Mayor Reflects On What It Takes to Run a Military Town

Camp Pendleton Patch spoke with Mayor Jim Wood about the challenges and traits that make Oceanside a unique military town.

Patch: What are the three top issues currently affecting Oceanside?

Mayor: Economics, the state situation, the economy. I think it’s frustrating for the cities around the state to say, ‘State, you’re in a financial disaster so you’re taking my money that I’ve already got pre-planned into the budget.' ... The economy, when it’s down, the sales taxes are down, the property taxes are down and those things we planned on. So financially that does impact us for two reasons: We certainly have to cut back on the services and the people that provide them.       

Public safety is always at the top of the list, need it be fire, police. Public safety, we’re a beach community; lifeguards are important, harbor police — all those people that are public safety are priorities without a doubt.

And as for the third, traffic ... because everybody seems to want to move and ... live out here because of the great weather, and I understand it. We have tourists, so the impact on the city is not only financial, but traffic impacts are a big factor.  

Patch: How is Oceanside affected by Camp Pendleton deployment rotations?

Mayor: When we have a (Marine Expeditionary Force) go overseas, there’s one here training, ready to replace it, so we have the response of the military still here. ... When you originally go back to the start of the Iraqi War, when they first left, it was like the city was deserted. There was a major impact. And I remember back in the Vietnam War, I think the spouses and family members stayed here, waiting for their loved ones to come back. What I see lately ... you’d see the families go back to where home was, go back and stay with families. ... We don’t see that anymore; it seems like when there’s a deployment, one replaces the other. So we’re not seeing the heavy impact of the economy anymore. 

Patch: In what ways is Oceanside’s economy affected by the Marine Corps base? 

Mayor: The economy, because of the impact out there for jobs that (military personnel) do for civilians and the construction out there, it certainly impacts our city and helps us, no doubt about it. On the other hand, we also see the military once in a while get involved in projects. In other words, we might have something like a SUN Project, where we have people volunteer, come out and help clean up a blighted neighborhood to some extent. That usually means cleaning the yards, fixing the house, painting the house, etc. — and we’ll do a number of houses in one neighborhood. Or if somebody is requesting military personnel you'll see a lot of guys from the base come in and get involved in the community and try to help it. They’ve been very good neighbors, I can’t underline that enough.

Camp Pendleton, as you well know, has lost a lot of military personnel and their families have been impacted. And the city has been pretty good about that, too — a two-way street. We go back there and get involved in the funerals, the activities, the families that may need assistance in town, raising money, etc. And, like I say, it's a two-way street and I think we've been very good both ways trying to help each other.               

Patch: What are some of the challenges of being a military town?

Mayor: I think one of the problems we had there for a long time — and that’s recent — is these young guys coming back and they’ve been to combat, they’ve been to war three and four times, they’re getting money in their pockets, come back and tend to buy motorcycles. They go out and sometimes extend their abilities on a motorcycle and crash and hurt themselves or have fatalities and we’re worried about them. We told the base that one of our biggest concerns was that these heroes are killing themselves on motorcycles, so they mandated a training class on Camp Pendleton. If you want to bring a bike on Pendleton, you have to go through the classes and it’s helped an awful lot. Other than that, minor issues. It’s like having another city next door to us.     

Patch: How do you see Oceanside’s relationship with Camp Pendleton changing?

Mayor: More positive. I think it’s a relationship. I know as the military gets involved, and these are gentlemen making freedom possible for all of us, we all understand it, we see it, we’re supportive. I think most cities around the world act that way, but when you’re actually an adjacent neighbor to a military base you tend to understand that some of these people out there involved in making a safe world for us, losing their lives and giving it all are people that we’ve probably dealt with on a personal basis, shopped here in town, have a family here in town or in some way are  involved with us.  It’s a little more personal than when we find out that (a member of the military has died); classic example is that one of the neighbors behind me, son was killed in Fallujah by a sniper. That hit home because it was my neighbor, it was somebody who was involved in the city, so it’s different.

We see a close-knit neighborhood in a sense that we support the military. Do they give back? Do we give? Yes, and I think that some of those things are just understood, just understood and we support them. 

Who would you like to have answer five questions? Let us know; email Patch Editor Jared Morgan at jared.morgan@patch.com.

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