Key Dates Announced for June 7, 2016 Presidential Primary Election in Ventura County

Ventura County Clerk Recorder/Registrar of Voters Mark Lunn has announced key dates for the June 7, 2016 Presidential Primary Election regarding candidate filing, nomination documents and Vote By Mail Ballots.

Candidates may submit signatures of registered voters in lieu of the filing fee. Signatures in-lieu of the filing fee may be obtained from the Ventura County Elections Division beginning Monday, January 4, 2016, for the following offices (subject to change):

Voter-Nominated: President/Vice President, United States Senator, United States Representative in Congress: 24th, 25th, 26th, and 30th Congressional Districts, Member of the State Senate: 19th and 27th State Senate, and Member of the State Assembly: 37th, 38th, 44th, and 45th Assembly Districts.

Nonpartisan: Judge of the Superior Court and Ventura County Board of Supervisors: 1st, 3rd, and 5th Supervisorial Districts.

Signatures in-lieu of filing fee for all offices, with the exception of the office of Judge of the Superior Court, must be filed at the Ventura County Elections Division by 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 25, 2016. Candidates for the office of Judge of the Superior Court must file their signatures by 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, February 10, 2016.

Official nomination documents for candidates may be obtained beginning Tuesday, February 16, 2016, as February 15, 2016 falls on a holiday, at the Ventura County Elections Division, Lower Plaza, Hall of Administration, 800 South Victoria Avenue, Ventura. Official nomination documents must be filed with the Ventura County Elections Division by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, March 11, 2016.

Information regarding filing for these offices and the filing fee amounts may be obtained by calling the Ventura County Elections Division at (805) 654-2664, or by visiting the Ventura County Elections Division website: www.venturavote.org.

Vote By Mail Ballots for the June 7, 2016 Presidential Primary Election will be available beginning Monday, May 9, 2016 through May 31, 2016. Voter registration will close on Monday, May 23, 2016. Voter registration is available online at www.registertovote.ca.gov. Voters may also call the Elections Division to request a voter registration card be mailed to them.

Ventura County Top Ten Secured Property Tax Bills for Fiscal Year 2015-2016

Last month the County of Ventura Treasurer-Tax Collector published a list of the top 10 secured property tax payers in the county for fiscal year 2015-2016 as a matter of public record. Personally I thought for sure I would be on this list but, whew, I was not!  

Here they are:

#1 biggest taxpayer is Southern California Edison, with taxes of $13.4 million on $933 million of property valuation.

#2 is Thousand Oaks biotech giant Amgen Inc., with taxes of $13.1 million on $1.24 billion of assessed value.

#3 is Aera Energy LLC, with $7.1 million taxes on $679 million of assessed value.

#4 is Vintage Petroleum LLC, with $3.8 million taxes on assessed value of $356 million.

#5 is Proctor-Gamble Paper Products, which pays $3.7 million taxes on $307 million of assessed value.

#6 Macerich Oaks LLC pays $3.1 million in taxes on assessed value of $293 million.

#7 Southern California Gas Co. pays $2.8 million on assessed value of $198 million.

#8 Baxter Healthcare Corp (which I suspect is now called Baxalta) pays $2.8 million on assessed value of $262 million.

#9 Vintage Production CA LLC pays $2.4 million on $205 million assessed value.

#10 Los Robles Hospital pays $2.2 million on $206 million in assessed value.

Now what are you going to use this information for? Maybe a trivia game?

Property taxes are collected by the Treasurer-Tax Collector of Ventura County on behalf of the county, most of the city's 10 incorporated cities, 20 school districts and other local taxing agencies. As a resident of Thousand Oaks you will see a variety of taxes in addition to the base property tax of 1% of the assessed value of your property, such as school bonds, service agencies and special assessments.

Personally, perhaps my least favorite moment of the year is seeing the annual Secured Tax Statement in the mail. But heck, that's part of the price of living here in paradise I guess.

The general tax levy is limited to 1% of assessed value. Assessed value can increase no more than 2% per year based on Proposition 13. 

Learn more about Ventura County property taxes at www.ventura.org/ttc.

County of Ventura's VC SafeDiner App Provides Convenient Access to Inspection Results

Ventura County Environmental Health launched the VC SafeDiner app for Apple and Android devices in early 2015.

VC SafeDiner is a quick and easy way to view the latest inspection results for food facilities in Ventura County. The app allows you to search by name, address or city; and also provides a map feature allowing you to view food facilities within a radius of your current location. Full inspection results for the last year are displayed, including recorded violations and inspector comments. 

I've tried it and it works great, replicating the searchable database on the County website at www.decadeonline.com/main.phtml?agency=VEN.

