ELECTIONS / CALABASAS : Lackluster Campaign Belies Issues Crucial to Growth of Area

A year ago, Calabasas voters turned out in force to support incorporation of their community in an enthusiastic campaign that pitted 13 candidates for City Council against each other.

But as the city’s second municipal election approaches, interest in local politics appears to have vanished.

Two challengers are facing three council incumbents running for reelection in campaigns that so far have sparked little attention among Calabasas voters. For instance, candidate forums that last year attracted 100 or more residents now fail to draw all of the five candidates. And one candidate has not even printed campaign flyers or posters.

“The pity is, this is a non-election,” City Councilman Marvin Lopata said.

Lopata, Councilwoman Lesley Devine and Councilwoman Karyn Foley face challengers Barry Sullivan and Keith Ward in the April 14 election. Lopata, Devine and Foley originally were elected last March to two-year terms. But because state law requires city elections to take place in even-numbered years, they were by state law forced to cut their terms short.

Despite the apparent lack of interest--blamed by some on the quick turnaround from the last election--observers said this election is important for Calabasas because policies formed during the first few years of a new city can govern how business is conducted for decades to come. For example, city officials now are drafting a general plan that will direct development in the community over the next 20 years or so.

But the two biggest issues emerging so far in the campaign are beyond the control of the City Council. Other jurisdictions will decide whether the proposed Jordan Ranch project and the proposed Soka University expansion will proceed. If they do, Calabasas residents fear their community will bear most of the ill effects.

Soka, which sits just south of the Calabasas city limits on land long coveted by the National Park Service, wants to expand its campus on Mulholland Highway to a 4,400-student school. Opponents claim the expansion would increase traffic. They want Soka’s property turned into a park.

Expansion of the Soka campus would first require approval by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

The proposed Jordan Ranch project--located north of the city in Ventura County--would include about 3,000 new homes and two championship golf courses. Much of the traffic generated by the project is expected to flow down Calabasas streets. The Ventura County Board of Supervisors will decide whether the project is built.

“Development, development, development,” Foley said. “It’s happening all around us, in Los Angeles County, in Ventura County. The benefits are everywhere else except in Calabasas. The negative impacts are nowhere else except in Calabasas.”

So the candidates find themselves campaigning not so much on what they will do as administrators, but what they will do as defenders of Calabasas.

Candidates are telling voters they are suited for the job. All except Sullivan have served as presidents of local homeowners associations, with experience fighting to preserve the rural flavor of their community. Sullivan, a real estate attorney, said he too is used to playing an advocate and negotiating with developers.

“I know how to speak to politicians,” Sullivan said. “I know how to horse trade with them. Undoubtedly, we need a diplomat. We need a foreign policy.”

All of the candidates agree that development outside the city’s borders must include safeguards that limit the problems created for Calabasas. And all except Ward criticized Soka’s plans for expansion, saying the land should be preserved as a park. Ward said he could not deprive the school of the right to develop its property.

“I cannot condemn Soka,” he said. “I can be very restrictive of them. I can treat them like a developer.”

Ward has been roundly criticized by other candidates because he is married to a member of the Friends of Soka University, a community group that supports the school and its expansion plans. Ward denies that his wife’s affiliation affects his position on the university’s plans.

“What my wife does is her business,” Ward said.

With much agreement between candidates on the major issues, Foley said the race may best be characterized as pitting longtime community activists against relative newcomers. The three incumbents all were involved in the decade-long fight for cityhood.

“We have a history,” Foley said. “We have a background. You shouldn’t give your trust to someone you don’t know. You don’t put your future in the hands of a stranger.”

But Ward criticized the council for behaving too much like the homeowner associations that produced it, “meddling too much in the affairs of little guys.” He cited a city policy of having two council members review every building permit as a sign that the council concentrates on details at the expense of more important issues.

“They need to stop thinking like a homeowners association and more like City Council people,” Ward said, adding that he would try to make the community government more efficient. The candidates are:

Lesley Devine--a writer and environmentalist elected to the City Council in 1991. She has been a director of the Topanga-Las Virgenes Resource Conservation District. Devine has lived in Calabasas for 17 years. She declined to give her age.

As a councilwoman, Devine helped formulate an ordinance to protect the city’s oak trees. She supports acquiring the Soka University property for a park, and wants to make sure that if Jordan Ranch is developed, its effect on Calabasas will be limited.

Karyn Foley--a local real estate agent who was elected to the City Council in 1991. Foley, 55, has served as president of Vista Pointe Homeowners Assn. and has lived in Calabasas for 17 years.

She, like Devine, supports turning Soka University into a public park, and added that improvements such as roads and bridges must be made before more development is allowed. She also wants the city to provide after-school education and recreation programs for local children, as well as some type of community-based policing.

Marvin Lopata--a real estate appraiser elected to the City Council in 1991. He has served as president of the Greater Mulwood Homeowners Assn. and has lived in Calabasas for 12 years.

He wants to expand the city’s clout in dealing with other governmental agencies considering development in the area. Lopata, 51, also opposes Soka’s expansion plans.

Barry Sullivan--a real estate attorney who has lived in Calabasas for eight months. He said he decided to become involved in his community while serving in the Persian Gulf War as a Naval Reserve lieutenant.

Sullivan, 33, said he wants to represent the interest of residents on the west end of the city. None of the current council members live in the west end, an area along Las Virgenes Road. He said the city must take care to evaluate thoroughly any projects proposed in absence of a general plan.

Keith Ward--a computer programmer and designer who has served as president of the Calabasas Highlands Homeowners Assn. He has lived in Calabasas for seven years.

As a homeowners association president, Ward said, he helped persuade the county to finance a sewer for houses along Poppy Drive. Ward, 48, said he believes the city would save money by hiring its own staff, instead of contracting for services from a private company.