Two take aim at Flynn
Teacher, Oxnard city councilman throw hats in ring for supervisor’s race
By Bill Lascher 06/07/2007
Denis O’Leary became the second person in a week to announce he would challenge Ventura County Supervisor John Flynn in the 2008 election. O’Leary’s June 5 announcement follows news May 22 that John C. Zaragoza also plans to run for the 5th District supervisor’s office, which represents residents from most of Oxnard, Silver Strand, Channel Islands Harbor, El Rio and other surrounding unincorporated areas.
O’Leary and Zaragoza hope to unseat Flynn, who was first elected to the board more than 30 years ago. In 2004, Zaragoza, a member of Oxnard’s City Council, vied for the position but came in third in the primary election.
A sixth-grade teacher at Rio Real School in El Rio, O’Leary is also a member of the Oxnard Elementary School Board. He characterized his campaign as an outgrowth of his 18-year career as an educator.
“I have been able to make the connections that have helped with several issues,” O’Leary said. “I am an educator, and really my philosophy of how to better the education for kids is to make sure that the community they live in supports them. If we have better services and parents have better security, I really think the kids are going to come to school and do better academically.”
Although he said Flynn has done “many good things” in his career as a supervisor, O’Leary believes that clashes with other county supervisors and public officials who have interfered with the district’s ability to progress. He said Flynn’s departure from the voting patterns of other supervisors has kept the 5th District behind progress that has been made in other parts of the county.
“In the process our harbors are dying of rot, and El Rio still has unpaved streets,” O’Leary said, referring to a management dispute at Channel Islands Harbor in 2005 in which Flynn played a major role and an alleyway near Kinney and Alvarado streets in El Rio.
“Unfortunately here in the 5th District we’ve gotten in a situation of 4-1 votes,” he said. “We need someone in the district that can get two more votes. I think I can be persuasive.”
With plans to begin campaigning as soon as he filed papers, O’Leary said he would spend the year before California’s primary election — currently scheduled for June 3, 2008 — knocking on doors throughout the 5th District and interviewing with public agencies and unions he would have to work with if elected. Port Hueneme City Councilman Murray Rosenbluth is the chair of O’Leary’s campaign committee, which also includes former Oxnard Mayor Manny Lopez, who lost to Flynn in the 2004 runoff.
Flynn’s other opponent in that election, however, is having another go of it. Zaragoza said he is running again because of success he has had during three terms as an Oxnard City Council member.
In a release announcing his campaign and in a telephone interview he touted his opposition to BHP Billiton’s proposed Cabrillo Port liquefied natural gas facility — which Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed May 21 — as well as helping wetlands restoration efforts in Ormond Beach, support of Ventura County’s naval bases as a member of the Base Realignment and Closure committee, job creation in Oxnard during his tenure on the council and other issues.
“One of the things that I think I have in my favor as a leader here in Oxnard is that I can bring people together and have the experience of building teams and coalitions,” Zaragoza said. “[Flynn] has done his job, and I have a lot of respect for him, but I think we need a change with new ideas and somebody that can lead the 5th District into working with other supervisors and betterment of the community.”
Zaragoza, a vice-chair of the local agency formation committee, the chair of the Oxnard Airport Authority, and the former solid waste superintendent for Oxnard, said he has made the connections necessary to form partnerships with other supervisors and public officials.
“A lot of people have called and said we need a change and new ideas,” he said.
A former public employee who now runs his own real estate and tax consulting business, Zaragoza said he has “the best of both worlds,” in terms of experience.
“I’ve been very successful in running both ends of public and private business,” he said. “I believe I can work with the county board of supervisors and other agencies and cities for the benefit of Ventura County and the community.”
Although Flynn has not made a formal announcement because he has been recovering from knee surgery, he told the Reporter June 4 that he will seek re-election.
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