ELECTIONS / SANTA PAULA COUNCIL : Candidates Running Low-Cost Campaigns, Call Business Top Issue

Only a handful of campaign signs dot the storefronts and roadsides around Santa Paula, and even fewer brochures have found their way into voters’ mailboxes.

Although few of the candidates for three seats open on the Santa Paula City Council will spend much money seeking election, each agrees that the top issues facing the city this year are attracting jobs and creating a more favorable climate for companies already in business.

According to the latest filing statements, the eight candidates will spend less than $15,000 combined on their campaigns.

Meanwhile, voters and candidates are talking primarily about restoring the once-thriving downtown and creating jobs for residents of Santa Paula, the poorest city in Ventura County.

Other concerns, such as cleaning up graffiti and solving a continuing gang problem, have for the most part taken a back seat to business among those who would rule the mostly agricultural city of about 25,000 residents.

“Crime was a big issue in the past,” Police Chief Walt Adair said. “But crime rates are down substantially in Santa Paula, as much as 25% over last year. So it’s not surprising it’s no longer foremost on people’s minds.”

Each of the candidates list attracting business and industry as their top priority.

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Another candidate, 33-year-old production supervisor Sergio Hernandez, who is waging a write-in campaign for a seat on the council, needs 20 valid signatures of support by Tuesday to become an official write-in candidate.

The Ventura County city with the lowest median income--roughly two-thirds of the county average of $45,612 a year--Santa Paula seemingly has been passed by as an investment prospect by builders and developers, candidates and city leaders say.

The crowded ballot features a variety of candidates: incumbents seeking return trips to the dais; former council members trying to pick up where they left off; and political newcomers intent on change.

Despite their varied backgrounds, the candidates use a similar theme in their campaigns. It is a message not lost on Santa Paula voters.

“I was born and raised here,” said Daniel Robles, director of the Blanchard Community Library in Santa Paula, “and we’ve really stagnated over the last 15 to 20 years.

“We need to look very seriously at economic growth. Now, the way the economy is, there isn’t enough money to go around to get things done.”

Besides economic development, Mayor Wayne D. Johnson, a first-term council member up for reelection, adds increased police and fire services to his list of goals. He also wants to better support youth programs such as the Boys & Girls Club and improve recent progress made to streamline permits and other services at City Hall.

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Johnson reported that he has just under $2,000 to spend getting elected.

He is on personal leave from his job as an insurance agent that began last year as a stress disability leave. Some voters wonder how he can seek reelection when he could not work professionally. But Johnson stands on his record.

“When they can start finding fault with the job I’ve done on the council, then they’ll have something to talk about,” he said.

Longtime Councilman John A.F. Melton points to his two decades of council service and reminds voters that he is well-known by state and federal officials, adding that contacts like those pay off at home.

He also says he wants to expand industry, but opponents point out that he voted against the K mart, its jobs and sales tax dollars when it came up for review at the City Council several years ago. Melton now says he was merely trying to preserve the greenbelt around the city.

Challenging the two incumbents are the town’s newspaper publisher, a legal clerk, a lumber yard manager, two business owners and a former councilman. Councilwoman Margaret A. Ely announced earlier this year that she would not seek reelection.

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Five of the eight official candidates, including four-time mayor Melton, filed papers saying they would spend less than $1,000 on their campaigns.

Laura Espinosa, who has a law degree and works as a clerk in the district attorney’s office while she prepares for the State Bar exam, reported total contributions of more than $4,000. She said she would work at enhancing youth programs and building stronger relationships between private industry and education.

Another leading money-gatherer is Santa Paula Times Publisher Don Johnson, no relation to the mayor, who has raised more than $3,400 in cash and other contributions for his campaign. He touts an economic revitalization plan that includes building more middle- and upper-income homes to increase the city’s tax base.

Some rival candidates and business owners do not like the idea of the city’s lone newspaper publisher seeking election to the council. But that doesn’t bother Johnson.

“It puts me in a better position to make sure the truth is getting out,” he said.

Leslie H. Maland served on the Santa Paula City Council for 24 years before being unseated by Robin Sullivan two years ago. He said he is proud of the strides the council has taken with its redevelopment funds and other improvement plans but that more needs to be done.

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Santa Paula teen-agers need a recreation center much like the Boys & Girls Club, he said. Youth programs are “less expensive than adding a few more head busters in the police department,” Maland said.

Flo Zakrajshek has owned an air-conditioning business in town for three decades. The 1993 Santa Paula citizen of the year, Zakrajshek lost a council bid two years ago. She said she supports downtown revitalization but objects to the Downtown Improvement Plan approved by the council because it is misdirected.

“Flower pots, benches and signage is not going to bring shoppers downtown,” Zakrajshek said.

The improvement plan targets 1,100 acres as a revitalization center and proposes sweeping changes in land use and other regulations over the next 15 years to lure investment to the area.

