OPINION

Purple is the New Party They failed us by Paul Moomjean paulmoomjean@yahoo.com accrued between March 4 – August 31, 2020, if the tenant provides a declaration of hardship according to the legislation’s timelines. For a COVID-19 related hardship that accrues between September 1, 2020 – January 31, 2021, tenants must but no one else is? Why do they get all their losses back, but restaurants, movie theaters, local coffee shops, etc. don’t get their losses back? This isn’t some pull-yourself-upby-the-bootstraps moment. We can’t even afford bootstraps, nor can we ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Nancy D. Lackey Shaffer STAFF WRITER Kimberly Rivers CONTRIBUTORS Michael Cervin, David Michael Courtland, Ivor Davis, Emily Dodi, Alicia Doyle, Chuck Graham, Chris Jay, Daphne Khalida Kilea, Karen Lindell, Paul Moomjean, Mike Nelson, Tim Pompey, Emily Savage,

The end is nigh. While hyper- public policy. People are about to also pay at least 25 percent of the find a store open that sells them. Kathy Jean Schultz, Alan Sculley, Kit Stolz, Mark Storer, Alex Wilson, bolic, my last sentence is an lose the busiest season of earnings. rent due to avoid eviction.” Right now Newsom and his Leslie A. Westbrook, Kateri Wozny arrow pointing to the way According to the National Retail Why are previous victims of ilk are getting a check for telling GRAPHIC DESIGNERS California Governor Gavin Newsom and his mayoral accomplices are shutting down the state, shoring Federation, “Overall, holiday sales in November and December have averaged about 19 percent of annual COVID-19 given a better deal than recent victims of the virus? If people can’t work, then they can’t pay people they can’t earn their own. They are protecting the millionaire and billionaire property manageBret Hooper, Paul Braun, Elaine Cota SALES TEAM LEADER Warren Barrett ADVERTISING SALES up a dreadful local small business retail sales over the last five years, their rent. ment companies and forgetting the Barbara Kroon economic quarter (and year), and but the figure can be higher for Newsom then decided to put families that live in them. And CLASSIFIEDS potentially creating the most dis- some retailers.” The lack of tourism a nail in the coffin of people’s by taking the 1 percent’s side, Ann Turrietta mal holiday season in my lifetime. With California going back on stricter lockdowns, and Los Angekilled our summers and now with Santa being asked to stay at the North Pole, don’t be surprised to see chances of seeing a light at the end of the tunnel with the declaration, “Tenants are still responthey have become a hierarchy of Ebenezer Scrooges. In Charles Dickens’ A ChristAdvertising information, call 805.648.2244 Classified Ads | Display Ads les County doubling down harder shopping mall stores turn into tiny sible for paying unpaid amounts mas Carol, Scrooge was visited EDITORIAL AND ADVERTISING OFFICE by making unessential gatherings ghost towns come 2021. to landlords, but those unpaid by his old mortgage business part- 805.648.2244 a misdemeanor, the government With revenue down and unem- amounts cannot be the basis for ner, the ghost of Jacob Marley. warren@vcreporter.com (Advertising) is doing all it can to “protect” us without doing one damn thing to ployment less than it was at the start of the pandemic, people are an eviction. Landlords may begin to recover this debt on March 1, The ghost reminded the miser that business and money were not the nancy@vcreporter.com (Editorial) aturrietta@timespublications.com (Classifieds) help us. With no national or state not going to be able to pay their 2021, and small claims court juris- most important values. Instead, he The Ventura County Reporter is distributed every Thursday in Ventura, Oxnard, Port stimulus package, or raise in unem- bills or cover their rent. But New- diction is temporarily expanded to cried out to the man: Hueneme, Camarillo, Ojai, Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village and Agoura Hills. The Reporter is available free of charge, limited to one copy per reader. The Reporter may ployment, or rent and mortgage som is letting landlords potentially allow landlords to recover these “Business! Mankind was my be distributed only by Reporter authorized distributors. No person may, without prior freeze, our elected officials have recover all their lost rent checks, amounts. Landlords who do not business. The common welfare written permission of the Reporter, take more than one copy of each Reporter issue. The Reporter is copyright ©2020 by Times Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved. No part proven themselves as flimsy as the and the government will expand follow the court evictions pro- was my business; charity, mercy, of this publication may be reproduced in whole or in part in any form or by any means ballot we elected them with. If they are going to lock us down then it’s the courts to make sure that they get paid while you stay locked cess will face increased penalties under the Act.” forbearance, and benevolence, were all my business. The dealwithout permission in writing by the publisher. An adjudicated Newspaper of General Circulation (SP50329). Submissions of all kinds are welcomed. However, the publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material. A stamped, self-addressed envelope AD PROOF time we demand they help us up. For statewide and local authoriClient: Geico inside your house The California government webOh good. As long as landlords drag tenants into court, wasting taxings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean must accompany all submissions expected to be returned. Ad Executive: Warren Barrett (805) 648-2244 ties to prevent people from running site clarifies, “Under the legislation, payer money, then they can milk their of my business!”Please check this proof over carefully and indicate all corrections clearly. You will have a “1st Proof”, “2nd Proof”, and “Final Proof”. If we receive no proof after the 1st or 2nd Proofs, AD WILL their businesses and not pay the no tenant can be evicted before Feb- homeless tenants for all that’s left. May the spirit of Marley visit RUN AS IS. If this proof meets your approval on the 1st proof, check off “FINAL PROOF (APPROVED)” box, date and sign at the bottom losses is probably the most mobster ruary 1, 2021 as a result of rent owed Can anyone explain to me why the NOTICE: PLEASE FAX THIS PROOF TO (805) 648-2245 ASAP our leaders this Christmas season PRESIDENT Steve StrickbineISSUE: 12/7/20 act they could execute and call due to a COVID-19 related hardship landlords are guaranteed their income now. Before they start defending VICE PRESIDENT Michael Hiatt