Slow-Growth Group, in Surprise, Gives Nod to Stratton for Mayor

A surprised Simi Valley Councilman Greg Stratton on Friday won the backing of the city’s slow-growth advocates in his campaign for mayor, even though he opposes their growth-control measures on the November ballot.

But two of Stratton’s City Council colleagues who also are up for reelection were targeted for defeat by the group, Citizens for Managed Growth and Hillside Protection.

The policies of the two, Councilwomen Ann Rock and Vicky Howard, are “out of touch” with the majority of the community, Jean Ruecker, co-chairman of Citizens for Managed Growth, said at a news conference in the plaza in front of City Hall.

By contrast, Ruecker described Stratton, the city’s mayor pro tem, as a “friend.”

Citizens for Managed Growth is running a slate of two in the City Council race, high school teacher Michael Stevens and David Penner, a corporate controller.

Cites Voting Record

Rock said she finds it “interesting” that the group singled her out for defeat when her voting record on environmental issues is “practically identical” to Stratton’s.

Louis Pandolfi, the other co-chairman of Citizens for Managed Growth, said that, although Rock began her council career as a growth-control proponent, in the past two years she has sided primarily with pro-development interests and “turned away from those environmental concerns.”

The endorsement of Stratton came as a surprise because, like all other council members, he opposes the two growth measures pushed by Citizens for Managed Growth. He is backing a pair of alternative measures placed on the ballot by the council.

One of the ballot initiatives by the slow-growth group is designed to protect hillsides by prohibiting grading of slopes of 10% or more for industrial or commercial development. The other places yearly limits on housing construction.

The citizens group considers the council-backed measures to be less restrictive than theirs.

Position Unchanged

Stratton said the support of the slow-growth group “in no way, shape or form” changes his opposition to its initiatives.

Pandolfi, who is running the campaigns of Stevens and Penner, said the group did not endorse Stratton’s main opponent in the mayoral race, Tom Ely, because “he is about as far away from any kind of growth management position as you can get.”

Ely, president of the Ventura County Community College District, said that, although he supports planned growth, he opposes all four ballot measures because “government by referendum is not good government.”

“With the proper leadership, the problems with growth could have been resolved (by the council) without dividing the community,” Ely said.

The other candidates for mayor are businessman Gene Baker and Wilburn Owens, a retired state college custodian.

The current mayor, Elton Gallegly, is the Republican candidate for the 21st Congressional District seat in the November election.