My name is Steve Velkei and I am a concerned citizen of Ojai. I founded this website with the help of my sister Laura Velkei to begin a dialogue about how to affect positive change in Ojai. Its ultimate purpose is simple: to enlist members of the community in the cause of making the Ojai Valley an even better place to live.

I was born and raised in Southern California, attended Princeton University on a scholarship and graduated from law school in 1992. I have been a trial lawyer for fifteen years. Three years ago, I purchased a home here in Ojai and I quickly became passionate about the community and the people here. I find the people of Ojai share the same passion as I do. I have often wondered, though, whether we have done enough as a community to foster a healthy dialogue among the different groups that live here. I want to help begin that dialogue. The survey and the work associated with administering this website are my initial contributions to that process.

Accordingly, we conducted a survey to understand where the town and Valley come out on important issues and hopefully find areas of common ground. The time to take the survey ended on July 31, 2008. We will soon publish the results on this site.

Feel free to email me directly at steve@makeojaibetter.com if you have any questions. Please also use the blog to let us know about new issues as they come up. If you'd like to read more now, on May 16, 2008, the Ojai Valley News published this article by Linda Harmon about the survey. On July 16, 2008, the Ojai Valley News also published this guest editorial by me on the process.

Talk to you soon.

Steve Velkei