Challenger Seeks to Unseat 1 of 2 Ojai Incumbents

Ojai City Council candidate Robert Laszlo says he was disgusted when he saw the council spend $30,000 on a consultant’s downtown traffic study that he believes city staff should have done for free.

The expenditure “convinced me our government was no longer aligned with the best interests of the people here,” said Laszlo, a preschool manager whose campaign platform centers on budget reform. “I think it’s indicative of what’s going on all over the country.”

On Aug. 7, the last day he could file his nomination papers, Laszlo gathered 30 signatures and turned up the heat under the two incumbents who would have otherwise run uncontested.

Laszlo, 34, a member of the Redevelopment Commission for two years, is challenging incumbents James D. Loebl, 65, and Robert McKinney, 64.

McKinney, the retired general manager for the Casitas Municipal Water District and Ojai’s mayor, was appointed to the council three years ago. This will be his first time on the ballot.

Loebl, an attorney, has served on the council for 24 years.

Laszlo, sitting recently atop Meditation Mount, said he doesn’t expect to win the $75-a-month council job because Ojai does not like change. He merely wants to “raise some issues (and) stir up the pot.”

The three candidates, vying for two seats in the Nov. 3 election, agree on many of the problems facing the community of 7,600 residents. But the two incumbents disagree with Laszlo’s contention that the city needs to reform its spending practices.

“Everything I’ve heard about this man is that he’s bright and has good ideas,” Loebl said. “But in this case, I don’t think he understands about this City Council at this time in this city, representing the people of this community.”

“Our staff is undermanned and under-worked as it is, and in very few if any of those instances could their time be stretched to cover that sort of thing,” said Loebl, who is vying for his seventh term in office.

McKinney agreed. “The thing about consultants is, you hire them, they do the job for you and then they’re off your payroll,” he said over a cup of coffee in the council chambers. “Plus, they provide experience and expertise on whatever job you’re hiring them for.”

Loebl and McKinney noted that Laszlo voted to support the traffic study as a Redevelopment Commission member. “You can’t slice the salami two ways,” Loebl said.

Laszlo countered that he was a political novice at the time and did not understand “how things worked at City Hall.”

Like other races countywide, the Ojai contest comes as the city grapples with less revenue and fights rapid growth. However, this mountain oasis, home to artists and environmentalists and a vacation getaway to affluent Southern Californians, has its own unique issues.

For example, Ojai must often play David in conflicts with the county’s Goliath over issues such as development in the unincorporated areas that affect the entire Ojai Valley.

Fiercely protective of their environment and the small-town nature of their community, the three candidates vow to maintain Ojai’s “very-slow growth” policy and oppose any large developments in the Ojai Valley that would add traffic to their streets and tap into their diminishing water supply.

For this reason, Loebl and McKinney support forming a valleywide city. If that proves to be financially unfeasible because of a lack of revenue, as it appears to be, McKinney said he would like to see residents of the valley communities form a governmental body that represents all their interests.

The purpose would be to “try to get agreement on what we want to do and then take that to the Board of Supervisors,” said Loebl, a member of the Ojai Valley Plan Update Committee, which has been studying the valleywide city proposal.

Laszlo, acknowledging that his opinion might be unpopular, disagreed with his opponents. “I probably would be less inclined to see the valley combined as one large district or city, because I feel that each of the areas--Ojai, Oak View, Meiners Oaks, Miramonte--have unique characteristics all their own which might be diminished if we tried to combine them. . . . I’m not sure that we would see a significant savings in services provided.”

He added that he would not object to the formation of a new advisory committee to the Board of Supervisors, but said he “would be dead-set against setting up another bureaucracy that would siphon off more funds for administrative purposes only.”

With or without a valleywide city, Loebl said he would like to see the county amend its General Plan so that growth is slowed in the Ojai Valley. The county plan now allows 94 houses a year to be built between 1990 and 1995, including those constructed in Ojai, county planners said.

The city’s growth ordinance allows only 12 single-family and four multifamily houses to be built each year, not including low-income units.

The three candidates also vow to fight county efforts to build a landfill in Weldon Canyon that they contend will worsen an already bad air quality problem in the Ojai Valley.

“We are trying to lobby the Board of Supervisors that Weldon Canyon is not a good site and that the private ownership and operation is not a correct approach,” McKinney said.

To show how air currents move pollutants from Weldon Canyon into the Ojai Valley, Loebl cited a Sept. 30 fire in northwestern Ventura that burned 450 acres of brush.

“That choked up that valley for a day or two like you wouldn’t believe,” Loebl said.

Candidates each expressed different views on what McKinney described as a typical Ojai issue: whether to demolish a 70-year-old jail in Libbey Park, a proposal the Historic Preservation Commission strongly opposes.

Laszlo said he believes that the jail should remain where it is if residents are emotionally attached to it. McKinney would like to see the structure torn down, although he would vote to let it stand if enough residents want to keep it. And Loebl, acknowledging that his view would be unpopular, said the building should be removed.

“I think it’s an ugly monster and in the wrong place,” he said.