1. Economic Advocacy

Neal has been a sharp-eyed and effective advocate for prudent budget policies and careful budget management. He has been a strong proponent of the view that economics should be the primary driving force in City policy, and he was the principal force behind the inclusion of economic goals for the first time as a high priority in the General Plan adopted by the City in 2005.

Until he joined the Council the City had no Economic Development Plan or Strategy. He initiated the proposal to create an Economic Development Committee and, as its first Chair, he led the process of developing the City’s Economic Development Strategy.

In recognition of his leadership in economic affairs, in 2008, Neal was appointed to the national Policy Steering Committee on Community and Economic Development, one of only 48 persons in the nation to serve in this capacity, and the only Ventura Council Member with such a seat on a prestigious national policy advisory committee. He has also earned the Bronze Leadership Award from the National League of Cities and is again the only member of the Council with such recognition.

Neal also proposed the creation of the Economic Development Fund, which evolved into the Jobs Investment Fund, and consequently, Ventura has become perhaps the only city in the State with substantial dedicated funds not restricted to a redevelopment district to promote economic development and a meaningful high quality job generation strategy. From this process and with the proceeds of this Fund, the City was able to create a new business incubator to stimulate local business development and foster economic prosperity. This self-sustaining program gained recognition as a model program for cities across the nation in Nation’s Cities Weekly and was the primary reason that Ventura was recognized by Fortune magazine as among the top 100 cities in the nation in which to start a new business in 2009.

As a leader in Council budget policy, Neal was a major designer of the budget strategy that emphasizes restructuring our expenditures and revenues to achieve stabilized long-term balance in City finances. He was the principal architect as well of the introduction of performance management techniques to City administration, beginning with the employment contract for the City Manager. His emphasis on Performance Based Management led naturally to the adoption of the corollary program of Outcomes Based Budgeting, where resources are allocated in the budget to align with the best management strategies to produce the desired policy and program outcomes.

Neal also led the effort as a chief proponent of protecting local government revenues from continued State piracy and collected more signatures in support of Prop 65 and 1A to defend local funds than any other elected official in Ventura County.

When it became evident during the floods and mudslides that too many of the City’s essential personnel, those that you would expect in the fire and police services, but perhaps some you would not expect in the water, sewer, public works, communications, and computer services, to name just a few, lived too far out of the City and were unable or unwilling to respond to duty in a reasonable time, Neal proposed that the City start a program to assist employees who wished to do so to buy homes in the City. He reasoned that if they lived near at hand in the City, they would have less excuse to not respond when called. He asked for a special committee to be established to design a program and set up a system to assist City employees to buy homes in the City.

As the Chair of that committee, Neal crafted a program that provided a means for City employees to buy homes in the City at 30% lower cost on average than they might otherwise experience, while not one dollar of taxpayer money was at risk. It’s a new program and not fully operational yet, but 6 City employees now own homes in the City who could not have afforded to do so in the past, and dozens more may choose to take up the offer. At the same time, as a practical success, other local employers like the Housing Authority, the Community College, and Community Memorial Hospital are exploring joining the City as partners in the program in order to give their employees similar advantages and purchasing power. Not a dime of taxpayer funds has been put to risk. That’s a great program.

Neal, of course, was the lone vote against the ill-conceived 911 fee fiasco and ultimately was able to lead the effort to secure its repeal. He has also been the lone opposition to the huge compensation and pension increases granted to public safety personnel in recent years and has argued strongly for revision to the pension and compensation formulas used by the Council and City Management to negotiate contracts with city public employee unions, particularly the police and firefighter unions. His strong leadership against these formulas and their underlying erroneous assumptions has finally led to the creation of a City Task Force and a major public dialogue on the issues. This is the foundation upon which change will ultimately be built, and Ventura is consequently among the leading cities across the State in this reform effort thanks to Neal’s leadership.

Finally, as Chair of the City’s Finance, Audits and Budgets Committee, Neal led the successful, albeit extraordinarily painful, process of cutting $11,500,000 in expenditures out of the 2009 budget, immediately following a cut of nearly $4,500,000 in 2008, to achieve a balanced 2009 budget in the throes of the greatest recession since the Depression of 1929. That heroic effort – a cut of approximately 15% overall – was accomplished without a major crisis in any area of City services.

2. Social Equity.

Neal has been the chief sponsor and advocate on the City Council for programs for the elderly and disadvantaged in our community. He sponsored the proposal that culminated in the collaboration with Project Understanding to develop a transitional housing project for homeless families. That proposal became the SHORE component of the Working Artists Ventura (WAV) project, which is today nearing completion of construction in downtown Ventura. He was also the chief advocate on Council for Prop 63 to support programs for the mentally ill and worked diligently to secure passage of this initiative. He previously was a member of the National Leadership Council on Behavioral Medicine, served two terms as Chair of the County Mental Health Board and currently serves on the Turning Point Board of Directors.

Neal also has been a major advocate among City officials for seniors, actively promoting senior programs in healthcare, independent living and economic rights. Because of his background in healthcare he was invited to participate in the Post White House Conference on Medicare. For years he served as the major volunteer fund-raiser for the Ventura Home Modification Action Coalition and raised extensive private funds to support programs assisting seniors to remain independent and active participants in our community, especially those programs enhancing their ability to continue to “age in place”, thus avoiding the need to be supported through institutional care. Accordingly, he was a chief proponent of specialized housing and transportation programs for seniors in the City General Plan.

Neal also played a major role in the successful community dialogues guiding the evacuation and relocation of the homeless community from the Ventura River and the establishment of the privately funded River Haven community project. He has a long history of support and advocacy for healthcare programs for the poor and has been a member of many significant community efforts providing care and sustenance for those in need. He routinely raises substantial private funds for such causes and organizations, and he regularly volunteers in our school system as a tutor and to support service club sponsored leadership and social and academic development programs for under-privileged children.

