For over 33 years of incredible service for the City of Oxnard, Karl Lawson was recognized Wednesday, Dec. 20 for his job well done in servicing the community as a member of the Oxnard Housing Department.
Lawson began his career with the City of Oxnard after working with the United Farm Workers as an organizer and contract administrator from the late 70’s to the late 80’s. He joined Oxnard as a temporary Senior Community Relations Specialist as part of the 1990 Census effort to increase the non-English speaking population representation.
This role led to him building a team that increased the final Census count by 10.5% above the Census Bureau’s and state’s pre-census projections.
In 1991 Lawson was hired permanently as the Compliance Service Manager position, which he held for the past 31 years. His primary duties included administering the Mobile Home Park Rent Stabilization Program, acting as the City’s Fair Housing Officer and serving as the first designated Americans with Disabilities Act Coordinator for the City of Oxnard.
One of Lawson’s greatest accomplishments as the Compliance Services Manager was in the late 90’s, working on the Rent Stabilization Ordinance Review Task Force and brokering a successful agreement between 3000 mobile homeowners and the owners of 22 mobile home parks, which ended years of litigation and concluded with mutual agreement of a strong mobile home rent stabilization ordinance which has helped to maintain housing affordability for a sector which makes up 10% of the City’s homeowners.
Among these experiences, Lawson was also designated to serve as Hearing Officer for citizen appeals to traffic and code violations, civil citations, business license and tax appeals and tenant appeals of Oxnard Housing Authority actions, issuing decisions in over 250 appeal hearings.
During this time, he was responsible for a variety of City programs, mainly in the Housing Department, including serving as Housing Authority Programs Manager from 2008 – 2009; Affordable Housing and Rehabilitation Program Manager from 2011 to 2015; Homeless Programs Manager from 2014 – 2019. Within this time, he established, operated and managed the City’s first 24-hour per day/seven-day per week shelter, from its inception as the sole staff person until the operation was fully staffed, and turned over to an outside firm.
Lawson served as a staff support and city liaison to various Citizen Advisory Groups, including the Mobile Home Park Rent Review Board and The Housing Authority Resident Advisory Board, just to name a couple.
Lawson has strived to be responsive, straightforward, culturally-appropriate, and transparent throughout his 33 years of service.
Mayor Zaragoza along with the rest of the City “commends, recognizes, and extends its gratitude to Karl Lawson for over 33 years of dedicated service to the City of Oxnard. The City of Oxnard offers its best wishes as he embarks on this new journey”.
After the Mayor went through his biography, Lawson first thanked his family for not just their moral support but also for actually doing work for Oxnard.
“My family have actually done work for the City of Oxnard. Ever since my kids were little, they would come in the office and help stuff envelopes. At a very young age they would help people who didn’t know how to read and write fill out their Census forms in 1990 and in 2000. In more recent years, they pulled all night shifts as volunteers at our homeless shelter when we didn’t have enough staff yet, my wife and my in-laws and my children helped,” Lawson said.
Filled with gratitude, Lawson said, “There’s worth and value in all service and this City has given me an opportunity to be of service.”
