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By Wendy Leung in the Ventura County Star

The Oxnard sewage plant treats about 32 million gallons of wastewater every day.

It is old and rusty and it occasionally fails, causing spills of partially treated wastewater into the ocean.

The struggling plant is the reason sewage bills have been steadily increasing these past two years. It is the reason four of the five members on the City Council faced the threat of losing their posts.

But some good news came to the embattled facility when Gov. Jerry Brown signed the state budget. Assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin, D-Thousand Oaks, has secured $9.5 million to go toward emergency repairs to the plant.

“It got our attention,” Irwin said. “There was so much politicking about it, eventually who’s going to be hurt are the residents. Hopefully, this helps move the city to stability.”

By Jeannette Sanchez-Palacios

Getting involved in politics for many people means grabbing their phone or computer and sharing their anger and resentment toward politicians and a system they feel doesn’t listen to them. It might be satisfying to lash out at what’s happening in the world, but there is so much more that can be done.

That was California Assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin’s thinking when she launched her Young Legislators Program two years ago. The program gives high school students the opportunity to learn about the legislative process and integrate themselves in their local communities through public service.

At its core the program lets students participate in the system that creates the laws affecting their communities. First, they learn how bills become laws—from discussing ideas for possible legislation to drafting, submitting and ultimately winning approval for their ideas.