Ventura County Sheriff's Department

500 block of E. Telegraph Rd. Fillmore, CA 93015
Date & Time: 07/19/2009 Approximately 3:00 A.M.
Unit Responsible: Sheriff Major Crimes Unit

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department responded to a residence in the 500 block of Telegraph Road reference a report of people fighting and several injured victims at the location. Deputies from the Sheriff’s Department’s Fillmore, Headquarters, Camarillo, Thousand Oaks, and Moorpark Stations were dispatched to the call. Responding deputies were confronted with a large crowd and numerous victims. Due to the size of the crowd and large crime scene, officers from the California Highway Patrol and the Santa Paula Police Department responded to assist.

Multiple ambulances and County Fire units were dispatched to treat the victims. Eight victims were transported to four local hospitals and two victims were treated at the scene but refused medical assistance. The identities of the victims and their medical status are not being released at this time.

Anyone having information regarding this crime is asked to call (805) 477-7032.

Anyone wishing report information and remain anonymous can call Crimestoppers at 800-222-Tips (8477). Information resulting in the arrest and prosecution may receive up to a $1,000.00 reward.

Ventura County Sheriff's Department

Location: 704 Ventura St., Fillmore
Date & Time: 7-9-09 / 4:30 p.m.
Unit Responsible: Fillmore Station Detectives

(S)uspects, (V)ictims, (W)itnesses, Address, Age
(V)Fillmore Chevron gas station, 704 Ventura St., Fillmore, CA.
(S)Rene Martinez, Santa Paula, 19

At approximately 4:30 p.m., deputies from the Fillmore Police Department responded to a call of a robbery at the Chevron gas station in the City of Fillmore. When they arrived, they learned a suspect, later identified as nineteen-year-old Rene Martinez of Santa Paula, had stolen two 18-packs of beer from the store. When confronted by the store employee, Martinez produced a handgun and threatened the employee. Martinez fled the area in a silver Nissan with three other men. The Nissan was registered to a Santa Paula address.

At approximately 4:48 p.m., officers with the Santa Paula Police Department stopped the suspect vehicle at 12th St. and Ventura St. in the City of Santa Paula. Martinez and three other men were detained during the stop. During the investigation, Martinez was positively identified as the robbery suspect. A handgun was recovered in the vehicle along with the merchandise, which had been taken.

Fillmore deputies arrested Martinez for 211 PC – Robbery and booked him into the Ventura County Pre-Trial Detention Facility, Ventura. The other men were not charged and were released.

For over two hundred years a true “government by the people” has been diligently sought after by the American people. When the U.S. Constitution was adopted, only white male property owners were granted the right to vote. Since the original Bill of Rights was enacted there have been only seventeen Amendments to the Constitution; seven of them concerned voting rights. In 1810 the last religious requirement for voting eligibility was removed. The requirement for ownership of property was suspended in 1850. Former slaves were given the vote in 1870; women in 1920; and Native Americans in 1924. Poll taxes and literacy tests were banned in the mid-1960’s. The voting age was set at 18 in 1971.

The right to vote is a right that patriots have fought and died for throughout our country’s history. It is each citizen’s main vehicle for having his/her voice heard concerning the terms, conditions and direction the country establishes that will govern his/her way of life. It is a precious gift that should be utilized with great care and a deep sense of responsibility. We as a people need to be diligent in our scrutiny of candidates for public office. We need to determine if they steadfastly defend our interests; if they follow our wishes or their own agendas when representing us in the halls of congress; if they do what they promised us they would do. We need to be astutely aware of who has the greatest influence on these candidates; is it big business, labor unions, special interest groups or the people who elected them into office. Each candidate’s honesty and integrity should also be carefully considered. CONTINUED »

Ventura County Sheriff's Department

At approximately 10:30 p.m. Saturday July 11, A strong arm robbery occurred on the 200-300 block of Saratoga St. Rigoberto Santa Rosa 31, was walking north bound on Saratoga Street from a local market. He was approached from behind and knocked to the ground by two suspects. Hispanic male 18-20 years. They then stole his wallet, his beer, and a cell phone. SantaRosa was able to flee uninjured. The suspects are at large. Gang Unit will investigate. Courtesy of Fillmore Police Department.

Interim City Manager Larry Pennell

Fillmore City Council held a Special Meeting on July 14th to discuss the appointment of a permanent City Manager. All five Council Members, the Transitional City Manager Larry Pennell, and City Attorney Ted Schneider were present. The discussion itself took place in closed session, but beforehand the Council mentioned some of the issues involved in their upcoming decision.

