Countywide : Environmentalists Endorse Candidates

Save Open Space, the environmental group that helped Maria VanderKolk win a seat on the Ventura County Board of Supervisors in 1990, has now endorsed two challengers to Supervisor Maggie Erickson Kildee in the 3rd District race.

Directors of the Agoura-based group, which recruited VanderKolk to oppose then-Supervisor Madge L. Schaefer, voted to back Ojai environmentalist Stan Greene and Santa Paula Councilman John Melton, the group announced Friday.

“We want to prevent the Los Angelization of Ventura County,” SOS spokeswoman Mary Wiesbrock said. “We’re trying to get the word out to the 3rd District that these two candidates will keep the open space and stop the urban sprawl outside of cities.”

The 500-person group, which has about 200 members in Ventura County, has targeted Erickson Kildee partly because of two recent votes, Wiesbrock said.

Along with the board majority, Erickson Kildee voted last month to build a new jail on farmland near Santa Paula and in December approved the fast-track consideration of the 3,100-dwelling Ahmanson Ranch project near Simi Valley.

Both Melton and Greene opposed the new jail, saying it would break an agricultural greenbelt and prompt more construction nearby. Melton also opposes the Ahmanson project, while Greene has not declared a position.

Erickson Kildee has argued that the new jail, while on a lemon orchard, is adjacent to a large industrial area and does not break up the tracks of farmland she has worked for years to preserve.

She said she voted to process the Ahmanson project promptly because the public could receive more than 10,000 acres of parkland as part the deal. But she has not decided how she will vote on the issue, she said.

Wiesbrock said her group hopes to deny the well-funded incumbent a clear majority in the June election and force a runoff in November. Teacher Zoe Nolan of Camarillo is also in the race.

Unlike 1990, however, when Save Open Space produced several dozen canvassers for VanderKolk, the group has offered Greene and Melton only six to 10 volunteers who walk precincts off and on, Wiesbrock said.

“We’re not as focused,” she said. “With everyone’s busy schedules, it’s impossible to cover what we’d like to cover.”