The Truth on City Hall?

Mayor Frank Schillo recently wrote a letter to your paper chiding a citizen for presenting “erroneous facts” regarding the Civic Arts Plaza (Jungleland). The letter begs for a truthful, factual response.

Despite Schillo’s statement, the city of Thousand Oaks does indeed own three city halls. The old city hall on Hillcrest is vacant (along with much of the commercial office space in town) and has been for sale for almost four years. A new City Hall operates on Hillcrest and Rancho Conejo Boulevard. The third site is located at Jungleland. Schillo’s “We will have one City Hall” is a wish, not yet a fact.

The mayor further states that hundreds of millions of dollars of income will be generated by private development at Jungleland from leasing land, sales tax and from the hotel’s transient occupancy tax. Those millions of dollars are simply projections of best case--more wishes by the mayor.

He challenges this citizen to find another city that is doing such creative financing. Schillo fails to point to Eugene, Ore.’s civic arts/hotel complex, which in the early days of the Jungleland debate was used as the city’s shining example of success. Eugene now has a near-bankrupt complex.

The old “pay as you go” city doesn’t go on this project--for its revenue and success are simply wishful thinking. The facts are also simple--no civic arts center in the country is operating in the black--none! Many have handsome private endowments and still struggle.

The public, whether they agree or disagree with the mayor, deserve to be treated with respect. They deserve the truth, the whole truth. Any citizen who takes the time and trouble to appear before the City Council or writes a letter to the editor regarding a city issue, deserves to be treated without insolence and abuse.

MADGE SCHAEFER, Thousand Oaks