Ventura County Sheriff's Department

02/24/10 - 03/02/10
02/24/10
Vandalism
500 Block A St.
Annoy/Obscene Phone Call
400 Block Foothill Dr.
Battery
500 Block Central Ave.
500 Block A St.
Keep the Peace
250 E. Telegraph Rd.
02/25/10
Vandalism
400 Block Mt. View St.
800 Block Edison Ln.
1000 Block Candelaria Ln.
800 Block Burlington St.
Stolen Vehicle CONTINUED »

Bret Wear, 21, Santa Paula, was arrested for residential burglary and possession of stolen property.

On 2-28-10, Bret Wear was arrested for breaking into an occupied residence and stealing property from that home. He was also identified as the same subject who broke into and stole property from at least two vehicles the same morning; he was found in possession of some of that stolen property at the time of his arrest.

Over the past several months, Wear is suspected of breaking into numerous other homes, garages, storage areas and vehicles in the areas between eastern Ventura, Santa Paula and Fillmore. Investigators believe Wear, and possibly other accomplices, are selling the stolen property to unsuspecting buyers. Anyone who has purchased any property from Wear or any of his associates is urged to contact Sheriff’s Department investigators at the Fillmore Station or the Headquarters Station.

The majority of the property Wear is suspected of stealing has serial numbers associated with it and if a person is found to be in possession of that stolen property, they could be arrested and prosecuted. The stolen property ranges from guns, TV’s, Wii game consoles, digital cameras, portable DVD players, digital camcorders, Sony Playstations, numerous tools such as paint sprayers, drills and grinders.

Location: Unincorporated area east of Ventura and west of Santa Paula

Date & Time/ RB#: 2-28-10 0600 / 10-4936

Unit Responsible: Headquarters Detective Bureau

Suspect Age City of Residence

(S) Bret Wear 21 Santa Paula

Officer Preparing Release: Detective Christine Rettura

Follow-up Contact: Detective Rettura at 662-6770 or Detective Hendren 525-2233

Date of Release: 3-1-10

Investigators of the California Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) have cited four stores for selling alcohol to minors. The actions were taken on February 27, 2010 during a minor decoy operation. During the operation, minors worked under the direct supervision of department investigators and attempted to purchase alcohol from 13 retail licensees in the city of Fillmore and unincorporated areas just outside the city.

Those who sold to the minor face a minimum fine of $250, and/or 24 to 32 hours of community service for a first violation. In addition, ABC will take administrative action against the alcoholic beverage licenses of the businesses that sold alcohol to minors. That may include a fine, a suspension of the license, or the permanent revocation of the license.

ABC is conducting the compliance checks state-wide to reduce the availability of alcohol to minors. Statistics have shown that young people under the age of 21 have a higher rate of drunken driving fatalities than the general adult population.

Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

ABC is a department of the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency, which is under the direction of Secretary Dale E. Bonner, a member of the Governor's Cabinet.

Fillmore Unified School District

The Fillmore Unified School District board gave special recognition to a pair of migrant education students and a parent at Tuesday night's board meeting.

Emilio Gomez and Mariela Inda-Ramirez were honored as migrant education students of the year. Emilio's father, Emigdio Gomez was also given recognition as parent of the year.

The migrant student of the year honor is awarded to the student(s) who exhibits exceptional leadership, maintains a grade point average of 3.5 or better; and plans to continue their education and involvement in their school and community. The migrant parent of the year is awarded to the parents who become involved in their children's education, strive to further their education and get involved in school and community.

Tricia Gradias, Migrant Education Coordinator, introduced the three honorees.

Certificates were presented by FUSD Board President Tony Prado.

Gomez, a senior, has a 3.6 GPA and was CONTINUED »

The Cabrillo Economic Development Corporation (CEDC) announces that it soon expects to receive certificates of occupancy for its newest development in Fillmore. The community, called Central Station, is nearly done as CEDC’s expert construction team completes the final finishing touches. The new development will soon be home to farmworkers and local lower-income families and features a mix of affordable rental and ownership homes.

