Council Delays Vote on Rehab Center

Supporters and opponents of a proposed site for a drug- and alcohol-rehabilitation center were disappointed this week when the City Council postponed a decision on the fate of the center.

City Atty. Gary Gillig on Tuesday advised Mayor Manuel Lopez and Councilman Tom Holden to abstain from voting on the proposed site due to a possible conflict of interest. Since Councilman Bedford Pinkard was absent, that left only two members able to vote.

Primary Purpose wants to move to a vacant office building on South D Street in downtown Oxnard, near Lopez’s office and Holden’s home.

Now Primary Purpose executive director Marina Ross hopes the delay in City Council approval will not place the agency in a bind.

The building currently housing Primary Purpose on 5th and H streets has been sold to Mercy Charities, a nonprofit housing advocate.

“We are concerned that we will be placed in a crunch of having to move without a place to go,” Ross said.

Although Ross said Primary Purpose must know if it can move within a month, the council has not set a date for the new hearing. Some neighbors have opposed the facility, which they say will bring in loiterers and people with alcohol- and drug-related problems.

At Tuesday’s meeting, however, nearly 30 supporters showed up wearing stickers reading “Vote Yes!! Rehab on D Street.”

Many were frustrated because they sat for two hours in council chambers waiting for the item to be addressed, to no avail.