By David Courtland and Carlos Garcia
Both candidates for Oxnard City Council’s District 2 faced off against each other on Oct. 7 at a forum sponsored by the city’s Inter-Neighborhood Council Organization (INCO).
“I’ve lived in Oxnard for 65-plus years,” challenger Lizanne Nañez began her opening statement. “I have lived in five of the six districts so I’ve got a pretty good canvas of what Oxnard looks like.”
Nañez added that she had lived in District 2 for over 40 years, graduating from Channel Islands High School and attending Ventura College before going on to a 42-year career at Proctor & Gamble.
That job gave her three decades of financial experience as she worked on her accounting degree from UC-Santa Barbara, and experience working with community leaders.
“I am running because of three core values: public safety, financial accountability and stability and transparency and communication,” said Nañez, “because every resident should know where their hard-earned money is being spent.”
Incumbent City Councilmember Gabe Teran began his opening statement by thanking INCO for sponsoring the forum, noting he had been on the planning side of them and knew the work involved.
“I’m a nearly lifelong Oxnard resident and I served in the neighborhood council system myself,” Teran said, adding that he had also been a Parks and Recreation commissioner before running for city council.
Teran cited his master’s degree in management and leadership as well as having overseen large budgets for the Ventura County Office of Education and Oxnard’s $750 million budget.
“Over this past term we have made some real strides strengthening our neighborhoods, improving our city services and actually moving Oxnard forward,” Teran said.
“I’m running for reelection because of my unwavering advocacy, to continue our progress and protect our working families and neighbors,” said Teran, “and ensure a vibrant, transparent future for every resident in our community.”
Asked what she thought the biggest challenge facing the council is, Nañez said it was councilmembers themselves.
“I feel like the biggest challenge is collaborating with each other,” said Nañez. “It doesn’t seem like a lot of decisions get made without a lot of arguments.”
Nañez said “besides bickering among councilmembers, it seemed to her too much authority had been granted to the city manager, Alex Nguyen”.
“It seems to me that when the city council wants something approved, it’s not going to be approved unless the city manager approves it,” Nañez said.
Nañez added that she thought a lot of decisions were not made based on what residents wanted, something she had heard from residents as she campaigned door to door.
Teran wasn’t shy about calling out Councilmember Aaron Starr for causing conflict on the council.
“Regarding interpersonal conflict and issues on the council, I think one councilmember, Mr. Starr, is just not used to being held accountable for his words,” Teran said.
Teran noted he had specifically asked other councilmembers to point out when he was contradicting himself and said Councilmember Bert Perello had done so a number of times.
Asked if he thought rapid growth in the River Park and Wagon Wheel neighborhoods were a concern, Teran said he saw that as a positive, though he acknowledged there has been overcrowding due to lack of enough units and affordability.
“I think it’s great that people are choosing to move to Oxnard,” Teran said. “It’s always my hope that the first generation to come… will one day be the third or fourth generation like my family is.”
Nañez said although it was nice to have areas like The Collection, Wagon Wheel and River Park, the problem she saw was that parking is not taken into consideration.
“There’s not enough parking for River Park, that’s one of the biggest items from door to door that I’ve heard,” Nañez said, adding that she appreciated the police presence in The Collection.
“However, there’s public safety issues,” Nañez said, referring to recent shootings at The Collection and Wagon Wheel. “What are we doing with our youth, why are they out there at that time shooting people?”
Nañez said that next to parking, one of the most frequent concerns she heard from people as she campaigned door to door was the presence of homeless people on the streets.
“I know the city has said they’ve (seen a drop) of 16 percent, but I disagree with that – they are walking the streets, they’re in my neighborhood and they’re looking in the cars,” said Nañez.
Teran said he had just the opposite experience going door to door, with people expressing satisfaction with the direction the city is going in.
“I’ve been surprised that this year people have said that things are good,” Teran said. “But I do hear about parking, alleys and Campus Park, which is under construction.”