OXNARD : McGrath Criticizes Takasugi’s Travels

Democratic Assembly candidate Roz McGrath on Wednesday accused her opponent, Nao Takasugi, of billing extravagant travel expenses to the city of Oxnard while serving as mayor.

McGrath, running for the 37th Assembly District seat, said Takasugi spent $31,249 traveling on behalf of the city during the last four years. She said he spent another $120,000 in travel-related expenses from 1984, when he became mayor, to 1988.

“We need to reform the way we do business, and we should start with the perks, which have little to do with conducting sound public policy,” McGrath said in a prepared statement.

Takasugi, a Republican candidate, did not dispute the expenses. As the city’s leader, he said, he must represent Oxnard at various conferences. He also serves on the board of directors for national and statewide organizations.

He said the city has often benefited financially from his attendance at conferences. At one gathering, he learned of a new trash pickup system that Oxnard ultimately instituted, which saves $450,000 to $500,000 a year.

He said he often spends his own money to attend conferences and that he does not travel extravagantly. He is not the type, he said, to travel to Hawaii with “a mai tai in one hand and a ukulele in the other.”

McGrath called for the end of such travel “perks.”

“If Mayor Takasugi keeps the same kind of itinerary when he becomes an Assemblyperson as he did when he became mayor, then this state surely will be headed for deeper financial trouble,” she said.

His time would have been better spent the last four years if he had faced the city’s problems rather than traveling, she said.

“His ‘Anywhere But Oxnard Tour’ is an insult to his constituents, and an arrogant abuse of power,” she said.