Ballot Issue on Traffic Turns Up the Political Heat in Simi Valley

Opponents of a Simi Valley ballot measure that would tie development to street improvements have continued to far outspend its proponents in the final days of the campaign, records show.

For their part, supporters of the measure charge that developers are trying to control local politics by financing the opposition’s campaign.

Ongoing debate over the city’s proposed traffic initiative has made the Simi Valley contest the most heated of races in four eastern Ventura County cities with local elections this year. In Camarillo, Moorpark and Thousand Oaks, candidates spent the last days before Tuesday’s elections canvassing neighborhoods and passing out literature, touching largely on growth management and other issues raised early in the campaigns.

In Simi Valley, discussion of the traffic initiative, labeled Measure C, continues to dominate the race by nine candidates for mayor and two City Council seats. The initiative, sponsored by a citizens group, would force developers to make or pay for street improvements, such as widening roads, within 1 1/2 miles of their projects before construction could begin.

The measure also would require the city, before allowing further development, to draft a plan that would spell out how it would keep traffic flowing at targeted intersections.

Exempted from the proposed ordinance would be developers of single-family homes on an acre or more of land, builders of a proposed regional mall, existing car dealerships and certain medical facilities. Also exempt would be several areas of the city, including the 2-square-mile West End redevelopment district.

Opponents of the traffic initiative raised about $95,000 between Jan. 1 and Oct. 22, more than 17 times the $5,300 raised by proponents, according to campaign finance statements filed with the city. Opponents reported spending about $96,000 to try to defeat the measure during the same period, compared to $1,700 spent by the measure’s supporters, the finance statements show.

Development interests based outside Simi Valley contributed about 65% of the money raised by opponents of Measure C, according to the statements. Contributions included $10,000 from the Building Industry Assn. of Southern California, $26,000 from Watt PAC of Santa Monica and $10,000 from Griffin Homes of Calabasas.

Supporters of Measure C last week pumped the last of their money into a full-page ad in the local newspaper that asked “Whose money is saying no?” said Paul La Bonte, co-author of the initiative and a candidate for City Council.

“The issue now is who controls our government. You can’t accept that kind of money from developers without being beholden to them,” La Bonte said of incumbents who received campaign contributions from builders.

But council members Glen McAdoo and Bill Davis, and Mayor Gregory A. Stratton, all of whom are running for reelection, said their opposition to Measure C has nothing to do with having received contributions from developers.

‘A Really Bad Law’

“People always get nervous when someone is spending a lot of money on something,” Stratton said. “But it costs money to show the public that this law, which has a mother-and-apple-pie appeal, is a really bad law.”

Stratton, an aerospace executive; Lincoln Demyan, a real estate broker and actor; and G. Paul Slaven, an aerospace engineer who is the treasurer of the group sponsoring Measure C, are running for the 2-year term of mayor.

Running for 4-year terms on the City Council are: Davis, a retired electronics technician; McAdoo, a transportation manager; La Bonte, a civil engineer; James L. Meredith, a retired U.S. postal clerk; Valarie Rose de Rose, a bank teller; and John P. Smallis, a manufacturing product associate.

La Bonte, Meredith and Slaven support Measure C while the other candidates oppose it.

Simi Valley voters also will decide whether to keep the city’s hotel-motel transient tax at 8%. If this initiative, labeled Measure B, is defeated, the tax rate would revert to 5%, the rate in 1986 before the City Council raised it.

5 Candidates

In Thousand Oaks, five candidates are vying for two City Council seats, which carry 4-year terms. Council members Lee Laxdal, an aerospace engineer, and Frank Schillo, a financial consultant, are running for reelection against Joan Gorner, Eloise Zeanah and Norman (Blackie) Jackson. Gorner, a former planning commissioner, and Zeanah, who is president of the League of Conejo Homeowners Assns., have criticized the incumbents for what they contend is a lack of responsiveness on growth-related issues, including redevelopment and traffic. Jackson, a singer, has not campaigned actively in the race.

In Camarillo, which recently lost $25 million after its former treasurer borrowed funds to finance highly speculative investments that backfired, the nine candidates competing for two City Council seats have continued to stress fiscal accountability.

Running for 4-year terms in Camarillo are: City Councilman Mike Morgan, a probation officer; Donald DeBring, an engineer; Larry DeSha, an attorney; Harvey Eisenberg, an operations administrator for a computer company; George Imrie, a financial manager; Stanley Scesney, a retired electrical engineer; and David M. Smith, a financial planner.

Dealing With Growth

In Moorpark, the effect of the city’s rapid growth rate on the quality of life continues to be the central issue in the race for three City Council seats. In the past two years, the city’s population has shot up by 41%, from about 17,000 in 1986 to about 24,000, according to city Planning Department statistics.

Running for 4-year terms in Moorpark are: Councilman John Galloway, a ceramics professor; Councilman Bernardo M. Perez, a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power representative; Thomas C. (Bud) Ferguson, a retired machinist and former council member who was recalled by voters in 1987; Bill La Perch, a rancher and former planning commissioner; Paul Lawrason, a planning commissioner and business manager; Scott Montgomery, a planning commissioner and government financial adviser; Lynn K. Tingirides, a Los Angeles police officer; and Leta Yancy-Sutton, a real estate broker and former council member.

Moorpark voters will also decide whether to elect their mayor directly, and, if so, for a 2-year or 4-year term.