Council Member Jamey Brooks requested that the Council discuss the permanent City Manager's pay range as a future agenda item. He wants to set a firm limit at the high end of the range, and opined that the current salary is too high. The current salary range is $9,395.84 - $10,583.33 per month, or an annual salary of $112,750 - $127,000. Pennell mentioned that the position candidates are good people who are on the way up, and for the most part already employed. He provided the Council with handouts listing salaries of city managers in cities comparable to Fillmore. Council Member Laurie Hernandez said that Fillmore's salary was not out of line, but agreed that it should be discussed as soon as possible. Mayor Patti Walker noted that Pennell is scheduled to cease being Transitional City Manager after August 26th. The City's employment agreement with him limits the total number of hours he will work. The agenda item was set for the July 28th meeting, because the July 23rd meeting already has a full agenda. CONTINUED »

Ventura County Sheriff's Department

POLICE BLOTTER
07/02/09 – 07/07/09
BURGLARY VEHICLE
07/02/09
Olive St. / Ventura St.
SEARCH WARRANT
07/02/09
700 Block 4th Street
07/02/09
200 Block Olive Street
07/06/09
100 Block Surrey Way
07/06/09
300 Block Fillmore Street
VANDALISM
07/02/09
900 Block Ventura Street
07/05/09
1000 Block Waterford Lane
07/06/09
N. C. Street / Meadowlark Dr.
07/06/09
B. St. / Burlington Street
07/07/09
300 Block Main Street
THEFT OTHER CONTINUED »

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Ariat, International of Union City, California, Resistol Hats of Garland, Texas and the National High School Rodeo Association-Wrangler Division is proud to announce that Tyler Forsberg, Piru, was recently named the boy's Ail-Around Champion for the year by the 2009 California Junior High School Rodeo Association.

To earn this honor, Forsberg accumulated more points in two or more events, than any other male California High School Rodeo members for the 2008-2009 rodeo season, which ended with the recent California Junior High School Rodeo finals held in Plymouth, California.

Forsberg finished the state/province finals as follows: Tie Down Roping – Reserve Champion 2009; Boys Goat Tying – Champion (won 3 rounds and average); Ribbon Roping – Champion (won 2 rounds and average); Team Roping Heeler (won 2 rounds and average).

For being named the All-Around Champion, Forsberg was awarded numerous prizes as well as a new pair of Ariat boots and a new Resistol straw hat.

"This sponsorship of the boy's year-end Ail-Around awards for the 47 NHSRA-Wrangler Division state and provincial associations is a true privilege for Ariat and Resistol. We take great pride in manufacturing the finest footwear and cowboy hats available for the equine competitor and consider it to be an honor to be the official footwear and cowboy hat of the National High School Rodeo Association-Wrangler Division," comments Tabatha Nelson, Sponsorship Coordinator for Ariat and Stan Redding of Resistol Hats.

"Without the tremendous support the NHSRA-Wrangler Division receives from great companies like Ariat, the NHSR-Wrangler Division would simply not be able to accomplish everything it does for its members. The Ariat All-Around Champion awards program is just on example of how much all of our sponsors care about the success of the NHSRA-Wrangler Division," adds Kent Sturman, NHSRA Executive Director.

As a non-profit corporation organized in 1947 to support youth, education, the great sport of rodeo, and the North American western heritage, the NHSRA is the world's largest rodeo organization with over 12,000 members. Annually, the NHSRA sanctions more than 1,200 rodeos through out the U.S., Canada, and Australia. To find out more about high school rodeo or how you can become involved with the NHSRA, call the NHSRA National Office at 1-800-466-4772 or visit the web site at www.nhsra.org.

Ventura County Sheriff's Department

At approximately 1:37 a.m., July 5, 2009, deputies with the Fillmore Police Department responded to a call of a shooting victim in the 1000 block of Wileman St. When they arrived, they found that Rafael Torres 21, a resident of Santa Paula, had suffered a single gunshot to his chest.

Torres was treated at the scene by personnel with the Fillmore Fire Department and American Medical Response and transported to the Ventura County Medical Center, where he remains in critical condition.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Sergeant Hester, with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department’s Major Crimes Unit, or the Ventura County Crime Stoppers.

Ventura County Crime Stoppers will pay up to $1,000 reward for information which leads to the arrest and criminal complaint against the person(s) responsible for this crime. The caller may remain anonymous. The call is not recorded. Call Crime Stoppers at 494-TALK (Thousand Oaks / Moorpark)

For over a year, Fillmore citizens have been lobbying the Fillmore Unified School District (FUSD) to allow public access to the new all-weather track installed at Fillmore High School (FHS). Both the City Council and the School Board had given their approval to the development of a pilot program for community access to the track at specifically scheduled times through a Runners’ Club. A public meeting for interested runners and walkers regarding the formation of the club and the start of the pilot program will be held at the District Office Boardroom (627 Sespe Ave.) on August 3, 2009 at 7 p.m. Assistant Superintendent Mike Bush and Deputy City Manager Bill Bartels expect the club to have access to the track starting in mid-August or late September, depending partly on how the meeting goes.

