Moving Oxnard Forward

MAJOR DEVELOPMENT -- OXNARD UTILITY RATE REPEAL

Please join us at this week's Oxnard City Council meeting for a significant announcement concerning our campaign to repeal Oxnard's excessive 87% wastewater (sewer) rate increase.

ONLY A FEW HOURS REMAINING TO SIGN PETITION

DATE: Sunday, May 15, 2016
TIME: 1:00 pm -- 6:00 pm
LOCATION: Sam's Club, 2401 N Rose Ave, Oxnard, CA 93036

The last opportunity to sign a petition (or submit signatures you have collected) to repeal Oxnard’s excessive 87% wastewater (sewer) rate increase is this weekend.

Our progress has been amazing.  Considering the delay tactics and roadblocks that City Hall placed before us, we have come a long way since we kicked off our signature drive on April 30.

We are right on the edge of having enough signatures and the deadline is looming. 

We'll all be celebrating mothers this weekend.  If your mother lives in Oxnard, you can also give her the gift of a lower water bill by signing our petition to repeal the city council's 87% increase in the sewer rates.  You could be saving her $326 per year!

Below is our petitioning schedule for the weekend.  If you haven't signed yet, please find us at one of these events.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Come Sign Petition to Repeal Oxnard’s 87% Sewer Rate Increase

DATE: Saturday, April 30, 2016
TIME: All Day, Starting at 8:00 am
LOCATION: Tomas Café, 622 South A Street, Oxnard, CA 93030

It’s about time!!

On April 20 we finally received the document, called a “title and summary”, which we needed to start the process of petitioning for an initiative to repeal an 87% increase in wastewater (sewer) rates.

Perhaps we got the Oxnard City Council’s attention when word got back to them that Judge Rocky Baio agreed to a hearing this Thursday, where we were to present our case for citing the City as being in contempt of court for not following his order to issue us the paperwork needed to start gathering signatures.

When the City Council emerged from closed session tonight, the City Attorney announced they had unanimously agreed to NOT appeal the judge’s order that the City Attorney immediately provide us the paperwork we have been fighting for.

Must we go back to court?

It has been three days since a judge ordered Oxnard City Attorney Stephen Fischer to “immediately” provide the paperwork we need to start collecting petition signatures to repeal the 87% wastewater rate increase.  He has not done it yet.

That’s another weekend gone without the chance to collect signatures.  The clock ticks, and the May 20 signature-gathering deadline approaches.

Click here to see the letter our attorneys issued this afternoon to the outside attorneys handling this case for the city.  In summary, if we do not receive the mandated paperwork by close-of-business today, we’ll ask a judge to find them in contempt of court.

On Friday, April 15, Ventura County Superior Court Judge Rocky Baio ordered the Oxnard City Attorney to “immediately” obey an order to provide Aaron Starr with a required document before we can start collecting initiative petition signatures to repeal the city’s 87% increase in wastewater rates -- an additional $326 for a typical family per year.

So far, Oxnard City Attorney Stephen Fischer has refused two opportunities to do what the judge ordered.  Mayor Tim Flynn needs to direct him to follow the law.

First of all, THANK YOU for standing with us in court today.  Even the judge commented briefly on the unusually large turnout.

At the end of the hearing, we prevailed in our lawsuit against the City of Oxnard for their delay tactics, refusing to do their duty under law to issue the “title and summary” for our initiative to repeal excessive 87% increases in wastewater rates.  We need that document before we can collect signatures and qualify for the November ballot.