City Council: Former mayor offers
update on 2015 State of the Region
September 09, 2015
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
The City Council got an update on the State of the Region when a former mayor offered information contained in the wide-ranging report at the August 17 meeting.
Mary Ann Krause summarized high points in the 2015 State of the Region Report sponsored by the Ventura County Civic Alliance.
The report focuses on a dozen “quality of life indicators” that are researched and compiled ranging from crime statistics and school drop out rates to recycling and charitable giving.
Krause told the council the 2015 report is the fourth issued since 2001: “It’s a snapshot in time based on a set of objective indicators,” prepared by CLU School of Management and funded by 34 separate donors.
Good news noted in the report is that job growth is approaching 2008 levels, but the not so good news is that higher paying jobs are shrinking and growth recorded was for jobs offering lower pay.
“Most job growth,” said Krause “was at low end with shrinkage at upper-level paying jobs...”
On the home front, household income is creeping up but has only attained 2008 levels.
And speaking of home, the average for a Ventura County 2-bedroom apartment in 2014 was $1,719 and the vacancy rate was 2.5 percent.
Only 21 percent can afford that rate of rent making Ventura County, “The second least affordable county for housing,” statewide said Krause.
When it came to civic engagement charitable giving in Ventura County was studied and donations per capita were determined to be $2,153. The state average is $5,366 per capita but Santa Barbara County’s per capita is close to $6,000.
Said Krause, “That means in Ventura County our nonprofits,” receive less for social services and the arts.
High school drop out rates continue to decline but the rate is still higher for blacks and Latinos
Ventura County has done a “great job” in increasing recycling as has Santa Paula tied for second with Fillmore in terms of pounds of trash per capita that avoid gto oing the landfill; Moorpark has the highest recycling rate.
In the health category “The good news is life expectancy in Santa Paula is 82.4 years, “Nearly identical to the county average...”
But Krause said the teen birthrate is troublesome: although in Ventura County the rate is slighter lower than the state average, “Santa Paula has the fourth highest rate in the county...we have some work to do, this is really important,” as early births impact the health of the mother and child and their economic future.
Children born to teen mothers she added, “Are more likely to become teen parents...”
Ventura County is the safest large county in California and Krause said, “Not a single city in Ventura County is considered unsafe by objective standards...and although our overall crime rate is significantly lower as a whole,” Santa Paula’s violent crime rate is “significantly higher...”
Santa Paula has the second lowest domestic violence call rate in Ventura County but it is unknown if there are more incidents that go unreported.
Realignment, the early release of what are supposed to be nonviolent prison inmates first is now three years old and Krause said there have been 1,227 prisoners released to Ventura County.
“Over that three-year period 119 were sent back to state prison less than 10 percent,” over that time period for lawbreaking.
“Time will tell,” said Krause but the statistic is “good news” for the program.