Two main issues which had to be resolved by City and FUSD staff before the pilot could proceed were supervision and liability. Insurance is part of the liability issue. As early as August 2008, there was an understanding among School Board members that the track had been used by the community in the past, the community would like to continue using the track, and that most of the public advocates were hoping for a compromise that would allow public access to the track without significantly increasing the risk of damages. On Aug 19, 2008, the School Board decided that the public should only have access to the track through the Civic Center Act to limit damages and liabilities. The Act allows organizations to apply at the District for permits specifying dates to use school facilities. A private organization would have been charged a rental fee of $125 per hour for use of the track and field, in addition to the costs of obtaining insurance and paying school employees to supervise running time. At the September 2008 joint City Council-School Board meeting, it was agreed that City and FUSD staff would work out the issues involved before handing the formation of a public running club over to Parks and Recreation. Bartels explained that because the City and FUSD have a Joint Use of Facilities Agreement, the hope is to make the club affordable for its members, the City, and FUSD. CONTINUED »

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By July 15, 2009 the sewage flow to the 1955 Wastewater Treatment will be completely redirected to the new Wastewater Recycling Plant. After the week of July 15th the shut down and decommissioning of the old plant will begin. The old plant will likely give us a few odors as a goodbye present.

A sewer treatment plant is a complex organism that lives on the energy in the sewage. As the bacteria, protozoa, and rotifers consume the waste they clean the water. When a treatment plant’s food supply is cut off it dies and begins to stink. To control the odors as much as possible we will feed the plant molasses as a replacement food supply while we take each process off line cleaning and disinfecting each component.

The new wastewater recycling plant was started up on June 18th as we imported 9 tanker truck loads of bacteria from the Wastewater Treatment Plant in Santa Clarita. Then we fed these new bacteria with our Fillmore sewage gradually growing their numbers. For the first week we pumped 90,000 gallons per day of sewage to them and on June 24th we gave them 75% of the sewage from the City. Finally on or about July 15 100% of the sewage flow will be directed to the new plant completely turning off the old plant. CONTINUED »

Ventura County Sheriff's Department

Date & Time: July 6, 2009 12:00 PM

A Verizon telephone outage has affected many Ventura County residents ability to call for help in the
event of an emergency. Cities that are serviced by Verizon include Camarillo, Ojai, Oxnard, Port
Hueneme, Santa Paula, Thousand Oaks and some unincorporated areas of Ventura County.
Officials are encouraging residents that are affected by the outage to utilize the seven-digit numbers to
contact local fire and police departments. Residents without any type of phone service have been advised
to go to their nearest police or fire station to report an emergency.
Local police and fire department phone numbers include:

Police Fire Dispatch
Oxnard 385-7600 385-7740 210-0474 (Emergency Only)
210-0475 (Emergency Only)
210-0476 (Emergency Only)
Port Hueneme 986-6530 389-9710
Santa Paula 525-4474 933-4254 933-4230
Simi Valley 583-6950 389-9710
Ventura City 339-4400 339-4300

Sheriff Fire
Camarillo 388-5100 389-9710
Fillmore 524-2233 524-0586
Lockwood Valley (661) 245-3829 389-9710
Moorpark 532-2700 389-9710
Ojai 646-1414 389-9710
Sheriff’s Headquarters Patrol Station 654-2361 389-9710
Thousand Oaks 494-8200 389-9710
Ventura County of Ventura 654-9511 389-9710

Residents are asked to not test the phone lines or call 911 unless they have an emergency.

The City of Fillmore Fire Department wants to ensure that Fillmore citizens enjoy a safe Fourth of July weekend. Citizens are reminded that “safe & sane” fireworks sold in Fillmore are legal between June 28 12:00pm – July 5 12:00pm. The use of any type of non-approved fireworks is never legal and will result in criminal charges and the potential for a $1000 fine. If you witness any illegal activity please report it! An anonymous tip line has been setup to report violators. Please call 805-524-1500 ext. 350 to report illegal activity.

Below are several safety tips to insure you and your family enjoy a safe Independence Day Celebration.