Support Our Troops Through the Halloween Candy Buy-Back Program

At Halloween, many of us anticipate massive stockpiles of sugary sweets in our households.

As an alternative to consuming all this candy, consider donating it to our troops overseas. You may think, do we really want to send all that junk food to throughout the world? Sure! Everyone enjoys a treat! And truth be told, the troops themselves don't eat all this candy...much of it they enjoy sharing in the communities they patrol.

The Halloween Candy Buy-Back Program has partnered with Operation Gratitude and local dental practices to channel your candy stockpile to our troops. Local dentists "buy" back Halloween candy in exchange for cash or other items. The candy is shipped to Operation Gratitude and other U.S. Military support groups and in turn it is sent overseas, to children of deployed service members, wounded warriors, veterans and first responders.

There are nearly a number of local Ventura County dental practices participating in this program. Just visit www.halloweencandybuyback.com and enter your zip code for these or other locations throughout the L.A./Ventura County area.

Each practice has their own buy-back incentives. so make sure to call to learn more about their program and related time frames (usually the first several days after Halloween).

Recover From Identity Theft with Help From IdentityTheft.gov

The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) has tracked data breaches since 2005. In the first seven months of 2015 (through July 28th) there were 450 significant data breaches in the U.S., with over 135 million reported records breached. And in the majority of breaches, the number of exposed records is not even known. 

Breaches can be caused by insider theft, hacking, data on the move, subcontractors/third parties, employer errors/negligence, accidental web exposure and physical theft. What breaches have in common is that they usually compromise personal identifying information, such as Social Security number, credit/debit card number, email/password/user name and/or protected health information. And this information is easily read by thieves because those entrusted in protecting your personal data have not encrypted (e.g. concealed so that the data cannot be utilized so easily).

I don't know about you, but I'm getting overwhelmed with warnings about my personal information being breached by large organizations that one would think would have adequate safeguards in place. Target, Anthem, UCLA Health, to name just a few. One source for helping alleviate this feeling is IdentityTheft.org.

IdentityTheft.gov is the federal government’s one-stop resource for identity theft victims, providing checklists and sample letters to guide you through the process of recovering from identity theft.

The website is simply laid out to help you quickly address the following matters if you believe your identity has been compromised:

What Should I Do Right Away? In order to quickly address issues resulting from identity theft, there’s a checklist that covers 1) calling the companies where you know the fraud occurred; 2) placing fraud alerts at the major credit bureaus; 3) reporting identity theft to the Federal Trade Commission and 4) filing a report with the police.

What Do I Do Next?  The next steps in the process include 1) closing accounts opened in your name; 2) removing fraudulent charges from your accounts; 3) correcting your credit report; and 4) requesting extended fraud alerts or credit freezes with the credit bureaus. The site provides a variety of form letter templates to help expedite this process for you.

What Other Steps Should I Take? There are a variety of other actions highlighted that may apply to your situation, including 1) resolving tax-related identity theft; 2) reporting misused Social Security numbers; 3) responding to debt collectors trying to collect on debts that are not yours; 4) replacing government IDs, like driver’s licenses, passports and Social Security cards; 5) resolving the particular issues of child identity theft; 6) resolving medical identity theft and 7) clearing your name of criminal charges if the thief used your personal information while committing a crime.

And there’s a section covering additional steps that might be needed for identity theft used to initiate utilities, checking accounts, student loans, investment accounts and bankruptcies filed in your name.

Visit www.IdentityTheft.gov to learn more.

Now, if you want to cut off one type of identify theft in it tracks...credit theft, strongly consider doing a security freeze!

Find an American Red Cross Blood Drive In and Around Ventura County

The American Red Cross is the nation’s largest blood collection organization, supplying approximately 40 percent of the blood and blood products used in the United States.  

There is a constant need for blood in our society. Donated blood benefits accident victims, cancer patients, surgical candidates, children with blood disorders and many others. Consider donating blood if you are looking to make a difference in the lives of others.

Facts about the blood supply (courtesy of the American Red Cross):

• Nearly 16 million blood donations are collected annually in the U.S.
• There are 9.2 million blood donors in the U.S. in a year.
• 38% of the U.S. population is eligible to donate; less than 10% actually do.
• Blood cannot be made; it must be donated.
• Type O-negative blood (red cells) is always in high demand (and short supply) as it can be transfused to patients of all blood types.
• Type AB-positive plasma can be transfused to patients of all other blood types and thus is also usually in short supply.

So the most important question now is, how does one find a local blood drive in the Ventura County (as well as Greater Southern California) area? Easy! Simply visit www.redcrossblood.org/socal and enter your zip code to find a blood drive near you. You can find dozens of upcoming blood drives usually in the local area.