The Initiative will be the only item on Fillmore’s November ballot.

Manuel Minjares, Assistant Planner, presented the Planning Department’s report on how the Fair Rent and Home Ownership Initiative would impact the General Plan, Housing Element, Zoning Ordinance, vacant land, agricultural lands, traffic congestion, and existing business districts. The City, at the Council’s direction, had hired Management Partners Inc. to conduct a fiscal impact study. Andrew Belknap, Regional VP, and Jovan Grogan, Management Advisor, presented the fiscal impact report at the July 23rd meeting.

The Planning Department’s report notes, “If the initiative serves to facilitate a conversion of the El Dorado Mobile Home Park from rental to resident-ownership, with no age restriction, then it should be expected that traffic will increase as families move into the mobile home park.” According to the Planning Department’s analysis, the initiative would not significantly impact vacant land, agricultural land, open space regulations, or any business district in Fillmore. Minjares explained that the Initiative calls for the creation within the General Plan of a new land use designation, “Mobile Home Park Exclusive”, and would alter the Zoning Ordinance. The Initiative would theoretically allow El Dorado to grow to 562 units (the maximum is now set at 412), but El Dorado currently has only 302 units and it would be physically difficult to add more. CONTINUED »

Our way of life in the “Land of the Free” is becoming less free every day; not because people force their wills upon us, but because we sit back passively and allow it to occur. We as a nation achieved greatness through a system of laws and traditions that encouraged independence, responsibility, morality, diversity, and the ability to succeed or fail according to our own accomplishments. The Founding Fathers recognized that to achieve such greatness freedom of speech was absolutely essential. Those who attempt to control or silence our freedom of expression endanger our basic rights as free men and women.

In the past year we have been treated to some pretty lively debates in the Editorial and Letters to the Editor sections of our local newspaper. Battle lines have been drawn. Sides have been chosen.

Many different opinions have been presented as to who is right and who is wrong. I would submit this to those who question who is right and who is wrong in such situations – it is never wrong for either party to express his/her sincerely held beliefs. In our country we are not required or expected to accept or reject one opinion over another. However, if only one opinion is allowed to be expressed with the opposing opinion silenced, we are deprived as a society from making rational and educated decisions. As Walt Lippman so aptly put it, “When all men think alike, no one thinks very much.” CONTINUED »

Between May 1 and June 30 unknown suspect(s) placed “skimmers” on credit card readers on the gas pumps at Valero Gas Stations in Fillmore and elsewhere. The information gathered is used for fraudulent purposes.
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The Ventura County Sheriff's Department’s Ojai Station Detectives are investigating the use of fraudulent credit cards. Between May 1, 2009 through June 30, 2009, unknown suspect(s) placed “skimmers” on credit card readers on the gas pumps at Valero Gas Stations in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties.

Criminals have been attaching “skimmers” to obtain account information and create fraudulent cards with the stolen account numbers. The “skimmer” reads all of the account information encoded on the card’s magnetic data storage stripe when swiped through the reader. In this case, the fraudulent credit cards are being used in Los Angeles County and other outlying areas of California and Nevada.

Valero Gas Stations are taking a proactive approach to combating the thefts by conducting visual checks of all the gas pumps throughout the day. When using your credit card at any card reader, look to make sure there is nothing else attached to the reader.

If you believe you might be a victim of identity theft by someone using your credit card, please contact your local law enforcement agency.

Heritage Valley Tourism Bureau will open its new office on July 31st.

The Heritage Valley Tourism Bureau (HVTB) lost a significant portion of its budget, but plans to proceed with marketing as usual by making cuts in staffing and rent. Its mission is to promote tourism in the Heritage Valley, which includes Santa Paula, Fillmore, Piru, and Rancho Camulos. In April, the Santa Paula City Council voted to sever its relationship with HVTB by withdrawing financial support. Executive Director Della Reyes said that HVTB is undergoing an identity crisis as it reacts to Santa Paula’s $25,000 cut. HVTB’s fiscal year started July 1st.

HVTB currently has a budget of approximately $42,000, according to Interim President Kathleen McCreary. She explained that Fillmore is contributing $25,000 (Fillmore and Santa Paula had been equal contributors), the Ventura County Redevelopment Agency is contributing $10,000 on behalf of Piru, and the remaining funds come from advertising partners and memberships. Businesses can pay additional fees to become advertising partners and appear in certain advertisements. Reyes pointed out that Santa Paula businesses and organizations have shown that they value HVTB by renewing their memberships. Reyes explained that in a weak economy advertising becomes more, not less, important. The organization has increased its general memberships by at least 10% from last year. HVTB has reduced staff hours and will be moving to a new location.

Reyes’s hours have been cut from 30 hours per week to 18 hours per week. The HVTB office is currently open Tuesday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Reyes is optimistic about the change, but said that finishing all her work in just 18 hours per week is a challenge. CONTINUED »

Ventura County Sheriff's Department

Fernando Cervantes, 44 of Fillmore, was arrested on suspicion of molesting five female relatives under the age of 14, allegedly between 1997 and 2008. Five counts were brought against Cervantes on July 16th in Ventura County Superior Court. A hearing date has been set for August 28, 2009.

Cervantes’ sons Francisco Cervantes, 22, and Oscar Cervantes, 21, both of Fillmore, were also arrested and charged with molesting the female relatives. Francisco is charge with molesting one female relative, allegedly from 2002 to 2008. And Oscar allegedly molested three female relatives from 2002 to 2007. Most of the alleged molestations took placer in the defendants’ home and some took place when the men would visit the victims during the holidays in the Lancaster-Palmdale area.

Fernando Cervantes is possibly facing a sentence of 75 years to life in prison if convicted of the crimes. Some of the victims were molested by all three defendants.