Simi Valley to Help Pay for College Arts Center : City Council: Moorpark’s two-year school will use the money in building a 400-seat theater.

The Simi Valley City Council, ending months of indecision, has agreed to contribute $67,000 this year and up to $65,000 a year in the future to help build a $9-million performing arts center at Moorpark College.

Lawrence Lloyd, vice president of administrative services for the college, said the contribution will help build a 400-seat theater that is sorely needed on campus.

“We need a theater,” Lloyd said. “We use a large lecture hall. That’s been our theater since 1975.”

The college has received $7.5 million from the state to build the theater and plans to borrow $1.2 million to make up the difference.

In September, Ventura County Community College District officials asked Simi Valley to release $257,000 in redevelopment money the city has earmarked for Moorpark College. They also asked the city to contribute up to $65,000 toward yearly payments on a loan to build the arts center.

However, the City Council balked at that request. Instead, it agreed to give the college $67,000 this year and to limit the city’s future contributions to $65,000 each year.

Only one council member said she had lingering concerns.

“Looking at the amount of money the state’s putting into this . . . makes me very angry,” Councilwoman Sandi Webb said before casting the lone vote against the arts center funding.

“We have no control on whether the state hands out money, but we have control over our money. I cannot support it going for a cultural arts center.”

e council had postponed a decision in September after members questioned why the two-year community college needed a performing arts center on campus. Council members also questioned why Simi Valley was being asked to shoulder a larger burden of the arts center’s funding than other cities.

According to a city staff report, Simi Valley’s contribution is the largest of the three eastern Ventura County cities.

Thousand Oaks has agreed to contribute only $30,000 each year to finance the arts center.

Moorpark had agreed to contribute $5,000 a year, but the funds are tied up because of a lawsuit between the community college district and Moorpark’s redevelopment agency, Lloyd said.

Last year, Simi Valley bought a historic church with plans to convert it into a performing arts center. But it will take two to three years and cost more than $2 million.

Groundbreaking on the college arts center was scheduled for later this year, and completion is expected by mid-1994.

In the end, Simi Valley council members agreed that city residents would gain from the arts center.

“I do believe there is a benefit to the entire agency’s area,” Councilwoman Judy Mikels said.