Subject: Oxnard City Council Meeting October 21: PUBLIC COMMENT: Public Comment On Items Not on the Agenda From: "Heather Schmidt, MPA"
To: City Clerk <[email protected]>
Date Sent: Monday, October 20, 2025 10:33:40 AM GMT-07:00 Date Received: Monday, October 20, 2025 10:33:54 AM GMT-07:00 Good morning -
Please see my comments below to be attached into the Public Comments for the October 21st Oxnard City Council meeting:
Good morning Mayor, Council -
Today I am writing to you to request improvements to transparency around activities engaged in as officials of the City of Oxnard organization.
Recently, I was contacted by four, separate residents here in Oxnard, each of which asked if I knew who paid for the mayor's recent trip to Japan with the Japan-United States Sister City Association. Being unfamiliar with the trip, but aware the mayor had been absent at the most recent council meeting, I looked more into the mayor's involvement, and what had been publicly disclosed, only to find very little information that has been made publicly available. In fact, the knowledge that the trip was led by JUSSCA was only ascertained through social media posts made by the organization, not anything that had been publicly disclosed by the City or any of you to my knowledge.
As some of you know, or as my email signature suggests, I work as an advisor, primarily in politics and government. I work mostly with people in the local levels of government, and while I do not take clients in Ventura County, the bulk of my clients are located in Southern California. My team and I specialize in research, data analysis, and policy recommendations and advocacy. If I were wearing my work hat when sending this email, I would extoll to you all the limited evidence or proof that international travel provides much, if any, observable benefits to constitutions at the local level. In fact, direct evidence of any benefits does not exist; the arguments in favor of international travel by local officials are purely anecdotal. I would also cite for you the preponderance of evidence that offers us valid concerns about foreign influence on local government and the unique susceptibility that local government officials experience due to limited budgets, security concerns, and itinerary vetting.
With that said, today I am emailing you not professionally, but as a resident of Oxnard. It is alarming to learn of this trip and not have transparency about its nature and expense sheet. I would think that a city that has been rocked by local corruption scandal just 15 years ago - some of which involved the very issue of international travel by a mayor - would know better than to hide the details of international travel today, or to even engage in the travel altogether. We all sat there just a few months ago while your body bickered over t-shirts to a Cowboys game due to the sensitivity around gift giving as opposed to use of public or personal funds for the shirts; a mayor traveling internationally is an order of magnitude far greater than t-shirts and therefore bears at the very least a mention, for which there has been none.
Some specific questions your public demands answers on:
- Who paid for the trip to Japan?
- Did the mayor accept any gifts relative to the trip to Japan? - Did the mayor stay in hotels or personal homes while on the trip to Japan? Were those expenses funded by Oxnard taxpayers or some other entity?
- If funded by taxpayers, will there be public disclosure of how much we spent on this trip and what veritable benefits it resulted in?
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- If funded by the host country, an NGO, or some other entity, will that be properly disclosed, in particular on the mayor's next Form 700 filing appropriately and in full? Oxnard is experiencing a number of crises at this moment that demand your organization operate with a greater commitment to good governance and public trust. I respectfully request this be elevated to a higher priority for the council and city.
Thank you for your time -
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Heather Schmidt, MPA, CySA, CDA
Public Policy Advisor
Heather Schmidt Consulting Services
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