Santa Paula Blog

Question received why we did not upgrade our existing Lotus Notes software. Short answer, cost. We have many employees who do not have regular access to City email because they do not have a regular computer to use. Now all our employees will have access to City email through a web client. Lotus Notes could provide too, but Outlook licenses cheaper overall for us. The City never used all the functionality of Notes anyway, so not worth paying for. We are basically a group that just uses it for email. We also just upgraded our network and switched to Windows from Novell, so it seemed to make sense to go completely Microsoft. I know...gulp. We will see what happens. It is just good to be able to provide better access to email for all our employees.

Glad to see people reading the Blog on a Saturday night.

Great article in the Los Angeles Times today about initiatives for agritourism in the Valley. Unfortunately, the article does not address the great work that the Heritage Valley Tourism Bureau is also trying to accomplish is this vain. We apparently still need work to get everyone to talk to one another.

The Santa Paula Optimist Club held another outstanding Halloween Parade this morning. Over 500 children of all ages came out for the parade held on Main Street. It is one of those events that makes Santa Paula, Santa Paula. Thanks to Don Johnson of the Santa Paula Times for the great photo.

The City's e-mail system is being upgraded from a 1995 version of Lotus Notes to Microsoft Outlook beginning today. Upgrade should be completed today, but we may experience bumps throughout the weekend.

The Ventura County Reporter has finally started distribution in Santa Paula. Current locations the free weekly news, entertainment and environment newspaper can be found are Familia Diaz, Santa Paula Coffee Company and the Glen Tavern Inn. Great paper. They have also editorially decided to cover Santa Paula more. Their Deputy Editor covered the Fagan Canyon hearing Wednesday night.

Because of the irregular schedule of City Council meetings, our replay
schedule has to be adjusted on Channel 10. Here is the replay schedule for
the next couple of weeks:

Meeting of Wednesday, October 26:
Sunday 10/30, 1:00 PM
Monday 10/31, 6:30 PM

Meeting of Tuesday, November 1:
Thursday, 11/03, 6:00 PM
Sunday, 11/06, 2:00 PM

Meeting of Wednesday, November 2:
Sunday, 11/06, 1:00 PM
Tuesday, 11/08, 4:00 PM

Meeting of Monday, November 7:
Tuesday, 11/08, 5:00 PM
Thursday, 11/10, 6:00 PM

Meeting of Wednesday, November 9:
Sunday, 11/13, 1:00 PM
Monday, 11/14, 6:30 PM

Mayor Mary Ann Krause will be addressing the Fillmore City Council tomorrow
night on the plans of the Ventura County Community College District to
potentially delay or cancel their plans to construct a new educational
facility in Santa Paula. We have checked a bit and can not find another
instance where the Mayor of Santa Paula has addressed the Fillmore City
Council on an issue in fifteen years. Relations were not always great
between Santa Paula and Fillmore, but we are in a good place today. We
have worked well together on wastewater issues and Santa Paula Memorial
Hospital the last few years and now look like we are going to take on
another battle together over the placement of a community college facility.

The City Council, the Santa Paula Union High School District Board of
Trustees and the Santa Paula Elementary School District Board of Education
will meet in a special joint session on Wednesday, November 2, 6:30 PM at
the Community Center, to discuss the location of a new Ventura County
Community College District facility in Santa Paula and the needs for other
educational facilities in the City. This will be the first time in memory
that all three governing bodies have met together.

The City of Santa Paula will be hosting a "Debate and Dessert Party" to
cheer on Santa Paula's Favorite Son, Senator Arnold Vinick, during his live
debate on NBC's "The West Wing" on Sunday, November 6, 2005, 7:00 PM to
9:00 PM at the Santa Paula Community Center, Main at Steckle Streets, Santa
Paula. Cost is $10.00 per person. All proceeds from the event will
benefit the equipment fund at Santa Paula Memorial Hospital. Advanced
tickets are available at City Hall, Santa Paula Chamber of Commerce and
Santa Paula Times. Supporting sponsors of the event include the Mupu
Grill, Crystal Bakery, Santa Paula Coffee Company, Santa Paula Chamber of
Commerce, Limoneira Coffee and Tea, Rite Aid, Avenue X Restaurant at the
Glen Tavern Inn, Vons and the Santa Paula Times. For further information,
contact (805) 933-4200 or www.santapaulaforvinick.com

Here is my latest try on adding photos to blog. This is just a peak at the new Toy exhibit that opened at the Oil Museum today. Museum and Tourism Administrator Mike Nelson and I also spent time reminiscing about Arnold Vinick's days as a volunteer at the museum.