The development has a total of 29 homes – 21 are affordable rental homes and eight other townhomes are available for ownership to local families living in the Fillmore area earning between 30-50 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI). The homes have three bedrooms and two bathrooms each, and range in size from 1,140 to 1,337 square feet. The development also features a community room, five courtyards, a tot lot, and on-site garage parking. A landscaped bike path runs alongside the community with a decorative railing to match the existing bike path near Fillmore City Hall. The site is two blocks east of the city’s downtown center, close to shopping, transportation and other services.

“The Central Station community will provide more housing choices for individuals and families in the Fillmore community who want to rent and buy homes at affordable prices,” says Eduardo Espinoza, CEDC’s Project Manager for the development. “Increasing the supply of home choices for lower-income renters and owners ultimately benefits the entire community.”

The new community will be professionally managed on-site by CEDC’s Property and Asset Management Division, which manages each of the CEDC’s 15 other apartment communities in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties. CEDC’s Community Building and Neighborhood Revitalization Division will facilitate the formation of both a tenant council and an on-site homeownership council at Central Station.

For more information about Central Station please call Jennifer Koch, CEDC’s Communications Manager at: 805/672-2575.

CEDC is a private non-profit community development corporation that provides comprehensive housing services, through a community building approach, in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. Since its incorporation in 1981, CEDC has built more than 1,347 units of affordable for-sale and multi-family rental homes, manages 693 affordable rental units, and has helped more than 400 families into home ownership through education, counseling, and lending services. CEDC is a chartered member of NeighborWorks®, a national network of more than 220 community development and affordable housing organizations. This year marks CEDC’s 29th year of operation.

Mountain View is still closed but work looks close to completion.
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Q: Do I have to purchase flood insurance? Didn’t FEMA postpone the insurance requirement?

A: Many Fillmore residents are being told by their lenders and insurance carriers that they must purchase flood insurance even though they are not required to. Effective January 21, 2010, FEMA adopted a Letter of Map Amendment (LOMR) that effectively postponed the requirement to purchase flood insurance for about two years.

If you are being asked to purchase flood insurance and you do not want the insurance, you can obtain a copy of the LOMR by downloading it from the City of Fillmore web site (www.fillmoreca.com) or pick up a copy at City Hall during regular business hours. The send the LOMR to your lender or insurance agent and it will provide them the information they need to see that you are not required to purchase flood insurance.

There are two small areas of the City that are still required to purchase flood insurance. These areas have been required to have flood insurance since 1984 and include the easterly section of the El Dorado Mobile Home Park and an area in the vicinity of C Street and River Street.

Q: What are the purple pipes for along the railroad and bike path?

A: The purple pipes are a temporary irrigation system to water a tall fescue grass that will be planted this month along the railroad corridor from B Street to Central Avenue. After the grass is established the above ground sprinklers will be removed and the grass will be irrigated with a subsurface drip system.

The subsurface drip system is an important part of the winter time disposal system for surplus recycled water so it is not discharged to the river. During heavy rain events the drip system will percolate water into the soil. During the summer it will keep the grass green. The tall fescue will be mowed about twice a year.

Q: When will the Mountain View railroad crossing be opened back up?

A: The Mountain View Railroad crossing was opened up to pedestrian traffic on Tuesday March 2nd and will be opened to vehicle traffic on Sunday evening March 7th. The work to install concrete railroad pads is about a week ahead of schedule. In about four months Mountain View will be repaved and the street will be like new.

If you have questions regarding our public infrastructure please send them to: Bert J. Rapp, P.E., Public Works Director at City Hall, 250 Central Avenue, Fillmore CA 93015, or leave a message 24 hours a day at 524-1500 x 231 and he will address them in a future column.

Public Works Director Bert Rapp.

