Measures Won’t Seek 2nd Term on City Council

VENTURA — As she considers a bid for state Assembly and other opportunities, Councilwoman Rosa Lee Measures, the local businesswoman who became the city’s unofficial spokeswoman for the arts, announced Thursday that she will not seek reelection.

Measures said she would not run again because she is not sure she would be able to serve the full four-year term without leaving to return to business or run for higher office.

“I always finish what I start,” Measures said on the front steps of City Hall. Therefore, she said, “I cannot commit to the race.”

Measures is the third City Council member to decide not to run for reelection. Councilmen Gary Tuttle and Steve Bennett had earlier announced their departures from city politics, leaving five-term Councilman Jim Monahan the lone incumbent who will definitely seek another term.

The exodus leaves the race for at least three seats wide open and has triggered a stampede of last-minute applicants as the deadline nears for candidates to sign up for the race.

By the end of the day Thursday, nine people had taken out papers to become City Council candidates, said Deputy City Clerk Mabi Plisky. Phone calls from would-be contenders were pouring into the clerk’s office.

“We’ve had a lot of interest today,” Plisky said before grabbing another phone and launching into a description of filing requirements. “Tomorrow should be very interesting.”

Although the deadline was supposed to be today, it will be extended to Wednesday to give new candidates more time--given that incumbents are stepping down.

Measures, 60, ran on a pro-business platform four years ago, pledging to bring economic vitality, public safety, environmental protection and affordable housing to Ventura.

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She said she can leave now because she has made good on her campaign promises. The downtown renaissance is underway, she said, and the Buenaventura Mall expansion is on track.

She says helping establish the Homeless Employment Resource Operation (HERO)--a program to assist homeless people in finding jobs and housing--is one of her greatest accomplishments.

Yet Measures has some regrets. She wishes the city had built a park in eastern Ventura and laments that the historic Peirano grocery store on Main Street still languishes as the city continues to debate its fate.

Measures added that she is looking at a job with the International Executive Peace Corps but hedged about how seriously she is weighing a bid for the legislative seat being abandoned by Assemblyman Brooks Firestone (R-Los Olivos). She would divulge only that Republicans around the state have been “courting” her in recent weeks.

“It’s like a proposal,” she said, using a wedding analogy to describe her political status. “But people are already planning the wedding.”

Firestone was more forthcoming.

“She’s certainly considering it very seriously,” he said. “And she’s doing it exactly right. She’s talking to people, assessing the responsibility of the job.”

He added that Measures has a good chance of winning. “She is certainly the kind of person who should run for the state Assembly. She has good business experience, local government experience and she’s a successful and bright woman. She would be good for California.”

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Firestone said Measures and Santa Paula rancher Dan Pinkerton attended a seminar on his ranch several weeks ago to meet with Republican politicians. Known as the Seminar Under the Oaks, the event is considered an opportunity to examine, at an early stage, the qualities candidates would bring to the table.

“If she’s not running for council, it’s only logical that she is running for Assembly,” said former Ventura council member and Republican Nan Drake.

Fellow council members expressed regret at her announcement and speculated about what her departure from the fall race would bring.

“She was a hard and diligent worker,” said Councilman Jim Friedman. “Her greatest impact was the time and effort she put into the cultural arts.”

Monahan ran into Measures as he rushed up the steps of City Hall to file his papers.

“I’m sad to see so many people go,” he said. “We’re going to lose a lot of experience.”