Oxnard’s Jane Tolmach Has No Plans to Bow Out

From the beginning, Jane Tolmach had two strikes against her: She was a woman in the predominantly male field of politics and a Democrat in a Republican-dominated county.

Yet that never stopped this strong-willed woman with crisp blue eyes in her evolution from 1950s housewife to political activist to the first woman elected to the Oxnard City Council.

Today at 75, she remains active in Oxnard’s political scene. But unlike her very public political image during her eight years in office in the 1970s, Tolmach now works the back channels of power and the front doorsteps of neighborhoods--blending old-style politicking with aggressive grass-roots activism.

Her method has been effective, helping to elect John Zaragoza to the council in November and to persuade officials to fire City Manager Tom Frutchey and scrap the transformation of the city’s bureaucracy that Frutchey started.

“She feels very strongly on these issues and does her homework,” said former Councilwoman Dorothy Maron, who served from 1980 to 1992. “I think she is a very good influence, and Jane can mobilize troops. She genuinely feels very strongly about the issues she is espousing.”

Tolmach is modest about her activism and leadership.

“I’m never fully satisfied that things are going the way they should go,” Tolmach said. “[But] it’s never one person. There are too many forces that affect everything.”

Jane McCormick Tolmach was born in 1921 the youngest of four children to Irish-American parents in Havre, Montana. Although 1920s America was hardly a place that encouraged careers and advancement for women, her parents urged her to broaden her education.

Tolmach graduated from UCLA in 1943 with a degree in psychology and then went on to Smith College for a master’s degree in social work.

Seeking to flee the cold Montana weather, Tolmach and husband Don settled in the city in 1948, making him its first pediatrician.

It was in Oxnard that her political career evolved.

First as a pregnant wife, she organized coffee fund-raisers for national candidates Estes Kefauver in 1954 and Adlai Stevenson in ‘56, then moved on to planning rallies for Gov. Edmund “Pat” Brown in 1958 and John F. Kennedy in ‘60, then finally ran for City Council and the state Assembly.

“I never wanted to run for office myself,” said Tolmach, recalling her early activist years. “But then, after supporting some candidates that were disappointing after they ran and being asked to run a few times, I started to think about it.”

Elected in a tight race as the first female council member in 1970, Tolmach served on the council for eight years and as mayor for one year.

She remembers one struggle to keep the gas company from storing liquefied natural gas in the city of Oxnard. She also worked to limit the noise and expansion of Oxnard’s airport, which she feared at one point could become a satellite for Los Angeles International Airport.

Then, at the height of her popularity, she decided to run for the state Assembly in 1976. Despite the support of then-Gov. Jerry Brown and other prominent state political figures, Tolmach lost her bid to incumbent Charles Imbrecht.

The defeat was enough to turn her away from the local and state political scene for a while.

“That was somewhat disappointing in a way, but not tremendously,” said Tolmach, referring to her Assembly bid loss. “The issues in my community and nation are very interesting to me. I sort of drifted into it, and I’ve found it interesting and enjoyable.”

In 1981, she decided to go to law school to improve her understanding of the minute details involved in city governance.

For the next decade, Tolmach stayed out of the local political scene, preferring instead to join community boards and relish more time with her husband, five children and four grandchildren.

Then four years ago, Tolmach got wind of a proposal to build a large casino, and that mobilized her into action. She and Mayor Manuel Lopez came together to rally against the proposal, which was defeated by the City Council in the face of tremendous public opposition.

One year later, she organized a petition drive to reinstate the Planning Commission, which had been disbanded by the council--and which was opposed by Lopez. Although she came up a few hundred signatures short of placing the issue on the ballot, Tolmach’s efforts caused a public outcry and forced the council to reinstate the commission.

Tolmach has always shared a close relationship with Lopez. Longtime Oxnard residents, the two have known each other for decades and share a similar ideology. Her friendship with the mayor has come in handy when trying to lobby on behalf of issues she feels strongly about, she said.

Her latest battle is against the city of Oxnard’s massive redevelopment proposal, which includes 1,983 acres throughout the city, including some prime farmland.

Tolmach says the project should not be considered by the council until a permanent city manager is appointed and a finance director is found.

“They should not be borrowing money . . . without a finance director to look and evaluate the consequences,” said Tolmach.

Tolmach also nipped at the heels of the council on the use of workshops for city employees, which she labeled “brainwashing sessions” that are “so costly and of so little value.” Those workshops, she said, are a remnant of former City Manager Frutchey’s reign. The City Council agreed earlier this month not to renew the contract for the workshop consultant.

Although she dedicates many hours to her gadfly duties, a top priority for Tolmach is spending time with her family. Taking afternoon walks around the neighborhood, preparing Don’s favorite enchiladas or admiring his talented hand in gardening--Tolmach’s energy and focus never cease to amaze her husband of 51 years.

“When you want a strong person [not] to do something, you can sometimes make her want to do it even more by opposing her,” said Don Tolmach, 81.

Until she feels at ease with the City Council’s decisions and policymaking, Tolmach pledges she will not go away.

“I’m concerned about the direction the city has gone in,” said Tolmach. “I’m concerned we still have that transformation stuff [in city bureaucracy] going on as if there were no change in the administration. Until I see a change then I feel as though I have to watch.”