A Matter of Trust

Here we go again. Like Chicken Little telling us the sky is falling, Ventura Councilman Steve Bennett is screeching, “Urban sprawl, urban sprawl.” And all the stinkweed lovers and save-the-gopher followers come running to jam a terrible initiative down the average citizen’s throat in the name of saving open spaces.

What the so-called S.O.A.R. initiative really does is take the authority and responsibility out of the hands of our seven citywide elected officials and make all future planning issues a 15-second campaign slogan of “growth or no growth.”

Since Councilman Bennett can’t persuade three other council members to come around to his way of thinking or voting, he will just take their ability to act as our representatives away from them. He will claim that this empowers the voters more. But what it really does is insults our intelligence to elect a decision-making council, with members who can investigate thoroughly all aspects of our city’s comprehensive plan.

The people have more trust in our form of local government than Steve Bennett does, and his attempt to play us for a fool is wrong. He has one of seven votes, and that is all. To do an end-run around his fellow council members is an abuse of his trusted position.

ROBERT J. ALVIANI

Ventura