Saturday had two outstanding events I was fortunate to attend. The first was a Senior Summit hosted by County Supervisor Linda Parks at CSUCI. Great event raising all sorts of important issues. I am impressed with Supervisor Parks on many levels, but her leadership on getting people to think about seniors and the impacts aging population will have on Ventura County and governments here is especially important. Santa Paula and the rest of the county is certainly not ready. While it was a busy day in the county with many important events, it was sad there were not more public officials. Three County Supervisors, the District Attorney, and only two out of the County's 52 City Councilmembers (Santa Paula's John Procter and Camarillo's Don Waunch. There were two City Managers (me and Ventura's Rick Cole).

Also on Saturday back in Santa Paula was our Santa Paula Beautiful clean-up day. Over 200 people volunteered. Parks were cleaned, entry points to city were spruced up and the railroad right of way was cleared. SP High, the Rotary, Soroptimists, 4-H, group from St. Sebastian's Church and many others participated. City Public Works staff did an outstanding job organizing event and helping out.

And USC won its football game, while Syracuse lost another hard battle to Pitt.

I have gotten calls asking why the City cancelled Santa Paula High School's Homecoming parade scheduled for today. The City did not cancel the parade. The High School District decided to cancel the parade because of concerns over insurance coverage. FYI.

The Santa Paula Historical Society (SPHS) opens their Fall/Christmas
exhibit, "Toys of the Times," this Sunday, October 12, 2005, with a
reception from 1PM to 3 PM. Toy historian Jill Stoliker will make a gallery
presentation about the exhibit at 1:30 PM. The exhibit will feature antique
and collectible toys popular in the early and mid-1900s. This exhibit was
developed by SPHS exhibit committee members Mary Alice Henderson, Mike
Shore, Angela Dominguez, Celia Diaz, and Brian Hernandez, with assistance
from Museum Curator Jeanne Orcutt. Refreshments will be served and everyone
is welcome.

The City Council and Planning Commission are expected to adopt a special resolution outlining public comment procedures for the Fagan Canyon hearings which start on Monday. Check out our Fagan Canyon website for details on the hearings. The proposed procedure resolution can be found in PDF format here.

The reason for the resolution is to allow maximum community participation in the hearing process.

Nearly everything is now posted as PDF documents on our website, including the Full EIR. To post the EIR the City hired a local website development firm to chop up the PDF documents to make them easy to navigate and download. The size of the EIR documents (over 75 MB) exceed the total size of the City's entire website. The documents can be found here.

Assemblymember Audra Strickland gave birth to a baby girl Saturday. Ruby Ruth Strickland weighed 8 pounds and measured 21 inches. She is the first child of Strickland and her husband, former Assemblyman Tony Strickland. Strickland is the third California legislator to have a baby during her term in office. The others are former Assemblywomen Jackie Speier and Martha Escutia.

I wonder what is the appropriate gift for a City government to give your Assembly Member on the birth of her first child? We will start with our best wishes!

Bob Gonzales is spending the beginning of his retirement on a motorcycle trip across the country. A fellow blogger posted this dispatch on meeting Bob on the way to New Mexico.

1. Award of construction contract for south paseo project. This is the
second phase (after the now completed facade) of the project which will
install a paseo between Main Street and South Alley, two new commercial
storefronts and an atrium. Two public restrooms are also part of project
originally conceived in the City's 1994 Downtown Plan.

2. Agreement with Limoneira Filming Locations to become the City's Film
Coordinator. Under this agreement this division of the Limoneira Company
would actively market Santa Paula to the motion picture and television
industry as well as coordinate all shoots here in town. Santa Paula goes
back and forth about its feelings about filming in town. Today people
think filming is a good thing and we are going to try and bring in more of
it.

3. Update on repairs to Santa Paula Creek from last February's storms.

4. Discussion of our continuing program to reach out to the City's
Spanish -Speaking community and perhaps more important how to validate the
job we are doing currently.

5. An item that was added after the agenda was originally posted: an
update on the latest with the Ventura County Community College District and
their plans to build a center in Santa Paula. A letter from the District
was received late last week which suggests that they are considering
shutting down the project in order to shift the money currently budgeted to
build a facility here to other projects.

