Candidate for
Supervisor; County of Ventura; Supervisorial District 5

BACKGROUND

John K. Flynn is a fourth-generation Californian. Four of his great-grandparents came overland to California during the Gold Rush: Calista Richardson, a native of Vermont; her husband Karin Flynn, born in County Westmeath, Ireland; Alvy Anderson Bloss, a native of New York, and Alvy's wife-to-be, Harriet Elizabeth Neavill, a native of Iowa.

Calista and Karin Flynn's son William Karin Flynn married Harriet (Hattie) Bloss, the daughter of Alvy and Harriet Bloss. William Karin Flynn's fifth child, William B. Flynn, was John K. Flynn's father.

After serving in the US Army during World War I, William B. Flynn became an oilfield worker, met and married Alice Kratt, a native of New York and settled down to raise a family.

BIRTH AND EARLY LIFE

John's parents came to Ventura County during the oil boom on the Avenue in Ventura. John, born in a house on Emily Street in Ojai, was their third child and second son.

After their fourth and last child was born, the Flynn family moved to the Orella oil lease in Santa Barbara County where John spent his youth. He attended Santa Ynez High School where he played varsity football and was elected president of his senior class. For his Future Farmers of America project, John turned an unpromising-looking calf into the 1951 Grand Champion Steer at the Santa Barbara County Fair.

MILITARY SERVICE, COLLEGE AND MARRIAGE

John attended Cal Poly for a semester and then decided to volunteer for the US Army during the Korean Conflict. During that conflict, he was assigned top-secret duties with a military intelligence agency. John was honorably discharged in 1954 and returned to Santa Barbara County to continue his college education at the University of California's Santa Barbara College campus in Goleta.

John worked his way through UCSB by taking a job at a Shell Station in the San Roque area of Santa Barbara. Working in the soda fountain at the Rexall Drug Store next door was a freshman college student, Diane Wilson, who enjoyed insulting the young gas station attendant who always wore an Army football jacket.

Two years after they met, John and Diane married at the Santa Barbara's Old Mission. A year later, only a few days after their college graduation, their first son, Tim, was born.

John completed one more semester of teacher training at UCSB and then moved his wife and two children back to his native Ventura County where he had obtained a long-term substitute position in the Hueneme School District.

The Flynns lived in El Rio for a year until they were able to purchase an older home on North L Street, a home in which they still live today.

John began a Masters program in History at Cal State Northridge; meanwhile, his family grew to six children: Tim, Dina, Dan, Mara, Sara and Jeremy. All six were raised in Oxnard and graduated from Santa Clara Elementary and Santa Clara High School. All six have graduated with Bachelor's degrees. Four members of the family have Master's degrees as well: John, Diane, Tim and Dan.

COMMUNITY AND POLITICAL INVOLVEMENT

During the time that John and Diane Flynn were raising their family, they began to take an interest in current events, civil rights efforts and political issues and became active in various community groups. John often rose to a leadership position in these community groups.

Right after his youngest child, Jeremy, was born, John decided to run for County Supervisor. He knocked on the door of every voting household in the Fifth District, which at that time included the City of Oxnard (except for Colonia) and all of the City of Port Hueneme. If people needed to register to vote, he registered them to vote, too, whether or not they expressed support for his candidacy. He ran on a quality of life platform and beat the incumbent by only a few hundred votes.

Four years later, the man he had defeated was again his opponent. This time it was John's turn to lose the election by only a few hundred votes.

Oxnard College's president recognized John's leadership abilities and hired him as a Division Director for the Business and Public Services Division. During his three years at the College, John helped develop the Hotel and Restaurant Management Program and began the planning for an on-campus snack bar/restaurant.

Also during this period, the Governor appointed John as the chair of the Los Padres County Formation Review Commission, which was supposed to prepare a report for a proposed split of Santa Barbara County. Under his leadership, the commission was able to achieve its goal by putting aside personal preferences and conducting fair and open hearings throughout Santa Barbara County. After months of exhaustive research and dozens of public hearings of testimony on both sides, the report was completed. The proposed county split was brought to a vote of the people of the Santa Barbara County and defeated.

DÉJÀ VU?

When the next election cycle began, the incumbent Supervisor decided to step down and John once again threw his hat into the ring. Although he was the highest vote-getter in the Primary [the other two opponents being a city councilman and a mayor], there were not quite enough votes to avoid a run-off. John was victorious in the General Election, defeating the Mayor of Port Hueneme. He has served the people of the Fifth District ever since, although the boundaries have been repeatedly adjusted in order to equalize the number of people living in each Supervisorial District. To serve his rapidly-growing constituency better, he has learned to speak the Spanish language, studying in Mexico every summer at his own expense.

History repeated itself in 2004 when John faced the Mayor of Oxnard and a City Councilman in the Primary. Once again, John was the highest vote-getter, but did not have enough votes to avoid a run-off. He won handily against the Mayor in the November General Election.

The Fifth Supervisorial District now includes most of the City of Oxnard, the Silver Strand and Hollywood Beach communities, El Rio, Nyeland Acres and the Strickland Tract. It no longer includes the City of Port Hueneme, the southernmost portions of Oxnard, Oxnard Shores, Mandalay Bay or a large area of north Oxnard bounded by the 101 Freeway on the north, Hwy 1 on the east, Gonzales Road on the south and Ventura Road on the west. Many people in Ventura County ignore these District lines anyway. They tell everyone that when they want something done, they call John Flynn's office.