Fire Safety
If you witness a crime or fire in progress involving illegal fireworks, call your local authorities by dialing 9-1-1.
Only Safe and Sane fireworks bearing the seal of the State Fire Marshal are legal in California. All other fireworks, including altered Safe and Sane fireworks and those that explode or leave the ground are illegal.
Kids should not play with fireworks. Fireworks are intended for use by adults in open spaces with plenty of active supervision for every child present.
Always have a bucket of water on hand to dispose of fireworks and a hose connected to water ready in case of fire.
Fireworks, including sparklers and flares, can cause serious burns as well as blast injuries that can permanently impair vision and hearing. Teach your children what to do if their clothing catches on fire — “stop, drop and roll” — and how to call 9-1-1 in an emergency.

As we prepare to celebrate the 233rd anniversary of the birth of our nation each American should revisit that magnificent document, the Declaration of Independence, that our Founding Fathers created to announce to King George III, to the people of the this great land, and to the entire world that the United States of America was a free and independent country. The Preamble to the Declaration of Independence clearly pronounced: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness." The concept of "unalienable rights" is a philosophy that is uniquely American and is proof that the creators of the Declaration of Independence believed in God and believed in the rights bestowed on men by God. The Founding Fathers felt that those rights were so important that no government should deny them. CONTINUED »

Each year in the above charts refers to the test year. For example, standardized tests were taken in Spring 2008 (near the end of the 2007-2008 school year). Growth API scores (in bold) based on those tests were released in August 2008. The scores were adjusted by the California Dept. of Ed. to compensate for changes in the tests themselves and decisions made by the State Board of Ed, so that schools can be ranked. The adjusted scores are the Base API scores (underlined), and 2008’s Base API scores were released in May 2009. In May of 2007, the API Target for 2008 was set. API Scores range from 200 to 1000, and are based on a formula that weighs various standardized tests. The state goal is 800. The Public Schools Accountability Act urges each school to improve its performance each year by 5% of the difference between their Base API and 800, with a minimum target of increasing five points.
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In late May 2009, California Department of Education (CDE) released Base Academic Performance Index (API) scores developed primarily from scores on standardized tests taken in Spring 2008. Fillmore Unified School District (FUSD) had received Growth API scores based on the same testing period in August 2008, and at a September School Board Meeting each principal presented his or her school’s Growth API score along with the school’s plans for improvement. The results from the Spring 2009 tests will not be available until August, so no one yet knows whether the interventions worked, but administrators hope that the Sespe and San Cayetano are recovering from last year’s dip in scores. (See chart.)

The API is a measurement developed by the California Department of Education to be the cornerstone of the Public Schools Accountability Act (PSAA), which created an educational accountability system for California public schools. The PSAA’s primary goal is to help schools improve and to measure the academic achievement of all students.

The API score is based on different standardized tests results depending upon which grade-levels the school has, and which factors the State Board of Education (SBE) has decided to include. According to the Education Data Partnership (EDP), the PSAA indicated that "Criteria other than test scores—such as school staff attendance and graduation rates—were supposed to be added. So far the state has only used test score results." The tests vary enough from year to year, that the formula for calculating Base API must be adjusted to compensate for changes in the tests and in what factors are included. For this reason, a Growth API is released in August, but the Base API, which allows schools to compare their scores to previous years’ scores and other schools’ scores, is not released until May. This is a significant lag time for school districts to operate under when trying to adjust programs to improve scores. CONTINUED »

BURGLARY VEHICLE
06/18/09
600 Block Fernglen Circle
06/21/09
600 Block Chaparral Street
SEARCH WARRANT
06/19/09
500 Block Kensington Drive
06/19/09
400 Block 2nd Street
06/19/09
800 Block A Street
06/22/09
300 Clay Street
06/23/09
100 Block Carriage Place
06/23/09
400 Block 4th Street CONTINUED »

The Auto Club

The Automobile Club of Southern California is offering its free Tipsy Tow service to drinking drivers during the 4th of July holiday for the 11th consecutive year. The service is available from 6 p.m. on Friday, July 3, to midnight on Saturday, July 4. Tipsy Tow is available in the 13 Southern California counties served by the Auto Club.

Motorists, bartenders, restaurant managers, party hosts or passengers of a drinking driver may call 1-800-400-4AAA for a free tow home of up to seven miles. Callers simply tell the Auto Club operators, “I need a Tipsy Tow,” to receive the free tow and ride home. A regular Auto Club-contracted roadside service truck will be dispatched.

Callers need to keep in mind that the service excludes rides for passengers, is restricted to a one-way, one-time ride for the driver and the destination is limited to the driver’s residence. Reservations are not accepted. Drivers can expect to pay the rate charged by the tow truck contractor for rides farther than seven miles. “Drivers should be aware of the high crash risk from drinking and driving associated with holidays and encourage them to think twice about getting behind the wheel if they’ve been drinking,” said the Auto Club’s senior researcher Steve Bloch. CONTINUED »