Hard Truths is a newsletter about national, state, and local issues, with (sometimes sassy, other times serious) personal updates from the author – Heather Schmidt, M.PA., Cy.SA., C.DA. Heather is a Public Policy Advisor at Heather Schmidt Consulting Services, Executive Director of VC Voter Edge, Editor of Oxnard Gossip Column, and a busy Mom of three.

Heather Schmidt Consulting Services offers limited free research and political consulting and free cybersecurity spot-checks to all individuals and businesses that contact us, as well as a full suite of services to individuals and organizations located outside the geographic boundaries of Ventura County, California – contact us today!

SPECIAL ISSUE: It’s Time for Answers

Many lifetimes (or, just shy of two decades) ago, I was a philosophy student in college. The story of Socrates – the wisest man in world history – and what led to his death always seemed it may also be a little allegorical. Socrates made many enemies in the years that preceded his death, and as he expanded his practice from simply asking questions of powerful people, to encouraging his students to do the same, the threat such questions presented to people in power became a liability on his life. Eventually, Socrates was convicted and sentenced to death for impiety and corruption of youth. He was – quite literally – executed for asking questions.

Socrates’s trial and execution seems allegorical, though, because – while it is as true as the sun rising every morning – it in many ways offers a lesson to the rest of us about what happens to people in society and politics today: a social kind of death when they speak up and ask too much.

Recently, I was at a neighborhood meeting near my home, here in Oxnard, California, and a man named Carlos turned to me and said: you know if you ask too many questions, the City will brand you a troublemaker. And that isn’t hyperbole, either. It is true, I have seen it over the decades – even before moving to Oxnard, even before offering free research services to people here in the community with a lot of questions to ask, and no clue where to even begin to do so. People who poke around too much are walled off from answers, from community. They’re made fun of. Ignored. Called crazy.

All to avoid answering the questions being asked.

And this isn’t exclusive to where I live. Challenging the so-called status quo in any local government or region has an evidenced negative effect on those that do it. Recent studies have found increased risks, negative social perceptions, and job insecurity amongst those that ask questions the loudest. And, in an environment of increasing political division and normalized violence, this can often be a deterrent to those seeking justice or truth from the very people claiming to fight for it.

Many of you reading this have been with me since the “before days.” Before I went back into political consulting professionally. Before my politics became so messy and I swore off partisanship. Before I ran for office and started being more picky about what I shared. In the “before days” I would have blasted many of the questions I have today from behind my computer screen – here – in a matter of minutes, rather than filtering, waiting, and choosing to keep a mountain of questions to myself.

It has reached the point, though, where silence is no longer an option. It’s time for answers.

Early this year, I was approached by an individual here in Oxnard who wanted help finding out if there was validity to the rumors that the mayor of Oxnard did not actually live within the jurisdiction. Today, months later, I have spoken to no less than 45 different individuals and families around the county with the same concerns. Many of them do not know each other, at least a few of them have contacted the authorities. As I worked with my team (professionally) on a policy brief about corruption, we used the research and investigation of this – and other concerns that surfaced – about potential corruption in the city as a case study to investigate and understand: what does a city that has faced raids by the FBI do to fix corruption, and does it work? Allegations of corruption in a city with a history of it will always be there. But could it be that they really have come a long way to fix the problems as so many claim? We sought to disprove the rumors and alleviate the concerns (answer the questions for them) so as to highlight strategies to fix the problem.

Over the weeks and months that followed, we uncovered mountains of evidence that just left us with… well… a lot of questions, and even more concerns. More than we started with.

I published our findings and case study in a lengthy policy brief (you can read that HERE). Since then, a few of the campaign finance errors we cited have been corrected; and yet, even more problems have boiled to the surface.

The first person that contacted me about the mayor’s actual city of residence thought he resided in Fillmore, California. Today, we don’t just have questions about the residence in Fillmore, but about the short form deed of trust that states the mayor actually resides in a multimillion dollar neighborhood in Camarillo (neither, we should clarify, is within the Oxnard Mayor’s jurisdiction). Where did the mayor reside at the time of his election and where does he reside today? Is this a rental property, like many of his others; and if so, why is it in a blinded trust and why does the blinded trust not state that? Would he be willing to release his taxes to prove his place of residence? Would he be willing to even just address the public’s overwhelming and growing concerns, instead of continuing to pretend this isn’t happening?

There are additional questions, like: why did he fail as Police Commander to disclose under penalty of perjury his investment property within the city for multiple, consecutive years? Why did he fail to disclose his potential income earnings through the youth soccer league he and his wife run at the city college, that he is entered into public contracts with as the President and Administrator of? Why has he not disclosed any retirement investments associated with his retired policeman’s pension as is required by law? Why did he fail to recuse himself from votes on tenant protections when his multiple rental properties he is acting landlord of are parceled within the city’s jurisdiction? Why did he fail to disclose his conflict of interest within the soccer community again at a recent meeting? Why is he refusing to answer questions around recent international travel on official business and any potential receipt of gifts, which have stringent protocols by way of city ordinance?

Why – in the face of all of this – are the city, the city attorney, and local law enforcement agencies – such as the District Attorney – doing nothing about answering the public’s questions and alleviating their concerns?

And perhaps, most importantly: how can anyone in this entire organization of local government claim to care about this community when they allow these questions to go unanswered?

This problem is not unique. That of ignoring the questions and refusing to give straight answers – it is happening in every town, every city, every region, all over the country. Rather than an isolated incident of one disappointing mayor, who many of us (myself included) have supported, and now after the fact regret doing so – this is the story of perhaps countless communities across this country, and why many people simply don’t believe in any of it anymore. Democracy requires people believe in the stories we are told.

Just today, a study came out that found the majority of Californians do not trust the government, with 65% of people surveyed saying that the state Capitol is “run by a few big interests looking out for themselves.” Nearly every adult surveyed also stated they believe the government wastes either a lot or some of taxpayer money. These beliefs are a story as old as time, and yet as it continues, and worsens, and the questions go unanswered, the opportunity to fix what is broken within our communities and country, overall, becomes less and less likely.

Another thing that got Socrates into a lot of trouble were his views on leadership in government. He argued that private interests of public servants should come second to the interests of the public. That a modest life and the pursuit of reasonable inquiry and virtue were synonymous with good governance. It is impossible to ignore questions and shrug off concerns to protect private affairs if the needs of the citizens are to be placed first.

Communities like where I live in Oxnard are facing big problems – in many ways existential ones – with only small leaders to guide us through them. When the possibility of trust in local government is in many ways all we have left. How can we trust them, though, when they refuse to address the questions being asked?