Like Zakrajshek, lumber yard manager John Wisda said the city is not using its redevelopment and other funds to its best advantage. He complained that the current council would rather buy fixed assets such as swing sets and dump trucks rather than offer investment incentives to residents.

Wisda said he would work to create a low-income home buyers program to beef up property tax rolls. “That gives you a return on your investment,” he said. “Playground equipment does not pay property taxes.”

Candidate Victor Salas is a lifetime Santa Paula resident who in recent years has become more and more politically active. He runs his family’s manufacturing plant and helped launch the city’s Mexican-American Chamber of Commerce.

Salas said he wants a younger and more diverse council to stir up what he calls a bureaucratic City Hall that hinders economic growth.

“A lot of industries come into the city and we seem to put too many restrictions on them,” Salas said. “So they leave.”

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The local business community has not endorsed any particular candidate.

But for the first time, the Santa Paula Area Chamber of Commerce is grilling candidates via a questionnaire drawn up by President Dan Diaz, a third-generation Santa Paulan whose family has run a local restaurant for nearly 60 years.

Diaz said he is most concerned with attracting new businesses and employers to his hometown. He said he supports the small steps that have been taken in recent years, such as the Downtown Improvement Plan, but urges the council to begin other programs to help local merchants.

“We’ve been in business for 58 years,” said Diaz, who said the questionnaire results will be distributed to chamber members. “Our survival depends on the survival of other businesses in town.”

Other merchants are lobbying against incumbents. Some say the current council is responsible for driving businesses away.

“We’ve had a real problem with them being anti-business,” said Jim McCoy, a former council member who runs an automobile repair shop in town. “They’ve not been working with the community as much as they should.”

McCoy filed a complaint with the district attorney questioning how Johnson could be on stress disability while serving as mayor. That claim is still under investigation, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Rhonda Schmidt.

Troy Helton, who owns an air-conditioning shop in Santa Paula, said the current council needs fresh faces to do away with business-stifling regulations.

“They’re totally out of touch with the people in town, the business people that generate the dollars and make things happen,” Helton said. “Some of them have been on the council for too long.”

Retired Judge Edwin F. Beach rues the recent council decision not to endorse Proposition 187, the so-called Save Our State initiative that would deny most public services to illegal immigrants.

He also complained that the city administrator and department heads seem to have too much control.

“The council lets too many of the decisions be made by staff, rather than taking the bull by the horns and telling the staff to carry out the policies they set,” Beach said.

Santa Paula City Council Eight candidates, two of them incumbents, are seeking election to three council seats. Each candidate sees a need to attract industry and jobs to the city, which has the lowest median income in Ventura County. But the candidates have offered little in the way of specifics.

Laura Espinosa

Age: 40

Occupation: legal clerk at the Ventura County district attorney’s office

Education: law degree from the Ventura College of Law, associate of arts degree in political science from Ventura College

Background: Espinosa was born and raised in Oxnard but has lived in Santa Paula for more than 20 years. Espinosa said she has worked extensively to promote the city’s youth, including a stint as youth employment director at the Santa Paula Boys & Girls Club and 11 years as a volunteer at the facility.

Issues: Espinosa said she will focus on economic development in the community while looking for alternative ways to create funding sources. She wants to implement more coalitions among private industry, the city and the schools to better educate the residents and to beef up the police force if more revenue can be found. She also wants to stimulate home ownership by providing incentives to developers to build more affordable housing.

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Don Johnson

Age: 47

Occupation: newspaper publisher

Education: graduated from Adolfo Camarillo High School in 1965, attended Ventura College for three years

Background: Johnson arrived in Ventura County in 1962 and served two years in Vietnam after high school. After working as business manager of the Simi Valley Enterprise, he moved to Santa Paula in 1979 to accept a job as general manager of the Santa Paula Chronicle. He launched the Santa Paula Times in January, 1993, after the Chronicle closed. He recently helped found a citizens watch patrol.

Issues: Johnson said that increasing the tax base and strengthening the local economy are his top issues. He wants to see homes for middle- and higher-income buyers built in Santa Paula to balance the city’s housing stock and increase property tax revenues, and he supports annexing a portion of Adams Canyon to the west of Santa Paula to build those homes. He said that the Redevelopment Agency efforts begun in the past two years should have been started years ago and that more work needs to be done to lure consumers downtown. He said there is no conflict of interest between serving on the council and publishing a local newspaper.

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Wayne D. Johnson

Age: 54

Occupation: council incumbent, former insurance agent now on personal leave

Education: attended El Camino College in Torrance for two years

Background: A first-term councilman and current mayor, Johnson was born in Culver City and moved to Santa Paula in 1972. Before winning a council seat in 1990, Johnson served on a variety of city-related commissions, including the Planning Commission, the Housing Authority and the Mobile Home Rent Review Board.

