Deputies Sent : Antonovich Hearing Turns Angry

Several Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies were dispatched Wednesday night to protect Supervisor Mike Antonovich after he was surrounded by angry constituents at a public hearing.

The deputies eventually escorted Antonovich out of the meeting past a dozen picketers, and the only blows struck were verbal.

Antonovich had sponsored the public hearing attended by 30 people at Grape Arbor Park in Agoura to solicit ideas from Calabasas-area residents about a proposed 6-acre county park. Gates Canyon Park would be the first county park built in Calabasas since Antonovich became a supervisor 7 1/2 years ago.

After the supervisor talked briefly about the park, the meeting erupted. Dick Hubbard, leader of a grass-roots coalition formed to oust Antonovich from office, accused him of using the new park as a “political ploy” to hide a miserable record on park development.

“You came out here with a 6-acre park after doing nothing with Quimby for years!” yelled Hubbard, while picketers voiced their approval.

The county’s Quimby program generates money for new parks by charging subdivision developers fees. Until this year, the rates, which the Board of Supervisors is supposed to adjust annually, had not been increased since 1982.

Antonovich looked embarrassed as others at the meeting responded angrily to the hecklers.

“I don’t know who the hell you are, but I came here to talk about parks,” Bill Teague, a Malibu Canyon resident, said to Hubbard.

As the shouting among the audience intensified, Antonovich told Hubbard: “I’m going to a mental health dinner later. Maybe you should go with me.”

Several minutes later, Antonovich’s aide, Leeta Pistone, moved to break up the meeting. “We can’t talk with the screaming,” she said.

Antonovich and Pistone huddled with a sheriff’s deputy to see if he could could calm the crowd. Then John Hurford, a developer who is donating land for Gates Canyon Park, jumped on a chair.

“We’re here for a scheduled meeting,” Hurford shouted.

Then he warned, “If you don’t want the park, we sure want to develop the land” for homes.

The meeting resumed after Hubbard and his supporters thought they had extracted a promise from Antonovich to meet with them later to discuss recreation needs in the Las Virgenes area.

Not long after that, Antonovich left the meeting.