Cal State May Delay Acquisition of Site : Camarillo: Costly condemnation action is seen as risky during the state’s current budget crisis.

Cal State University officials may delay plans to acquire a site near Camarillo through costly state condemnation proceedings because they think it could be politically risky during the current state budget crisis, a university official said Monday.

University trustees are scheduled to meet today to consider a proposal to move ahead with eminent domain procedures on land west of Camarillo selected for a new state university campus, said David Leveille, Cal State director of institutional relations.

But sentiment is growing to postpone any action committing the university to the ultimate expenditure of millions of dollars while state legislators remain deadlocked in bitter budget negotiations, Leveille said.

There may be some in Sacramento and within the Cal State system who will question the need for a new campus at a time when the university system is facing it worst fiscal crisis, he said.

To help make up an $11-billion state shortfall, legislators are proposing cuts that would reduce one-third of the teaching staff and force the cancellation of hundreds of fall semester classes, Leveille said.

“There is no question that there is a need and that we have been pursuing this for some time,” Leveille said. “But timing is everything.”

Widespread publicity about Cal State’s budget woes make it difficult to move forward with condemnation immediately, Leveille said. Although $7 million set aside by the Legislature in 1985 is earmarked to buy land for a Ventura campus, an announcement that CSU is expanding may create the perception that its budget woes are not as critical as education officials claim, he said.

The $7 million is not threatened and CSU officials have not lessened their commitment to building a Ventura campus, Leveille said. He predicted that condemnation will move forward by the end of summer, after budget negotiations have concluded.

“We’re not trying to slow this down, we’re just trying to make sure it is successful and goes smoothly,” he said.

Other aspects of the acquisition process are moving ahead, Leveille said.

Trustees will be informed in a closed session today that the cities of Oxnard and Camarillo have sent letters to Cal State’s Long Beach headquarters stating their commitment to help provide sewer, water and roads to the new campus, Leveille said. Ventura County has approved a similar resolution, he said.

Condemnation on a portion of the property is necessary because the landowner, Mohseni Ranches, refuses to sell. Negotiations with the other property owner, Sakioka Farms, are proceeding well, Leveille said.

Leveille’s comments about the troubles of the state university system came as leaders at the Ventura satellite campus of Cal State Northridge moved forward with an unprecedented fund-raising campaign, seeking private donations to pay teachers and keep classes open in the approaching academic year.

Officials at the Ventura campus came up with the fund-raising drive as a way to insulate the 1,200-student center from the impacts of budget cuts, said director Joyce Kennedy. The center will be forced to eliminate up to 13 classes in the 1992-93 year under an 11.3% budget cut proposed by Gov. Pete Wilson, she said.

“I thought I’d never see the day when we’d have to go to the private sector for operating funds,” Kennedy said. “But it’s time to be creative and non-traditional.”

Kennedy sent letters to 900 Ventura campus alumni in June asking them to donate money that will be placed in a trust fund and used only to pay faculty in classes threatened by the cuts. She plans to send another 3,000 letters to business and community leaders within the next week.

The CSUN satellite campus needs about $100,000 to make up the entire state funding shortfall, but Kennedy said she is not looking at that as a realistic goal.

“We’ll never be able to make that up. We’re just trying to save classes,” she said.