The Fillmore Water Recycling Program has been selected the Ventura County American Public Works Association (APWA) project of the year in the Wastewater and Water category. In addition APWA selected the Fillmore project to represent all Ventura County Public Agency projects as the Project of the Year at the National Engineers Week Banquet at the Reagan Library on Thursday, February 18th. “It is very wonderful that the American Public Works Association has selected the Fillmore Water Recycling Program to be Project of the Year out of 10 excellent projects around the County,” said Bert Rapp, Fillmore Public Works Director. Some of the other candidate projects were the Toland Road Sludge Drying Facility and the Thousand Oaks Photo Voltaic system at their Sewage Treatment Plant.

“The Fillmore project was selected because of an innovative management approach and due to its many unique characteristics,” said Chris Hook with APWA. For example the "Design-Build-Operate" procurement process helped assure that the plant was as efficient and economical as possible. It also included an exacting quality assurance program so that the plant would have low maintenance costs for 20 years.

Another unique aspect is CONTINUED »

Gold Coast Champions
Approximately 30 young men, ages 6 to 14 years, filled the council chamber Tuesday night to receive a Proclamation, presented by Mayor Patti Walker, in recognition of Fillmore Youth Football League’s winning season. The boys are all part of the 2009 Gold Coast Youth Football Champions. Coaches Ram Medina, Val Pillado, John Ortiz and John Grove were present for the honor; Eddie Ortiz was not present.

Boys & Girls Club Donations
Also, a presentation of donated checks was made on behalf of the Santa Clara Valley Boys & Girls Club. Interim Chief Executive Officer Sheila Tate thanked the community for their efforts in raising funds for the Club, “The Boys and Girls Club Board, staff and members are deeply touched by the generosity of the City employees, Cops Running for Charity and the Ventura County Sheriff's Association. We are working hard to provide critical services to the children of this community and we appreciate the confidence and commitment that the City staff and Sheriff's Department have shown by their generous contributions. This is a great community and we are proud to be a part of it.”

Check amounts totaled $2,350; $500 from Cops Running for Charity, $600 from the City of Fillmore employees and City Council Members; and $1,250 from the Ventura County Deputy Sheriff’s Association.

Housing Element
Community Development Director Kevin CONTINUED »

FUTA / CTA / NEA Memo dated February 17th, 2010.
Bargaining Update #3.
In preparation for bargaining, the FUTA bargaining team examined the district documents that they submitted to the county. The team also poured over the detailed budget analysis provided by CTA. Our analysis shows a very different picture than the information that has been presented by the district.

One of the sound bites from the district site presentations is that FUTA is over 70% of the budget. While we recognize that salaries are a large portion of the district budget and that certificated is the largest employee group, we can not find any information that supports this claim. Our budget analysis shows that salaries for our bargaining unit are 43% of the budget. When we include statutory payroll benefits and health and welfare benefits for our bargaining unit, this equals approximately 58%.

We plan to meet with the district to begin negotiations on Tues Feb 23. Pertinent financial information has been requested from district. In order to represent our members at the bargaining table, it is imperative that we have all necessary financial data provided in a timely manner. Repeated requests have been made for documents including the three page document Mike Bush presented at the Feb 2nd board meeting during the budget update. Over the past two weeks, four requests have been made for this data. The district has failed to cooperate. FUTA has filed a grievance and is currently working with CTA legal services to file an Unfair Labor Practice since this is a clear violation of the law under the Educational Employment Relations Act.

We work for a non-profit organization. Fillmore CONTINUED »

Fillmore Unified School District

The District and FUTA teams met today. The District proposed to use the session to respond to FUTA’s many data requests, and to provide important information about how the ongoing state fiscal crisis has impacted the 2008-2009, 2009-2010, and the 2010- 2011 school year. By law, districts are required to certify solvency for the current fiscal year and the next two fiscal years.

