Bennett Won’t Seek 2nd Term on Council

VENTURA — Councilman Steve Bennett, the savvy environmentalist who led the charge to preserve farmland in Ventura and hustled through one of the most restrictive campaign finance ordinances in the state, announced Thursday that he will not seek reelection.

“My sense is that public servants ought to serve, then withdraw, and kind of move back and forth,” Bennett said. “It helps keep you from becoming a career politician.”

The one-term councilman said he is not burned out and plans to stay active in local politics pushing for a countywide farmland preservation initiative next year similar to the one Ventura voters approved in 1995.

Four of the seven City Council seats are up for grabs. Councilman Gary Tuttle has already announced he will not run again, and Councilwoman Rosa Lee Measures is contemplating a bid for the legislative seat being abandoned by Assemblyman Brooks Firestone (R-Los Olivos).

Longtime Councilman Jim Monahan is the only incumbent who says he will definitely seek reelection. He will be joined by at least five other candidates who have filed official notices of their candidacy. The deadline for such notifications is Aug. 13.

“It’s a shame losing Steve,” Tuttle said. “But if we can get rid of Monahan and Measures, then it will be a wash.”

Bennett was elected to the council on an environmental platform in 1993. But he soon found himself on the losing end of many 5-2 votes. He and fellow environmentalist Tuttle were outmatched by the pro-business majority.

Yet he has managed to get an impressive amount of work done--mostly by mobilizing voters through ballot initiatives.

He spearheaded five successful ballot measures, including the campaign contribution limits initiative, the farmland-preservation initiative called Save Our Agricultural Resources and the campaign to keep Poli Street closed.

In the past year, he relentlessly lobbied the City Council to factor school capacity into governing the pace of growth in the city. He was also the council’s harshest critic of spending taxpayer dollars on a proposed minor-league baseball stadium.

“I think he has been the most effective political person in Ventura in the last 20 years,” Tuttle said.

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Bennett said he will continue grass-roots political organizing, building on his computerized list of supporters and like-minded activists.

“We have to find ways to tap into the unorganized majority,” said Bennett, who remained characteristically cryptic about his precise plans. “They don’t have an outlet like the Chamber of Commerce. Developing that skill has been really interesting.”

Bennett has developed a following for his populist positions. Ellen Peters, a Ventura resident who watches the weekly council meetings religiously, said she depends on Bennett to fight for the people.

“He has one of the few voices of reason on the council,” she said. “He thinks of the people first. . . . He votes with his heart and his conscience, and I don’t think money is the motivating factor with him.”

As a member of the council, Bennett also earned a reputation for his highly organized presentations in public forums. He often drove home his points using computer images projected on an overhead screen.

“He was killing them with his Powerpoint,” Tuttle said, referring to the software program Bennett used in presentations. “We were very effective at keeping the present council from doing anything because we were blasting them, and that kept them paranoid.”

Bennett’s other colleagues expressed surprise and shock at his unexpected announcement.

Mayor Jack Tingstrom, struggling for a response, said: “What do you want me to say? Yabba-dabba-doo?”

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Tingstrom added: “He said four years ago that he was a one-term candidate, and he has lived up to that. I am glad to see the controversy going away. He is the one who pointed fingers at all the council members. I am glad to see that [divisiveness] leaving.”

Councilman Jim Friedman offered a more muted response.

“When it comes to Steve, nothing surprises me anymore,” he said.

Councilman Ray Di Guilio called Bennett’s decision “a little bit of a bombshell from the community perspective.”

Monahan, who rarely votes with Bennett, described his colleague as a dynamic politician who likes to “get out and push.”

Bennett’s announcement instantly fueled speculation that he may run for higher office.

“I think he has an interest in a state-level job,” Monahan said. “There is going to be an Assembly seat open soon,” he added, referring to Firestone’s position.

Tuttle suspects Bennett will take a couple of years to consider a bid for the county supervisorial seat that will be vacated by Susan Lacey in two years.

“I guess it will depend who runs against him, like me,” Tuttle said.