Don’t scrap ordinance


I am so disappointed with the Board of Supervisors. Jeff Gorell, in his signature action as supervisor, has voted to scrap the Ventura County Campaign Finance Reform Ordinance.

This ordinance supplemented the state Political Reform Act and worked in tandem with it, and Supervisor Kelly Long supported its last update in 2017.

It is incorrect that there were no laws pertaining to contributions in 2003, as the article states. This can be confirmed by searching “contribution limits history” at fppc.ca.gov.

The individuals who were subject to the ordinance were candidates for supervisor, sheriff, district attorney, county clerk, treasurer-tax collector, auditor, county superintendent of schools and assessor.

Gorell has opened the floodgates of special interest money to influence all these elections, not just his.

This ordinance— which Gorell, Long and Janice Parvin now find inconvenient—promoted the integrity of our election process, reduced the appearance of influence resulting from large campaign contributions, mandated timely reporting of campaign information, and appointed a compliance officer and a five-member commission from each of the county’s five districts to preside as triers of fact and law at evidentiary hearings.

Gorell is speaking out of both sides of his mouth when he whines that the compliance officer isn’t a “full-time investigative staff” while his solution is to get rid of it altogether.

Gorell also owes all the members of the County Finance Ethics Commission over the last 20 years an apology for stating they did not have a backbone. Shameful.

The new big-money campaign finance rules are simply a betrayal of the people of Ventura County. The year 2023 is looking pretty grim for our beautiful county, thanks to this greedy move.

Please keep our elections fair. Reject this big-money move.

Susan Wells
Santa Susana