The District asked to begin negotiations on two time-sensitive items immediately:
Shortening the instructional year by 5 days, beginning in 2010-2010 with a corresponding 5 days of per diem reduction of the salary schedule. FUTA’s share would provide $390,659 in savings in 2010-2011; and

Modifying health coverage to provide that beginning in 2010-2011, the District will pay the cost of the lowest HMO single, two party, or family health plans. PERS now offers an alternative plan with 100% alignment to Access Plus, meaning no additional employee cost, no change in plan design and no change in doctors. FUTA’s share would provide $205,496 in savings in 2010-2011.

If these savings can be negotiated soon, CONTINUED »

Deputy City Manager Bill Bartels

Deputy City Manager Bill Bartels, submitted a letter of resignation to Fillmore’s new City Manager Yvonne Quiring, Monday.

In an interview with the Ventura Star Bartels stated that he had been considering the move for more than a year. Reflecting on his appointment to deputy, he thought it “the highest honor to have been paid in terms of municipal government [having] support of the council during that transition period.”

A consultant to the city for 14 years, and deputy for nearly three, Bartels was appointed interim city manager following the resignation of City Manager Tom Ristau last year.

Bartels also stated that his time as deputy “has been an incredible, amazing experience. It reaffirms my belief in municipal government.” He also stated that he “hoped that my service has provided stability and continuity during this period of change.”

He had high praise for the city’s new city manager.

Bartels has accepted a job offer to teach music part time, and will be busy managing the family ranch in Bardsdale which they have farmed for more than a century.

Both City Manager Yvonne Quiring and Fillmore Mayor Patti Walker expressed their gratitude for Bartels’s work, Walker remarking that she appreciated his “stepping in to the thankless job of interim city manager."

Once a Marine always a Marine was never more true than it was on Friday, February 12th at Britt Park in Piru at the meeting of the Piru Petroleum Club! I was invited to the meeting by Jerry and Lynda Edmonds to represent the Fillmore Gazette because it was a special day for not only the Piru Petroleum Club, but also for the 1st Marine Division Association and the Bodfish Chapter. As a veteran Marine it was also a special day for me and I was honored to be present!

Today marked the first time the 1st Marine Division Association's Bodfish Chapter has met at a different location in over 40 years when the Chapter was formed by the late John Loomis and approximately five other veteran Marines in the 1960's! The 1st Marine Division Association is made up of active, retired and veteran Marines and Fleet Marine Force (FMF) Navy Corpsman. The Bodfish Chapter was at their first Campout, of what is hoped to be the first of many future Campouts at Britt Park.

The Bodfish Chapter Campouts began in the 1960’s at the CONTINUED »

The day after a heavy winter rain, the Sespe Oil field is shown steaming from an underground “hot spot”, a thermal anomaly, according to Ron Oatman, spokesperson for the Ventura County Fire Department. This picture was taken January 23rd by photographer Jeff Muth. Geologists and firefighters have surveyed the area, located in the Sespe Oil field, an active landslide zone with a history of shifting for more than 60 years. Pockets of gas, tar and oil lie several hundred feet below its cracked surface. Cracks along the landslide’s slope allow oxygen to enter the earth, and those natural hydrocarbon materials (gas, tar and oil) to “seep out” of the fine-grain shale. Underground combustion is a possible result, and could be as deep as 100 feet. Since 1987, high heat levels have been recorded in the area as many as five times. “Hot spots” are not uncommon in areas around the world with high concentrations of hydrocarbons. Temperatures have been registered in the low 800’s, about a foot below the surface. Firefighters have cleared brush, and cut a fire line around the area as a precautionary measure. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management owns the acreage (near the Sespe Oil Field), and leases it to Seneca Resources Corp. The rugged, steep terrain is devoid of buildings and equipment, and gated off from public access. The 3,000 acre Sespe Oil Field, producing nearly 50 million barrels of oil since its discovery in 1887, contains more than 300 oil wells, of which 210 are active.

School board member David Dollar was presented “the Power of One” award at Tuesday’s meeting.

FUSD Board President Tony Prado announced at Tuesday's, February 16 Board Meeting, that David Dollar was selected as this month's Power of One honoree for his seven and a half years of service to the Fillmore Unified School District.