Nearly nine months ago, the City's Economic Developmnent Director Charmaine Stouder left the City to return to Washington State. When she left, I was reluctant to just hire a replacement for her since I knew we had issues we needed to address not only in economic development but in all ways we handle development in Santa Paula. I wanted to know if there was a better way to spend the money budgeted for her salary. I hired a consulting group, Management Partners Inc., to do a study of our entire development review process. They met with staff and customers alike. The Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Merchants Association and the City's Economic Development Committee were especially helpful in providing good constructive feedback. The report is finished (available here in PDF format). Please let me know what you think of it.

The City of Santa Paula will be conducting a second public review meeting
for the drafting of a revised Parks and Recreation Master Plan. The
meeting will be on Wednesday, October 19 at 6:30 PM at the Santa Paula
Community Center. Earlier this year, the City embarked on a process to
complete a new Master Plan to replace the one adopted in the early 1970s.
A community meeting was held in the Spring to begin the drafting process.
This next meeting will be to review the draft master plan document. A copy
of the draft can be found on the City's website. For further information, contact the Community Services Department at 805-933-4216.

The City of Santa Paula's campaign to adopt the character played by Alan
Alda, Senator Arnold Vinick, on the NBC television program "The West Wing" has succeeded.

According to the NBC television website for "The West Wing," Arnold Vinick
moved to Santa Paula as a child, grew up here and returned to open a law
practice in Santa Paula after college. Vinick was the first person to
successfully run as a write-in candidate for Santa Paula City Council and
was instrumental in the refurbishment of the California Oil Museum.
Vinick then went on to represent Santa Paula in the State Legislature and
then the United States Senate.

The City wishes Senator Vinick well in his campaign to be the first
President of the United States from Santa Paula. For more details, check out the Santa Paula for Vinick website.

The Fire Department did an outstanding job yesterday controlling and containing a fire in the basement of the old Mupu Packing House. The basement was stored with dried flowers in cardboard boxes, not the best conditions for fighting a fire. The ability to have two full-time Santa Paula engine companies respond immediately versus our old way of one full-time company and "paid call" firefighters responding to pagers for the second engine likely saved the building.

It is awful then that the Ventura County Star in their account of the incident has the Ventura County Fire Department doing all this work. It amazes me that after having a Fire Department in Santa Paula for 102 years, they still can't get it right. Remember that the Star (and its successor papers) have only been around for 80 of those years.

Great job Santa Paula Fire Department.

The City Council and Planning Commission will begin considering the Fagan Canyon development project on Monday, October 24. Information about the hearings and PDF copies of the staff report and other associated documents can be found on the City's Fagan Canyon information website.

The City of Santa Paula will be sponsoring its annual community clean-up
day on Saturday October 22 from 8:00 AM to 12 :00 PM. The City is looking
for individuals, civic, church and community groups to help with the
clean-up day. Volunteers will meet at the Gazebo next to the Historic
Train Depot for their assignments. The event will end with a barbeque at
the gazebo at Noon. To volunteer or for further information, please
contact the City's Public Works Department at 805-933-4212.

I had the opportunity last night to attend the Ventura City Council meeting as they discussed the amendment to our joint greenbelt. A greenbelt is a "handshake" agreement where two communities decide where the boundaries are that limit urban development. In Ventura County, SOAR puts more legal limits on development. The Ventura-Santa Paula Greenbelt was first developed in 1967.

It is always interesting to watch how other communities conduct their Council meetings. Ventura meets in a beautiful chambers. While they do not provide simultaneous translation in Spanish, they do provide sign language translation. The public comments were much more rough and tumble as well. Maybe because they are in the midst of a Council election.

As it turned out, the Ventura City Council decided to lay over the greenbelt item a month so I will get to return there for a Council meeting in November.

Because of the two meetings this week, replay of the meetings on Adelphia
Cable Channel 10 will be adjusted as follows:

Monday 10/03 - Live
Tuesday 10/04 - Live
Wednesday 10/05 - Replay of 10/03, 4:00 PM
Thursday 10/06 - Replay of 10/03, 6:00 PM
Sunday 10/09 - Replay of Tuesday 10/04, 1:00 PM
Monday 10/10 - Replay of Tuesday, 10/04, 6:30 PM

Congressman Elton Gallegly has accepted the invitation to serve as Grand
Marshall for the 56th Annual Santa Paula Christmas Parade on Saturday,
November 26.