Moving Oxnard Forward

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.

On January 26, in the aftermath of the largest protest at City Hall in recent memory, the City Council voted to increase wastewater (sewer) rates by more than 87%.

On March 8 I filed with the Oxnard City Clerk a notice of intention to circulate an initiative to repeal that increase.

On March 23 we expected the City Attorney to deliver what is known as a "title and summary" so that we can begin gathering signatures to place our initiative on the November ballot.

Instead, the City of Oxnard sued me -- really, all of us -- intentionally employing a type of lawsuit that may not be settled for years, all for the purpose of denying you the opportunity to vote on this important issue.  

Imagine a lawsuit to stop someone from exercising a First Amendment right to petition. You wouldn't expect this in America, but it is actually happening right here in Oxnard.

On April 15, the Superior Court in Ventura will hear our lawsuit against the City of Oxnard seeking a judge’s order for the City Attorney to provide the legally required “title and summary” for our initiative to repeal wastewater utility rate increases.

While we anticipate that we will prevail in that hearing, past experience suggests that the city might engage in further delay even if we prevail...

Today a judge agreed to grant our lawsuit against the City of Oxnard an accelerated hearing schedule.  Even though the city’s lawsuit against our wastewater initiative is still active, today’s ruling means we do not have to wait until the prior suit’s August 19 hearing to have a court address the dispute.