Prado presented Dollar who is retiring as a School Board Member March 1, 2010, with a silver clock encased plaque. “Thanks for all your time and effort you put in,” praised Prado.

Dollar served on the board from December, 2002 to 2010. Prado said Dollar's successor will be appointed to complete his term until November's election. Applications are being accepted for the position until March 1 at 4:30 pm. Dollar replied, “Thanks to the community for this opportunity. We have some very strong administrators from the top down.” He specifically mentioned Superintendent Jeff Sweeney, Assistant Superintendents Katy Hadley and Mike Bush along with Bev Jones, Human Resources consultant, as well as the rest of the board members.
In light of the current state and local fiscal crisis the district and teachers have agreed to reopen negotiations. Theresa Marvel, President of the Fillmore Unified Teachers' Association questioned the board concerning the districts decision to hire an attorney. “It is the prerogative of the board to have or not to have an attorney for advice,” said Prado. Items in the talks include salaries, and extra pay, health benefits for retirees, early retirement, class size, summer school, salary schedules and extra pay assignments.
School Board member Liz Wilde reported that she attended a collaboration meeting between Fillmore Middle School and High School instructors. She sad they exchanged ideas and methods of instruction techniques. “I was pleased to see the collaboration discussions,” she said.

Superintendent Sweeney said that the district has learned that the Piru School Charter proponents have CONTINUED »

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Fillmore, CA - On February 9, 2010 at approximately 11:15AM a severe weather system packing intense periods of rainfall and thunderstorms passed over the City of Fillmore resulting in a period of concentrated rainfall and treacherous lightning conditions rarely experienced in the Santa Clara Valley. Over a three hour period approximately 6 lightning strikes touched down in Fillmore, two of which occurred in residential areas.

The two lightning strikes that impacted the City of Fillmore occurred simultaneously striking a 480 Volt Edison power pole located at A Street & First Street and a 50-foot palm tree located in the 1000 Block of Sespe Avenue. The strike that occurred in the area of Sespe Avenue was believed to be a “positive” and more powerful strike resulting in both a shockwave and transfer of approximately 1 billion volts through the tree into the ground and surrounding structures. Force from the strike shattered neighborhood windows and damaged a block wall laced with rebar. Palm frowns from the tree were found nearly 150-feet from their origin after being jolted with electricity. No further injuries or damage was reported at the conclusion of the incident.

The last documented lightning strike to occur within the City of Fillmore was in 2000 when a palm tree located in the 800 block of North Fillmore was struck by lightning and caught fire.

Fillmore residents are reminded to seek refuge during inclement weather and let this serve as a reminder that Californians are susceptible to the same dangerous weather conditions many other states experience on a very regular basis. These conditions are rare, however they are real and are armed with the potential to injure citizens and damage property.

Bill Morris, of Wm L. Morris Chevrolet Fillmore, addressed Council Tuesday night, thanking it for considering larger businesses in its Local Small Business Resolution preference.

Fillmore Senior Center
Tuesday night’s city council meeting began with a report from Deputy City Manager Bill Bartels, reviewing the Fillmore Senior Center. Bartels touched on the background of the City and Center’s relationship, Use and Service Agreements, On-site staff and volunteers, and budget.

In 1989 the City and Fillmore Senior Center entered in to a Lease and Service Agreement for the purpose of allowing the Center to operate a multipurpose senior citizens social services center at the facility. In 1995, the City and Center replaced the 1989 Lease with the current Fillmore Multipurpose Senior Center Use Agreement. The purpose of the new agreement was to more correctly define the duties and responsibilities of the parties for operation of the facility.

Councilmember Steve Conaway recommended revising the 1995 agreement and bringing it back to Council. Who has authority over city employees was “murky” stated Conaway. He said he would like clarification on “who is responsible, who they report to and take direction from,” calling for “better language and clarity” in the “line of authority”.

Councilmember Laurie Hernandez thanked CONTINUED »