John Flynn - Deeds, Not Words

By John K. Flynn

John Flynn's accomplishments during his many years of public service have benefited the residents of his district, as well as the entire County of Ventura.

• For the past fourteen years, Ventura County has been ranked among the safest areas in the United States. John Flynn has always been in the forefront with support for public safety.

• For 50 years, people watched as salt water intruded into water wells on the Oxnard Plain. John Flynn saw that there was a problem and ACTED upon it. Because of his leadership, the Freeman Groundwater-Recharge Diversion was built on the Santa Clara River and the Fox Canyon [Aquifer] Groundwater Management Agency was formed. Our water supply was saved.

• Because the community of El Rio is under mandate to eliminate groundwater-polluting septic tanks, John Flynn has obtained over $17 million in grants to help residents comply with the order. The communities of Nyeland Acres and Strickland have been completed. Phase Six is about to begin. When these projects are completed, many of El Rio's drainage problems will have been resolved and the underground water supply for the entire Oxnard Plain will once again have been protected from contamination.

• For months, the first BRAC Task Force had held meetings but had devised no meaningful strategies for coping with planned Ventura County Navy Base closures. Realizing that many of his district's residents derived their livelihoods from the military bases, John Flynn joined the Task Force as co-chair. As a result, a cohesive plan was developed and implemented. The bases were not closed.

• John Flynn has always been active in the area of job development because he believes that a healthy economy requires self-respecting residents with fair and meaningful employment, a living wage and decent working conditions. He has aided industries that wished to re-locate in Oxnard by helping cut through bureaucratic red tape. He was instrumental in setting up the One-Stop Job Centers for unemployed and underemployed people on public assistance. He has earned the support of both labor and business leaders through his efforts to help both sectors.

• John Flynn moved his Fifth Supervisorial District office to South Oxnard, negotiating an arrangement with a local bank for rent-free accommodations, because he saw that the area's neighborhoods and businesses were suffering from official neglect. He also knew that it was a hardship for many of his constituents to travel to his office in the Ventura County Government Center. He then joined with public-spirited residents in the South Oxnard Business Association to call attention to the area's potential.

• John Flynn was told by El Rio-area residents that their community lacked recreational opportunities for young people. Through his leadership, necessary funds were raised from private foundations and public sources. The result was that a community center was built that serves all of the population, including a gymnasium, a public health clinic and a sheriff's substation.

• John Flynn's leadership and ability to obtain funding from a variety of sources has continued to enhance Oxnard's unincorporated beach communities with storm drainage, curbs, gutters and undergrounded utilities.

• John Flynn's leadership was enlisted by beach and fishery activists for the removal of the outmoded Matilija Dam in order to restore health to Ventura County's steelhead fishery and beaches. The dam, incapable of flood control or water storage because it lacks structural integrity, prevents fish migration and new supplies of sand from reaching Ventura County's shrinking beaches via the Ventura River. He was a founding member of BEACON, a beach erosion prevention action committee of coastal cities in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. He has helped to re-define the watershed protection functions that Ventura County Flood Control Districts were actually performing. John is a player in the California Wetlands Committee and has been involved with the protection of Ventura County wetlands, including the rehabilitation and rebuilding of the City of Oxnard's Ormond Beach.

• John Flynn is dedicated to the preservation of agriculture and open space. He was the first public official to fight the proposed gigantic Newhall Ranch development on the Los Angeles-Ventura County line which threatens our agriculture and water supply. He is a leader in the fight to build farm worker housing in Ventura County.

• John Flynn's help and support were sought for building a Veterans' home in Ventura County because organizers recognized his ability in bringing together disparate groups. A veteran himself, John Flynn's leadership has made the Ventura County Veterans' Memorial a reality through donations at no out-of-pocket cost to the taxpayers.

• John Flynn's office is contacted by thousands of residents from his district and from all over his native Ventura County each year seeking help with problems in all facets of their lives. Whenever there is a serious issue affecting health and safety, John Flynn cuts through bureaucracy and acts to solve that problem, even when it has occurred within a city or outside of his district. In the case of El Tapatio, a converted motel closed down because of sewage, electrical and other deficiencies, his office aided the residents in finding decent places to live. When a Neighborhood Council chair contacted John Flynn about a pervasive odor in Oxnard's South Bank neighborhood, he immediately assigned a member of his office staff to the problem, although the area was outside of his district. Her investigation led to discovering the causes of the odor. The problem was solved.

• John Flynn successfully lobbied for the extension of MetroLink into Oxnard after the disastrous Northridge earthquake in 1994. Because of his immediate action, thousands of Ventura County residents were able to commute to their jobs in Los Angeles County during the reconstruction of the Los Angeles freeway system.

• When a former County Executive and three members of the Board of Supervisors proposed to contract for public health care and to close the County General Hospital, John Flynn knew that dismantling Ventura County's public health services was not the best answer to the hospital's huge deficit. He assembled the doctors and nurses and asked them what needed to be done in order to restore the economic health of our public health system. A new medical director was hired, the deficit was eliminated and the County's systems of care are now a model for the entire country.

• When parents of mentally-ill persons complained to the Board of Supervisors about a lack of treatment facilities, support and direction, John Flynn immediately met with them to address their concerns. John's leadership doubled the number of beds for the county's mentally ill by introducing the measure which resulted in the construction of the Ventura County Psychiatric Hospital. John worked with State legislators to obtain land for the construction of La Posada, another mental health facility located near Cal State University Channel Islands.

• John Flynn's suggestions and efforts resulted in a successful partnership between the County of Ventura and Oxnard College to finance the college's new Student Center Building. During John's tenure as Oxnard College's Director of the Business and Public Services Division, he was instrumental in the development of many new programs, including the college's Hotel and Restaurant Program. John Flynn and members of his Supervisor's office staff worked with members of the Oxnard community to establish after-school programs at Lemonwood and Driffill schools.