Candidates run for Ventura County elections Dylan Kaseno
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Katelyn Arrington
Taylor Gibson
uring the Midterm elections in June, citizens will decide who represents them in various offices. The offices that will affect Newbury Park are the Board of Ventura County Supervisors and the Sheriff ’s department. The election for the next sheriff is heating up with debates and campaigns between the incumbent, Bill Ayub, and another candidate, Jim Fryhoff. On the other hand, three people are running to be the next supervisor for Ventura County, Tim McCarthy, Claudia Bill-de la Peña, and Jeff Gorell.
Sheriff Elections In the past few years, crime has become an increasingly prevalent issue in Newbury Park. The sheriff elections will impact how crimes are dealt with, the main two candidates being incumbent Bill Ayub and Jim Fryhoff. The sheriff ’s job is to maintain the law and the constitution of the United States of America. They are responsible for maintaining the county jail and patrolling unincorporated areas of the county. In Ventura County, there are 10 incorporated cities, five of which have their own police department and the other five work with the sheriff to provide police services. Oxnard, Ventura, Simi Valley, Port Hueneme and Santa Paula have their own police department while Thousand Oaks, Moorpark, Camarillo, Fillmore and Ojai do not. The person holding the title of sheriff is largely responsible for how safe a community is. Ayub, who did not respond to a request for comment in April, currently holds the position of sheriff and is up for reelection this year. He was elected in 2018, and has been in law enforcement since 1985. In an effort to keep Ventura County safe, Ayub is dedicated to keeping the community crime free. “I’ve got zero tolerance for drug dealers, smash and grab thieves and gang members. We run various youth programs and keep officers in our schools to keep students and teachers safe,” Ayub says on his website. The other candidate running Bill Ayub, an incumbent, is re-running to for Sheriff, Jim become the Sheriff of Ventura County. Fryhoff, is a 31 Bill Ayub/With Permission
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Panther Prowler | June 3, 2022
year police veteran. One of Fryhoff ’s big focuses is on school safety. “On the heels of a lot of school shootings that we were seeing happen across the nation… we need to do something better than what we’re doing now,” Fryhoff said. Due to this concern, Fryhoff created a Threat Assessment Program, which allows students to report potential threats to the police or administrators so a shooting can be stopped Jim Fryhoff is also running to become the new before it Sheriff of Ventura County. Jim Fryhoff/With begins. “All the schools were Permission taught to create a threat assessment team, which is a school counselor, a school administrator, and then…somebody in law enforcement so that if a student, volunteer, or a parent called and said, ‘Hey, this student is posing a threat,’ then we can look into it before tragedy strikes..I’ve been teaching that to the county since 2008,” Fryhoff says. Fryhoff also has a predominant focus on keeping the community safe by spending more of his time on the needs of the citizens than of criminals. “There are people out there that are evil doers that we need to take to jail. But there are way more people doing the right thing than not. We need to work with those people to try and find those who are causing harm and hold them accountable so that we can all be safe,” Fryhoff said. Sheriffs Elections end on June 7, and anyone over the age of 18 is able to vote for the candidate of their choice using a mail-in ballot that was sent out in early May.
