Oxnard’s legal battles with new Councilman Aaron Starr aren’t over. Here’s what to know

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Oxnard’s legal battles with new Councilman Aaron Starr aren’t over. Here’s what to know

For years, Aaron Starr has worked to change Oxnard policy from outside City Hall, putting forward ballot measures and battling the city in more than a dozen lawsuits.

When he was sworn into office as a City Council member on Dec. 11, a handful of legal cases remained active. Two weeks later, one of them thrust its way onto the council’s agenda.

On Dec. 20, a federal appeals court

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siding with Starr in his 2020 case against the city’s campaign contribution limits.

Aaron Starr is sworn onto the Oxnard City Council on Dec. 11. The longtime critic of Oxnard government has active legal cases against city that will now play out while he is on the dais.

On Monday, the City Council will meet in closed session to consider its response to the appellate court ruling. The meeting offers a first look into how the city will handle legal battles with Starr now that he’s inside the fold alongside

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A sitting council member battling its own city in court is not unprecedented — former Oxnard Mayor Tim Flynn, for example, sued the city in 2007 and 2008 — but not many match the volume of Starr’s Oxnard litigation.

Starr said he has taken Oxnard to court over the years only when the city rejected his various concerns about the legality of its actions.

The council member, who has already sparred with some of his new colleagues in his weeks on the dais, wouldn’t rule out future legal filings. But he noted that as an elected official, he has options outside of the courts.

“I have every reason to believe it’s going to work out much better,” he said.

Chief Assistant City Attorney Kenneth Rozell said the city doesn’t expect any changes in its approach to outstanding lawsuits with Starr, barring a decision from a council majority.

“We are ready, willing and able to work with him,” he said. “We have a very professional staff.”

California’s Fair Political Practices Commission, known commonly as the FPPC, bars officials with any “

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” from making or using their positions to influence government decisions connected to that conflict.

Rozell said that means Starr will be required to recuse himself from council discussions of his cases, including Monday’s.

In an interview Dec. 16, before the appeals court decision, Starr said he still needed to take a close look at the FPPC rule and believes there is a chance he could participate in some of those discussions under certain conditions.

He declined to say Tuesday whether he plans to recuse himself from the upcoming closed session discussion.

The council meets at 5 p.m. Monday in chambers at 305 W. Third St. Public comments will be limited to the lawsuit, which is the only agenda item.

Campaign contribution limits case

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, headquartered in San Francisco, ruled in a split decision Dec. 20 that the city had targeted Starr with a 2020 ballot measure capping how much individuals could donate to political campaigns.

The ruling from the three-member panel reversed an earlier decision from a federal district court and sent it back to the court with an order to rewrite its judgment.

The city still could respond to the appeals court ruling, though Rozell declined to say Tuesday what options will be presented to the City Council in the upcoming session.

Starr’s nonprofit, Moving Oxnard Forward, filed the lawsuit after Oxnard’s Measure B — a city-initiated ballot measure that included caps on individual contributions to political campaigns — passed with 82.5% of votes in the March 2020 primary.

U.S. Circuit Judge Daniel Collins authored the court’s decision, which found that Oxnard singled out Starr both in the framing of the measure and its promotion.

New Oxnard City Councilmember Aaron Starr, right, stands with new Mayor Luis Mc Arthur, left, and new councilmembers Michaela Perez and Gabriela Rodríguez during their swearing-in ceremony on Dec. 11. On Monday, the council has a closed session meeting on one of Starr’s lawsuits involving the city.

Starr ran unsuccessfully for seats on the council five times between 2014 and 2020, and Moving Oxnard Forward backed several ballot measures, mostly successful, during that time frame. Across those campaigns, Starr tended to raise most of his money from a small number of donors contributing in large amounts, the decision said, making him an outlier among Oxnard campaigners.

Measure B, the court wrote, “would have little practical impact on any recent candidates for municipal elections except for one — Aaron Starr.”

The city’s own material promoting the measure used Starr as a “poster child,” the opinion said, when a pair of slide presentation pages featured Starr’s campaign contribution records as an example, though the city did not directly name him.

In a dissenting opinion, U.S. Circuit Judge Mark Bennett wrote that the record supported the city’s assertion it was trying to block potential corruption.

Starr said it was “very clear” to him that he was the target of the contribution limits.

“The person who was most impacted by this were not the incumbents,” he said. “It was me.”

Starr’s council campaign this year, governed by the city’s campaign contribution rule, was largely self-funded.

Rozell said the city was not after Starr but wanted to continue the city’s break with the 2010 corruption scandal that engulfed city hall. City attorneys believe the measure complies with current law, he said.

A state law passed in 2021

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for when cities and counties don’t have their own, according to the FPPC.

Here’s what’s next on the docket

In addition to the campaign contributions lawsuit, a handful of lawsuits between Starr and the city remain active.

Auditor: On Nov. 26, a county judge ruled in favor of Starr that Oxnard violated a state code restricting how many years in a row cities are allowed to hire the same third-party auditor. Rozell said the city does not plan to appeal.

Riverpark tax: Starr sued the city in July over the validity of a city ordinance — connected to Riverpark special tax ballot measures — that bars the city from replacing some special tax expenditures with general fund money. A hearing is scheduled in that case in Ventura County Superior Court on Jan. 7.

Lease revenue bond:  Starr sued the city in December 2022 over its adoption of lease revenue bonds. A county judge awarded an initial victory to the city in December 2023; Starr appealed. The case is scheduled for a March 24 hearing in the state 2nd Appellate District Court.

Pension obligation bond: A county judge and state appeals court affirmed Oxnard’s handling of pension obligation bonds. The suit is now sitting in the California Supreme Court’s docket, where Starr said it is expected to move forward after the court decides a similar case out of San Jose.

Isaiah Murtaugh covers Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Camarillo for the Ventura County Star. Reach him at *****@*****.tld or 805-437-0236 and follow him on

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This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star:

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#Oxnards #legal #battles #Councilman #Aaron #Starr #arent #Heres

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