Soka Hires Lobbyist to Counter Conservancy Head’s ‘Attack’ on Bill : Capitol: The measure deals with assessing the value of land owned by nonprofit groups when public agencies condemn the property for their use.

Reversing an earlier decision, Soka University has hired a well-known capital lobbyist to protect the school’s interests in the Legislature.

Soka University spokeswoman Bernetta Reade acknowledged Monday that the school has retained the services of lobbyist Dennis E. Carpenter’s firm, citing what she called “a very pointed attack” launched by Joseph T. Edmiston, executive director of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

Indeed, Soka’s action is the latest wrinkle in an escalating dispute between the school and the conservancy, which acquires land for public use in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Administrators of the Tokyo-based university are seeking to develop their land in Calabasas to accommodate an enlarged 4,400-student college. But the conservancy wants to acquire the property for the headquarters of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.

The fight has now spilled into the Legislature, where it centers on arcane legislation addressing how to determine the value of land owned by such nonprofit groups as churches and schools when public agencies want to condemn the property for their use.

The bill by state Sen. Nicholas C. Petris (D-Oakland) would allow some nonprofit groups to increase the value of their land to include the cost of rebuilding in the same area. Government appraisals now mirror only the value of the land and the depreciated value of existing buildings.

Conservancy officials have said the measure could add $10 million to the cost of Soka land sought by the agency.

Petris sought the change as an outgrowth of a dispute between a Seventh-day Adventist school and the city of Lynwood in southeast Los Angeles County. The measure cleared the Senate last month and is scheduled for a July 17 hearing in the Assembly Judiciary Committee.

A Petris aide said the senator, at the urging of Edmiston, has agreed to postpone until 1993 the effective date of the measure for areas of the Santa Monica Mountains that the conservancy wants to acquire. The bill is expected to be amended to incorporate the provision before the hearing.

The proposed amendment prompted Soka University to re-evaluate its position on the bill.

Shortly before the Senate action, Reade said the university “will not participate in any kind of lobbying” on the legislation. But Reade said Monday university officials had decided to hire Carpenter upon learning about Edmiston’s efforts to secure amendments.

Reade said the focus of Carpenter’s activities would be “to lobby against amendments that would adversely affect Soka University, and that is what Mr. Edmiston is proposing.”

Reade maintained Petris’ bill is turning into “special-interest legislation targeted at Soka University.”

Edmiston bristled at the suggestion, labeling it “ ‘Alice in Wonderland’ language.” He said that if the measure is not changed the university would be “in a position to take advantage of language designed for the Adventists but which applies to Soka.”

By revising the bill, Edmiston asserted, the conservancy is merely trying to protect “the right of the parks service to find the best place for a visitors center in the mountains and keeping the law as it exists today.”

Edmiston said he believes that when Petris introduced the measure he was not acting on behalf of Soka University. He also praised Petris for agreeing to revise his proposal in the face of Carpenter’s expected lobbying effort.

Citing Carpenter’s reputation for being influential, Edmiston said the lobbyist’s employment “makes our chances much reduced” on the Petris bill. Carpenter is a former Republican state lawmaker from Newport Beach.