For the last decade Neal has worked intensively with the Ventura Social Services Task Force to address the issues of poverty and homelessness in our community. He helped draft the Ventura County Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness, and he has been a vigorous activist on homeless issues. He sponsored the proposal that the City of Ventura endorse the Ten Year Plan, and Ventura was the first city in the County to sign on, and in fact led every other city, and the County as well, in making a financial commitment to implementing the Plan. Under the leadership of the Ventura Social Services Task Force, the Ventura Homeless Prevention Fund was established, and Neal wrote the first check to fund it. That program today is credited with saving over 200 families and individuals from homelessness last year at an average cost of less than $1,000 per family. It has been identified by the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness as the first of eight model programs recommended as among the best programs in the nation for helping to reduce homelessness and a model for other cities.

Finally, Neal has been a strong supporter of the continuing effort to develop a veteran’s home in Ventura and has participated for the last several years in the Ventura County Stand Down, providing much needed support for homeless and destitute veterans. He volunteers routinely with such organizations as the Disabled American Veterans to help meet the needs of our veterans, both those aging and frail who served long ago and those newly returned from war.

3. Historic Preservation.

Neal sponsored the effort to protect historic sites and to celebrate our historic and cultural heritage by taking stronger steps to preserve meaningful historic buildings and landmarks within the city. His efforts led to the adoption of stronger penalties for willful destruction of recognized registered historic sites coupled with tax incentives for voluntary preservation of historic homes and landmarks through local adoption of the Mills Act. He worked with the Chinese-American Association and the Chinese Historical Association to bring the China Alley Commemorative Mural on Figueroa St. into existence and to bring a Chinese cultural celebration to the city. He helped bring the Scottish Highland Games to the City without costing the taxpayers a dime, attracting today after six years more than 23,000 tourists annually who travel to Ventura to celebrate Scots-Irish contributions to Americana, selling out virtually every hotel room in the City.

4. Cultural Arts.

Neal was the sponsor of the proposal to facilitate a public-private cooperative venture to develop a cultural arts facility within the city. He was an early proponent of the development of an arts village approach as an integral component of the City’s downtown development efforts. He was one of the earliest advocates for an artist live-work development project, now known as the WAV or Working Artists Ventura project that is nearing completion in downtown Ventura, and he was the original sponsor and advocate for an Artist-in-Residence program to bring internationally recognized artists, writers, musicians, composers and scholars to our community to work in our school system, among our artist community and with our cultural affairs programs to promote Ventura as the leading center of the arts and culture on the central coast. To date through his personal efforts he has commitments from such noted artists and performers as Mark McMahon, the world famous Chicago streetscape artist and musicians Charlie Daniels and Chris Brubeck, among others, to participate in the Ventura Artist-in-Residence program, bringing their talent and fame to our community, invigorating our arts community, and infusing our kids with their knowledge and talent through their participation in our educational programs at no cost to the school system.

5. Environmentalism & Water Conservation.

Neal was the sponsor of the water conservation initiative to provide for individual water metering for all multi-unit development projects within the City, estimated to save more than 43 million gallons of water annually in the City. He also participated in the statewide committee that drafted the Ahwahnee Water Principles under the auspices of the Local Government Conference, which are the guiding principles for sustainable water resource management for communities across the country. He sponsored the adoption of those principles as the official planning policy guidelines for water use and management by the City, and the City of Ventura was the first community in the country to adopt those guidelines.

Recognizing that water is the defining natural resource for Southern California and Ventura County, Neal has worked for many years on water issues and water conservation policies, serving with the Board of Directors of the Association of Water Agencies for the last eight years and as an associate member of the Southern California Water Committee previously, and more recently as an Alternate Board Member representing all County Cities on the Fox Canyon Groundwater Management Agency. Neal has a long history of work in the conservation movement going back more than forty years and has previously served on both regional and state level boards and committees advocating or carrying out programs designed to protect and conserve our natural resources or manage our recreational assets prudently and efficiently.

5. National Defense and the Regional Economy.

Because of his extensive background and expertise in military and national defense issues, for the last eight years Neal has served as the City’s representative on the Board of Directors of the Regional Defense Partnership for the 21st Century. In that capacity he has brought his knowledge and experience to bear effectively to help promote Ventura County’s regional interests in both preserving a strong national defense and assuring that our local naval base remains a vital part of the national defense system.

Naval Base Ventura County (Pt. Mugu naval air station and Port Hueneme harbor and naval base) has been challenged twice in the last decade and a half with threats of closure. This naval base represents over two billion dollars worth of economic activity in this County and 17,000 jobs. Its loss would be devastating to our economy.

Neal has worked effectively year after year to assure that the military missions housed on this base remain relevant and vital to our national defense program and that we continue to secure mission assignments to our naval base that support its relevance and necessity to our national defense missions. His efforts, along with those of his colleagues from the other cities in the Western half of the County, and those of our County government itself, have successfully defended each attempt to reduce the national commitment to our naval base and have effectively added millions of dollars of additional investment in this precious asset, now representing a diverse array of over 90 different missions and commands.

Each year Neal and this group of advocates, through the support of our local Congressional delegation (Gallegly and Capps, Feinstein and Boxer), have been responsible for bringing on average from $4,000,000 to $10,000,000 in additional national investment in Naval Base Ventura County, most of which represents added dollars to our County economic system. Neal’s strength of advocacy has earned him the nickname “The Sledgehammer” among the hearty group that tackles the problems of protecting and preserving the national defense mission and role of our Naval base, and the economic benefits it brings to our community, each year in Washington. Though there are still those that know his call sign was actually “Professor”, he is happy to go by the new cipher. Just call him “Sledge.”