She lost her home. She doesn’t want to lose her city council seat
OJAI — On a pleasant June evening, in the airy chambers of the quaint Mission Revival city hall, the council gathered to discuss the fate of one of their own.
It was more than a year since Suza Francina, a longtime councilmember in this small arts- and wellness-oriented town tucked into a mountain valley in Ventura County, lost her rental housing. Now she was staying with a friend outside her district as she struggled to find a new place to live. A recent grand jury report had concluded she was violating residency requirements and should be replaced.
When the meeting began, Mayor Betsy Stix pleaded with the assembled dozens in the audience, gray hair and glasses abounding, to commit to civility, respect, peace and love. “In our community, we can take the higher road and stop the finger pointing,” she said. “I’m going to urge everyone to just come together.”
Then the recriminations began.
One supporter of Francina’s read a poem declaring the city council “brought shame on our town and they have let us all down.” A caller invoked the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, suggesting democracy was at risk if Francina was allowed to keep her seat. Another councilmember angrily pushed back on rumors that he and his wife had filed the complaint that sparked the grand jury investigation. Stix herself quoted Jack Smith, the special counsel who indicted former President Donald Trump for mishandling classified documents, to assert that the law should apply equally to everyone.
The proceedings were infused with the high drama typical of local politics, where every decision can become freighted with existential meaning.
This time, however, it felt perhaps true — a glimpse into a California that is increasingly out of reach, where the lack of affordable housing has distorted every facet of society and where millions of residents who once lived comfortably suddenly find themselves on the margins while those on the margins are pushed onto the streets. Read more >>>