Parks’ Stubbornness Earns Friends, Enemies

With an election drawing near, Linda Parks’ critics are hitting her hard for what they say is the Ventura County supervisor’s closed mind and stubbornness.

But it’s just that tenacity that appeals to supporters of the former Thousand Oaks councilwoman, who is seeking a second term.

Take the question of the nesting birds.

In early spring, county flood-control managers sought the board’s approval to clear trees and brush from a creek in Parks’ district. It had already received the go-ahead from state environmental regulators and the county’s own biologists. Parks, however, cast a no vote.

She argued that nesting birds would be disrupted by the work, and she couldn’t be persuaded otherwise, even when county staff assured her that the work would be halted if nests were found.

“There’s definitely nests out there,” Parks said. “And you don’t go trimming trees during nesting season.”

On June 6, voters in the 2nd District will get their say on whether Parks’ style is passionate or petulant.

Her sole challenger is environmental consultant Joe Gibson, a Conejo Recreation and Park District trustee and longtime community volunteer.

Gibson’s supporters say he would be a very different supervisor, one who considers all points of view before casting a vote. Parks, they say, pays too much attention to environmental concerns while ignoring the needs of business.

“Joe Gibson is hard-working and he gives everyone a fair hearing,” said Jere Robings, a Thousand Oaks resident involved in civic matters. “I don’t think you can say that about Linda.”

A champion of slow growth, Parks, 49, has frequently upset the business establishment in development battles. Four out of the five Thousand Oaks City Council members have endorsed Gibson.

But she is revered by a loyal corps of followers who admire her willingness to stick her neck out. She has also received the backing of the county’s powerful police and firefighter unions.

Parks was crucial in helping Santa Rosa Valley residents set up a taxing district that added traffic lights and safety improvements to the rural road that bisects the community, said Mark Burley, chairman of a local citizens advisory group. She also guided changes to the county’s General Plan that make it less likely for the two-lane road to one day be converted to a four-lane highway, Burley said.

“All of the supervisors supported that, but Linda’s role was important,” he said.

Parks’ environmental credentials helped propel her from a seat on the City Council to the Board of Supervisors in 2002.

She is an organizing member of Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources, or SOAR, the grass-roots group that successfully pushed landmark growth-control initiatives across Ventura County in the 1990s. She was a pivotal voice in the successful fight to stop construction of the 3,200-home Ahmanson Ranch subdivision at the county’s eastern border.

Parks said she used to get upset when opponents called her a one-issue candidate. But now she sees it as a badge of honor.

“My one issue is the qualify of life of residents, from open space to less traffic congestion,” she said. “I won’t kowtow to developers. I am consistent on that because it comes from the heart.”

Gibson, 51, is chairman of the park district board, which supervises parks and open space in Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village.

In growth-averse Thousand Oaks, he has spoken out for more housing but chosen his words carefully. Affordable housing, he says, is needed to help younger generations get into homes. It’s something he knows firsthand, he said, because his own son, a lieutenant in the Air Force, could not afford to live in Thousand Oaks. Traffic congestion on the 101 Freeway and California 23 also are top concerns, Gibson said.

Gibson says that he can’t remember how he voted on the SOAR measures but that he does not as a rule support ballot-box planning.

“While SOAR has been a tool, it has both pros and cons,” he said. “But it’s on the books, and we have to work with it.”

Gibson says Parks has become such a lightning rod with Thousand Oaks power brokers that she can no longer work effectively with them.

“We need leadership at the county who can build collaboration, consensus and provide realistic solutions,” he said.