Howard Smith

Profile

Chairman of the Board, VCEDA

Howard J. Smith is Chairman of the Board of VCEDA, the Ventura County Economic Development Association, and was honored this year as one of the top fifty Business Leaders in the Central Coast by the Pacific Coast Business Times. A Past President of the Ojai Valley Chamber of Commerce, Smith has also served in an advisory capacity to the National Disaster Search Dog Foundation, the Ojai Community Hospital Foundation, the Ojai Valley Youth Foundation, the Wild Foundation, the Ojai Film Festival and numerous other community organizations.

He recently organized an exhibit at the Ventura County Maritime Museum; "When China Ruled the Seas, The Treasure Fleets of the Ming Dynasty." Smith is an active member of the Estate Planning and Planned Giving Councils of Ventura County as well as the Business & Technology Partnership at CSUCI. He taught for five years at UCLA Extension and has lectured nationally. A frequent Op Ed contributor to the Ventura County Star and the Ojai Valley News, his articles have also appeared in the Washington Post, Horizon Magazine, The VCEDA News, The Journal of the Writers Guild of America, and numerous trade publications. Random House published the paperback edition of his second book "Opening the Doors to Hollywood."

Posts

Stop The Trucks: State deals business blow to Ojai Quarry

by Howard Smith January 10, 2012

Read excerpts from Tony Biasotti’s new article in the Ventura County Star that appeared in Tuesday’s online edition:

“While Ojai Quarry owner Larry Mosler waits to see whether the county will revoke his mining permit, he got bad news from the state: His mine has been barred from supplying material for…

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Stop The Trucks: The Past and Future Legacy of the Ojai Valley

by Howard Smith January 9, 2012

By Michael J. Shapiro

The Stop the Trucks! Coalition (Coalition) has had to fend-off countless, scurrilous attacks from the moment we organized five years ago. We were vilified again following the most recent Ventura County Planning Commission hearing (December 15, 2011) after expressing our opposition to the Ojai Quarry (Quarry) being…

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Stop The Trucks: Two Breaking News Events: Mosler Delisted & Santa Barbara County Ready to stop the trucks

by Howard Smith January 7, 2012

Two new major breaking news stories have taken place this week as can be see from the emails below. The first is from Steve Offerman in Supervisor Bennett’s office and the second is from Gary Kaiser at the Santa Barbara Planning Department:

1)   When the Ventura County Planning…

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Stop The Trucks: From Supervisor Bennett – Truck Legislatio​n Support Needed

by Howard Smith December 22, 2011

Dear Ojai Valley Resident:

Earlier this year, Assemblymember Das Williams introduced a bill to restrict truck size on the mountainous segment of Highway 33. This bill, AB 538, would limit single-trailer trucks to 30 feet in length between Camino Cielo Road and the Santa Barbara County line.

In doing so, it would…

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Stop The Trucks: URGENT: Ventura County Supervisors Need to Hear From You NOW!!

by Howard Smith December 13, 2011

By emailing this letter to you, I SUPPORT the Planning Division’s move to revoke the C.U.P. for the Ojai Quarry.

steve.bennett@ventura.org
linda.parks@ventura.org
kathy.long@ventura.org
supervisor.foy@ventura.org
john.zaragoza@ventura.org

a. Uphold the Planning Division’s October 17, 2011, Order to Comply (“Order”) with the Surface Mining and Reclamation Act (SMARA);including the requirement to cease all further mining activities and forfeit the…

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Santa Barbara Stops the Trucks! What about Ventura County on Thursday?

by Howard Smith December 13, 2011

But the struggle is not over!

Tuesday, a vote by the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors put an END to Gravel Trucking on Route 33, Maricopa Highway, from the Cuyama Valley through Ojai to Oxnard and beyond!!!

This vote marks an end to one phase of our Five Year battle to…

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Stop The Trucks: Who REALLY owns the Ojai Rock Quarry?

by Howard Smith December 11, 2011

FOLLOW THE MONEY

Pro-Quarry forces have made much of the claim in recent days that the Ojai Quarry is a “Mom & Pop” operation that has been around forever.

True or False?

You be the judge — Especially after you see the Deeds of Trust below:

Our Cyber-Sleuth (aka the real Girl with the…

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Stop The Trucks: *Ojai Quarry Revocation Hearing Set for Thursday, December 15th

by Howard Smith December 5, 2011

The Ventura County sent out the following Notice below for a hearing before the Planning Commission. 

We urge you all to attend and SUPPORT the Planning Division’s move to revoke the C.U.P. for the Ojai Quarry.  

The hearing is expect to last most of the morning, if not…

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Stop The Trucks: County Supports Delinquency of a Miner w/ Million Dollar Payouts Despite Notice of Permit Revocation

by Howard Smith November 29, 2011

The Coalition has learned from inside sources that potential payments for rock delivered to the Ventura County’s Watershed Protection District’s project in Camarillo from the quarry in Ojai could exceed a Million Dollars of Taxpayer funds to the Mosler Rock Ojai Quarry at the same time the State of California…

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Stop The Trucks: County Aiding and Abetting the Delinquency of a Miner

by Howard Smith November 27, 2011

Rock Haulers similar to this one flooded the Ojai Valley Thanksgiving week

Even as the State of California issues a “30 Day Notice to Delist” the Mosler Rock Ojai Quarry as an acceptable supplier to government agencies and the Ventura County Planning Department files a “Notice of Revocation” of the quarry’s Conditional Use Permit (C.U.P.), another County…

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