COUNTYWIDE : Board Drops Plan to Change Boundaries

Ventura County community college trustees late Tuesday dropped a plan to redraw district boundaries to reflect population shifts in the county.

The trustees had considered changing the lines because new census figures show that the population in Trustee James T. (Tom) Ely’s district has grown more than in the other districts.

But two of the four board members, Gregory Cole and Timothy Hirschberg, said it was improper for the trustees to redraw the lines. The new boundaries should be drawn by a group independent of the district, they said.

The plan under consideration would have moved 15,521 people from the Fillmore-Piru area out of Ely’s district and into Hirschberg’s district.

The plan also included other minor boundary changes in Oxnard, Point Mugu, Ventura and the Somis-Camarillo area. With all the changes, the district populations would then range from 133,019 to 135,591.

In rejecting the plan, Cole said he was uncomfortable tinkering with Ely’s district lines because Ely has been absent from trustee board meetings since last August. Ely, who is about to go on trial on charges of embezzling from the district, has said back surgery has made him unable to attend meetings.