Cultural Center Back Before Thousand Oaks Voters

Two years ago, Thousand Oaks voters tried to settle the hotly debated cultural center issue once and for all.

It didn’t happen.

Two ballot questions yielded contradictory results. One, simply asking voters whether public funds should be spent for an arts complex, received only 38% of the vote. The other, asking whether a center should be built with city redevelopment funds, donated land and a private endowment to offset deficits, won 61% of the vote.

Since redevelopment funds are public funds, the voters had both endorsed and rejected the building of a cultural center.

On June 3, voters return to try to end the confusion--this time to consider spending an estimated $22.3 million for a regional performing arts complex to be built with city redevelopment money.

If Measure C wins, City Council will probably adopt a financing plan this summer, meaning that the center could open next year. Although the measure is not binding, the Council is expected to follow the voters’ verdict.

The arts complex would include a 1,800-seat central theater, a 299-seat theater, a 15,000-square-foot museum and art gallery, and an outdoor amphitheater. (The measure would also have the city give $2.85 million of the $22.3 million to the Conejo Valley Unified School District to build theaters at Newbury Park, Thousand Oaks and Conejo Valley high schools. The district would chip in $1.5 million.)

The center would be built at one of two sites in central Thousand Oaks--the city-owned Los Robles Golf Course or land donated by The Oaks shopping mall.

Echoing the debate of 1984, opponents charge that the city does not belong in the arts business, and that the proposal is too large for Thousand Oaks, an affluent city of 97,000.

Moreover, they contend, the city would be forced to pay for the expected yearly operating deficits. A consultant for the city has projected that the deficit would rise to $722,000 in the center’s second year, then fall below $600,000.

“Thousand Oaks needs a cultural center, but this is an overblown, overpriced effort to feed some egos in the community,” contended Richard D. Booker, a leading critic. Booker and others formed the Thousand Oaks Taxpayers Assn., which is distributing flyers labeling the center a “tax rip-off.”

Another group, the Committee Against Tax Supported Culture, is also mailing brochures objecting to entertaining arts patrons with public funds.

Together, the two groups plan to spend less than $4,000 on the campaign. Despite their limited funds, the opponents have scored early public relations points by challenging the ethics of school district officials in sending 18,000 students home with informational flyers copied mostly from pro-center literature. The protest forced school officials to abandon plans for a second flyer.

Supporters, meanwhile, appear to have more money and foot soldiers. They funneled at least $12,000 into the For Measure C Committee, led by several civic leaders, along with members of a local group committed to raise $3.25 million to cover deficits--the Alliance for the Arts.

The For Measure C Committee has sent dozens of backers to pass out flyers, received endorsements from several prominent civic groups and enlisted television and film stars to headline a rally last Sunday at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks.

Backers of the cultural center say that property taxes will not be raised to pay for the center because funds will come from a redevelopment district along Thousand Oaks Boulevard. Whether the cultural center is built or not, the district, formed in 1979, is expected to collect $265 million over 40 years as new development increases property tax revenue.

Denying that the cultural center is elitist, the committee adopted the slogan, “The arts are for everyone.”

Supporters say the center will stimulate performing arts locally and attract professional plays, symphonies and dance companies. They look to the center to end a paucity of arts facilities in the Conejo Valley.

“I think the mission of the center is to make Thousand Oaks the cultural center of western Los Angeles County and Ventura County,” said Ward Fredericks, an executive recruiter and member of the For Measure C group.

A debate on the cultural center ballot measure will be held May 30. Page 15.