Gallegly Uses Simi Valley as a Springboard to Congress

Simi Valley residents remember it as the day their city started standing up to its giant urban neighbor.

It was four years ago. Mayor Elton Gallegly had called a press conference on a newly completed section of the Simi Valley Freeway, not yet open because of a dispute with the City of Los Angeles. Gallegly said it was a “monument to bureaucracy” that commuters in his bedroom community could not use those portions of the freeway.

‘Elton Had to Stand Up for Us’

“We’ve had to flex our muscles a bit,” said Jim Meredith, a board member of the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District. “Elton had to stand up for us, and he did it.”

Gallegly, still the mayor, is now the heavily favored Republican contender for Congress in the 21st District, a far-flung GOP stronghold stretching from Tujunga past the coast at Port Hueneme to Santa Catalina Island.

Those who have observed Gallegly’s six-year record as mayor say he has served as a spokesman for what they feel was an often-maligned city. With his salesman’s style, developed as a successful realtor, he sold Simi Valley as a community that had shaken its rough-hewn, blue-collar character.

“In a very short time, this city has turned from s-e-a-m-y Valley to Simi Valley,” remarked Ann Rock, a city councilwoman. “Elton has had a big hand in that. He conveys a sense of how the people of Simi Valley want to see themselves.”

Said Gallegly: “If I had to pick out one thing that’s been important to me, it has been the image of Simi Valley both inside and outside the community.”

The city’s transformation figures in the congressional campaign through Gallegly’s strong identification with eastern Ventura County, a fast-growing area beginning to put its mark on federal and state politics. The region is dominated by conservative, white-collar households that constitute nearly half of the 21st District’s voters. The district as a whole has a 52% Republican to 39% Democratic registration.

Gallegly, 42, stands to become the first national lawmaker from eastern Ventura County, a factor analysts say explains in part his big primary-election win over Tony Hope, a Washington, D.C., lawyer and son of entertainer Bob Hope, who moved to the San Fernando Valley to run for office.

The mayor’s rise from blue-collar beginnings parallels Simi Valley’s.

Born to a southeast Los Angeles family of modest means, he left college without a degree to sell lumber and later studied real estate at night. He opened a realty firm and successfully speculated in housing.

With little background in community activism, he won a seat on the City Council in 1979 with the idea that “government could be run more like a business if we had business minds running the show.”

Gallegly was appointed mayor one year later, and when that post became elective, was returned to office twice, the last time in 1984 with 86% of the vote over a little-known contender.

Under Gallegly, tract homes and strip shopping malls continued to fill the Valley floor, running to the edge of the stark brown hills that surround the young suburb. The population rose from 77,000 to 90,000.

The newcomers were a more upscale group than earlier residents, and Simi Valley became the city with the highest median household income in Ventura County, now about $45,000 per year, surpassing Thousand Oaks.

No Property Tax

Under the pro-growth policies of Gallegly and the council, the city’s sales-tax revenues doubled, and the number of industrial jobs jumped from 2,000 to 12,000. The annual city budget grew to $52 million. It is free of debt and has never had a property tax.

During the same period, the city undertook an ambitious street-repair program. Sidewalks, traffic lights, medians and new paving improved once-rutted roads. City building projects included a $2.6-million City Hall, a $1-million senior citizens center and a remodeled police station.

Gallegly is also credited with leading council moves to make the police force more professional.

When he entered office, the force was dogged by low morale and allegations of police brutality. Instead of wearing police uniforms and driving patrol cars, officers wore blue blazers and drove all-white cars identifying them as Community Safety Agency officers.

With council backing, the department switched to traditional uniforms and black-and-white cars. Crime rates dropped; Simi Valley now has the lowest crime rate of any city its size in California. Criticism of the city’s police also abated.

Developers’ Role Praised

“These things are paid for through economic development. The developers have played a vital role in us remaining a no-property-tax city,” said Gallegly, a supporter of President Reagan.

Rather than apologizing for his lack of experience in state or federal politics, the mayor says his council years prepare him well for Congress.

“I’ve had the experience that many state and federal representatives have not, from the trenches and the ground up,” he said. “Historically, isn’t that what the House of Representatives is all about, the ‘Mr. Smith’ story?” he said, referring to the film “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

Gallegly gets high marks from fellow council members for not overplaying his largely ceremonial post. His style is methodical, sometimes plodding, admirers and critics agree.

“It makes for a very smoothly working group,” said Rock. “He’s been a kind of glue, if you will, that keeps our council together. He builds consensus.”

To the occasional annoyance of fellow council members, Gallegly has allowed residents to speak at the beginning of council meetings. He rarely gavels down speakers, which pleases even his hometown foes.

“He’s without peers on the City Council. He’s a professional politician among amateurs,” commented Louis Pandolfi, chairman of Citizens for Managed Growth and Hillside Protection.

Growth Limit Measures

The group wrote two measures, which are on the November ballot, that would strictly limit growth in the city. Gallegly is supporting two less restrictive slow-growth measures put on the ballot by the council to counter the two of the citizens group.

Despite their differences over development, Pandolfi said he appreciates Gallegly’s straighforwardness. “There’s no facade there,” he said. “He’s totally pro-growth and pro-development. In that way, he earns respect.”

Gallegly’s staunch support of growth has proved to be his most controversial stand within the city, producing both Republican and Democratic critics. His Democratic opponent, Avalon City Councilman Gilbert R. Saldana, has picked up on the controversy.

Saldana has called Gallegly “out of step” with popular slow-growth drives in Ventura County and has criticized his opponent’s reliance on developers’ campaign contributions, which accounted for one-third of Gallegly’s primary-election war chest, according to campaign statements filed with the federal government.

The mayor has drawn support from developers because “he’s business-oriented,” said Elaine Freeman, vice president of development for Griffin Homes and president of the Simi Valley Chamber of Commerce. “He understands that time is money,” she added.

Little Interest in Slow Growth

Saldana’s support for the slow-growth cause has failed to attract much interest from Simi Valley activists, most of whom are Republican in the strongly GOP city.

“Elton’s whole voting record is pro-development to the extent that the average person in the city disagrees with him, but he’s very popular personally,” said Ed Sloman, a slow-growth advocate. “Elton believes that free enterprise ought to exist and not to worry about zoning.”

Slow-growth activists have taken note of Gallegly’s ability to stay out of the cross fire between themselves and some of the council members in the present growth campaign. “Maybe he wants to stay in the background because it’s unpopular. He’s a very good politician,” Sloman said.

But Gallegly disputes that view, pointing to his normally low-key style as the reason for such an impression. At a recent press conference called to promote the council’s ballot measures, he said that developers of a regional shopping center would abandon the long-sought mall if voters oppose the council’s pro-growth stance.

Gallegly said city housing has been improved in recent years by the council’s insistence that design, density and traffic plans satisfy neighborhood complaints. “Developers are going to have to meet some very rigorous standards,” he said.