Gonzales Should Step Down

Bad things keep happening to Ray W. Gonzales, who otherwise might have had a bright future in Oxnard and Ventura County leadership roles.

Back in 1993, he was considered a community hero for saving the life of Irma Lopez, a community activist and the wife of Mayor Manuel Lopez, during a shooting at the Oxnard unemployment office. He served as a city planning commissioner in 1997 and 1998, and was elected Oxnard Elementary School District trustee in 1998.

But in August Gonzales was fired as director of the county-run La Colonia CalWORKS center for what his superiors said was poor job performance. The next month he was found guilty of misdemeanor spousal battery. A Ventura County Superior Court jury concluded that he had shoved his wife into a broken glass window during a domestic dispute earlier in the year. He avoided a jail sentence but was placed on three years’ probation and ordered to attend domestic violence counseling for a year.

And then last week Gonzales, 42, was arrested and booked on suspicion of possession of methamphetamine for sale and transport. Police said he appeared to be involved in a drug sale at Channel Islands Boulevard and Ventura Road, and that a search of his car turned up about 4 1/2 grams of methamphetamine. A Los Angeles man was also arrested.

Until a court determines otherwise, Gonzales is presumed innocent in this case. Yet based on his previous misadventures, the parents, teachers and staff of the school district might well wonder if someone else wouldn’t make a better role model for their kids.

Gonzales should step down and focus on straightening out his personal problems. The school district has enough challenges of its own.