Issues: Johnson wants to follow through on efforts the council has begun in recent years to turn the economy around in Santa Paula. He points to a new Taco Bell and movie theater as evidence of an economic turnaround. He also wants to hire more police officers and firefighters. He said the city is working hard to attract businesses and trying to streamline the permitting and inspection processes required by city staff.

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Leslie H. Maland

Age: 73

Occupation: retired civil engineer

Education: bachelor of arts degree in engineering from UC Berkeley, master’s degree in engineering from UCLA

Background: A native of North Dakota, Maland moved to Ventura County as a teen-ager. A 58-year resident of Santa Paula, he spent four years in the Army Air Corps during World War II before operating a construction business in Santa Paula for more than 10 years. He spent the next 28 years as a deputy civil engineer for the U. S. Navy at Point Mugu. Maland was a 24-year council member, including four stints as Santa Paula mayor, when he was defeated in the 1992 election.

Issues: Maland says he wants to attract jobs and industry to Santa Paula and is concerned by the city budget. He chastised current council members for appointing a finance review committee to make recommendations on the 1994-95 budget, saying they lost the opportunity to figure out the workings of a city budget for themselves. He also advocates a teen center for young residents who may not be interested in the Boys & Girls Club. He said the council should pay more attention to its teen-age residents and less attention to the Union Oil Museum.

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John A. F. Melton

Age: 64

Occupation: council incumbent, retired manager for Southern California Edison

Education: associate of arts from Ventura College; attended several universities, including the University of Kansas and Baker University in Baldwin City, Kan.

Background: Melton, a Kansas native, moved to California after visiting when he was serving in the Marine Corps in 1951. He took a job with Edison in 1953 and spent 37 years at the company before retiring in 1990. A council member since 1974, Melton has served on a number of regional panels that set policy for local governments, including the Southern California Assn. of Governments and the California Council of Governments.

Issues: Melton wants to protect the quality of life in Santa Paula by continuing to attract development. He wants to ensure, however, that the city does not lose its agricultural base by allowing too much development and said that preserving the existing greenbelt around the city will help. He said his years of service on the council and his contacts at regional, state and federal levels benefit the city. He said the city is being run efficiently and points to the fact that it employs about the same number of people it did 16 years ago, despite a 45% increase in population.

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Victor Salas

Age: 62

Occupation: Newly retired from Santa Paula Water Works, Salas will concentrate full-time on a family business that manufactures pest-control devices.

Education: earned an associate of arts degree in hydrology from Ventura College, attended classes at San Diego State University

Background: Salas was born and raised in Santa Paula. He spent four years in the U. S. Air Force before opening the first Spanish-language radio station in Ventura County. He spent seven years on the Planning Commission and four years on the Santa Paula Union High School District governing board. An active member of the Santa Paula Area Chamber of Commerce, he later helped found the Mexican-American Chamber of Commerce and served as its first president.

Issues: Salas said the Santa Paula City Council needs to better reflect the city’s ethnic majority. He said the panel also needs younger people with new ideas because the city is losing sales tax dollars to nearby markets such as Ventura and Oxnard. Like the other candidates, Salas wants to see more jobs and industry in the city. He said he could use his business experience to help new companies get through the permitting and inspection processes more easily.

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John Wisda

Age: 46

Occupation: lumber-yard manager

Education: high school graduate

Background: Wisda was born in Chicago, but moved in the early 1950s to Santa Monica, where he remained until moving to Santa Paula five years ago. Since his arrival, Wisda has coached youth soccer teams and been a member of the Santa Paula Rotary Club.

Issues: The candidate with the shortest residency in Santa Paula, Wisda said he has made the most of his five years in Ventura County. He says he wants to strengthen the local economy and lower taxes. He said two of the city’s funding sources--Redevelopment Agency funds and Community Development Block Grant money--are being misused. He said both funds should be tapped to help first-time home buyers, who would contribute to property tax rolls. Wisda, a member of the citizens panel appointed last year to tackle the looming budget deficit, was miffed when the council ignored most of the committee’s recommendations. He chastises the council for not taking advantage of growth opportunities in the 1980s and said that only now are council members coming around to welcoming development.

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Flo Zakrajshek

Age: 64

Occupation: owns and operates heating and air-conditioning company

Education: attended a university in Ohio for two years

Background: A 35-year resident, Zakrajshek has been active in Santa Paula for years, participating in several citizens panels and running for City Council in 1990 and 1992. She was named Santa Paula’s citizen of the year in 1993.

Issues: Zakrajshek said Santa Paula needs to concentrate on bringing more shoppers downtown to stimulate an area that used to be a major draw. The city should focus on its uniqueness and enhance the once-popular Main Street and Harvard Boulevard areas, she said. The high dropout rate among high school students worries Zakrajshek, and she supports better communication between the city and its school districts. She is also worried about budget problems that have plagued the city in recent years and said the council should show more prudence in its expenditures. She supports the goal of the downtown improvement plan but worries that not enough tangible improvements will be made to attract new businesses.