No test run this time around

Dave Brooks

Staring out over a small pond on the cusp of a newly restored redwood

habitat, Steve Ray seems both relaxed and pleased at the success of

the Shipley Nature Center.

The small reserve, on the western edge of Huntington Beach Central

Park, is buzzing with bushy-tailed jack rabbits and soft-smelling

lavender, a sharp contrast from its dilapidated state several years

ago when a group of volunteers rescued the small city-owned facility.

Ray was one of the early visionaries in that effort and remains

active with Shipley Nature even as he serves on the Huntington Beach

Planning Commission, runs his own film business and campaigns for one

of three seats on the City Council.

Not that the workload deters Ray, who markets himself as a dogged

details man who combs public documents for minute inconstancies and

is known to question the most basic assumptions about city

government.

“One thing I hate is when people say its never been done this

way,” said Ray, who got a lot of heat when he began holding community

forums outside of the Planning Commission to gauge support on

different development plans.

“Are we not open to better ideas?” said Ray. “There are a lot of

informed, intelligent people in this city.”

Ray can listen, but he can also talk, endlessly, offering

unprompted explanations of desalination water rights or his efforts

to oversee hazardous material remediation. On the Planning Commission

he is known for his tendency for excruciating interrogations of

applicants and staff members, elevating the arbitrary to the relevant

in occasional displays of self-appreciation.

“I have a reputation for asking a lot of questions,” he said.

His work ethic has been good to him, Ray said, lifting him from a

life of poverty in Appalachian country where he said he supported his

family through farm labor at the ripe age of 10. Ray found partial

escape through success in the military, followed by teaching, work as

a school administrator and then a jaunt in the corporate world.

Now he is taking his first shot at Surf City politics after making

a test run in 2002. He ranked in right behind candidates Keith Bohr

and Don Hansen, although he was 7,000 votes short of both.

This year Ray has kicked his campaign into full gear and is

spending his evenings and weekends canvassing neighborhoods and

attending political events, doing his best to stay positive and put

people at ease with his warm personality.

The man has myriad ideas and visions for the city. He teems with

suggestions on how to improve the city’s labor relations. Two of his

ideas about increasing revenue are developing Huntington Beach as a

regional hub for the renewable energy industry and getting more

movies shot in the city.

The United States needs to re-evaluate its dependence on foreign

oil, he said, which even by the best estimates will be completely

depleted in a half-century.

“We’re going to have find cheaper alternatives and no other city

is geared toward the renewable energy industry,” he said. “We have

plenty of room and we should find these companies and recruit them to

come to our city and start operations that pay well and offer

technical careers.”

Ray would also like to see the city aggressively go after the film

industry and lobby for movies to be shot in Surf City. He is

recommending the city create its own film commission and put together

an economic package to encourage on-site shooting.

“You can throw a lot of ideas out there, but unless you follow

through, you will have nothing,” he said. “I believe that success

comes in three parts. First you need to educate people, and then you

have to marshal support. Finally you have to go out there, get it

done, and make things happen.”