Supervisor John Flynn

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved five new supervisorial districts, including the first in the county where a majority of voting-age residents are Latino. Latino activists, however, said the new district for the Oxnard area is designed to improve Supervisor John K. Flynn's chance of reelection and is illegal.

Ten of 12 top Ventura County officials eligible to receive seven weeks of special vacation pay accrued in 1992 have opted to take lump-sum payments of between $12,000 and $25,000 next week, the county auditor's office said Monday. Only supervisors John K. Flynn and Vicky Howard notified authorities by the Monday deadline that they will refuse the payments from the controversial perk that will be eliminated next year, Assistant Auditor-Controller Thomas O. Mahon said.

Ventura County Supervisor John K. Flynn said Tuesday that he will form a committee to examine the salaries and cash benefits paid to county workers after a Times survey found that dozens of individuals were making tens of thousands of dollars a year in extra income. "We need to bring some controls to these things," Flynn said. "I think some of it has gotten out of hand. It's embarrassing."

A countywide committee of water leaders is studying whether a regional desalination plant could solve long-term water problems for agencies and cities throughout the county--including the city of Ventura. The committee, convened and headed by Supervisor John K. Flynn, is trying to draw cities and water agencies together to develop new sources of water during the next 30 years. Flynn hopes that by the end of next year, the committee can agree on a plan to carry the region into the next century.

Leaders of a Latino voting-rights coalition on Monday accused Ventura County Supervisor John K. Flynn of trying to create a new Oxnard-area district that improves his chance of reelection while diluting the voting strength of Latinos. The County Board of Supervisors, including Flynn, last week tentatively approved a remapping of Flynn's 5th District that would make it the first district in the county where a majority of adults are Latino.

A plan to build a $19-million, 450-bed expansion of the jail at the county government center, expand other corrections programs and create a separate facility for inmates convicted of drug-related offenses was proposed Monday by Supervisor John K. Flynn. Most of the plan could be built without additional revenue and would eliminate the need to build a larger and more expensive facility on any of five controversial rural sites now under consideration by the board, Flynn said.

Ventura County Supervisor John K. Flynn was in a good mood last week. It was the right time for me to ask him to name names so I could do a hard-hitting column on Ventura County water. The day before, he had been presented an award by the Environmental Water Leadership Council in acknowledgment of his "vision and leadership regarding state water issues." I approached him during the proceedings of that conference, impaneled at the Biltmore in Los Angeles.

Ventura County supervisors' decision last week to re-evaluate a County Jail expansion plan has rekindled debate over the board's 1990 vote to build a new lockup near Santa Paula. A key consideration at the time was cost. And supervisors now say they want to look again at whether adding hundreds of cells to the existing jail at the County Government Center in Ventura makes more financial sense than a new Santa Paula jail.

Beach-area residents near Oxnard are invited to a town hall meeting Monday to discuss community issues. Ventura County Supervisor John Flynn and Sheriff Larry Carpenter will be on hand to field questions from the public. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. at Hollywood Beach School, 4000 Sunset Lane at the Channel Islands Harbor. For more information, call 654-2706.

A sharply divided Rio District School Board ordered district Supt. Yolanda Benitez placed on administrative leave this week, prompting allegations from her supporters that she is the victim of a political vendetta engineered by Ventura County Supervisor John Flynn. Benitez said she was not given a reason for her suspension. Flynn, who has feuded publicly with Benitez for years, called the accusations absurd.