VENTURA : Battle Over Street Reaches City Clerk

The battle between Ventura residents fighting to reopen Poli Street at Ventura High School and those who want to keep it closed spilled over into the city clerk’s office this week.

The group working to defeat Measure E, which would reopen the street, noticed that opponents had given neither their organization’s name nor its address in campaign literature, which is a violation of the state elections code.

In a mailing to 1,000 absentee voters, Concerned Citizens of Ventura put only the initials “CCV” above the return addresses on its envelopes.

And the enclosed pamphlets fail to list even the initials of the group’s name or its address. The mailing also included a cover letter that fully identified the group.

After anti-Measure E forces gave copies of the literature to City Clerk Barbara Kam, she informed Concerned Citizens of Ventura President David Gladstone that all campaign literature should identify the sender’s name on the outside envelopes. Groups must also give their names and addresses on any pamphlets they distribute by hand.

Gladstone said the omissions were a mistake. “It was an oversight,” he said, adding that the organization is reprinting flyers to include the missing information.

But Ventura High parent Valerie Chrisman, who heads the anti-Measure E group known as Poli: Safety Over Convenience, said Concerned Citizens’ failure to identify itself was deliberate.

Measure E opponents are upset, Chrisman said, because Gladstone’s group is using the Ventura High School colors gold and black in its literature, which she said wrongly implies school support for the initiative.

Gladstone, however, said his organization picked the high school’s colors because the issue is about Ventura High.