Race Pits Greenbelts Against Greenbacks : Election: Ventura may see a November showdown between environmentalists and pro-business interests.

In a rosier economy four years ago, three environmental candidates swept into Ventura City Council seats on a platform promising to limit the city’s growth and preserve a high quality of life.

Two years later, when the economy hit the skids, a slate of three pro-business candidates came into office, vowing to shift from slow-growth politics to creating jobs and bolstering commerce.

In November, the two factions will square off in a pivotal election that will determine the makeup of the council and the city’s path in years to come.

Four seats--a majority of the seven-member council--are up for grabs. The political opportunity has attracted an array of candidates who have already begun throwing fund-raising parties, walking precincts and taking every opportunity to make speeches.

Councilmen Todd Collart, Jim Monahan and Gary Tuttle have announced that they are running for reelection, and five challengers said they intend to join the fray. Councilwoman Cathy Bean has all but said she will not seek a second term.

Local politicians predict that growth and water will continue to be dominant issues, but slow-growth advocates may find it harder than in 1989 to attract voters because the economy is still in the doldrums, and many people are still focused on finding jobs.

“It’s the economy, and it’s growth,” former Ventura Mayor Richard Francis said. “You’ll hear about jobs at any cost, but I don’t think that’s the public sentiment. People are interested in where they live, too.”

So far, all of the challengers who have declared their candidacies come from the pro-business camp, pushing for development and tourism to revive the area’s economy.

They are Nancy Cloutier, 61, publisher and editor of the Ventura County & Coast Reporter; Charles Kistner, 33, a political consultant; Dick Massa, 52, who owns a medical supply company; Clark Owens, 56, a real estate broker, and Ken Schmitz, 36, a certified public accountant.

All have said Ventura needs to reduce regulations to become friendlier to businesses and woo more companies to move to the city. In political flyers and speeches, they have attacked the council for driving businesses away and called for a change of leadership.

But as Ventura emerges from a six-year drought, its residents haven’t forgotten that rapid development squeezed the city’s water supplies, prompting water bills to rise, environmentalists said.

Although he said he has no interest in seeking office, Francis said he hopes to make an issue of the council’s decision to increase the population cap, in effect violating the city’s Comprehensive Plan.

About a month ago, the council passed a measure that has the potential to boost the city’s population from 92,575 to about 106,578 by 1996.

Francis, who was in office when the Comprehensive Plan was approved, accused the council of irresponsibly allowing more development when there is not enough water to accommodate new residents.

Francis, a civil litigation attorney with an emphasis on real estate issues, said he is considering suing the city, mainly to draw attention to the issue.

“I want to make it a point of debate,” he said.

But neither slow-growth proponents nor pro-business advocates seem enthusiastic about tackling the issue of the Comprehensive Plan.

Francis predicted that the business community would use the recession and the community’s need for jobs and commerce as an excuse not to discuss growth limits.

“The recession is at a level beyond what the City Council can address,” he said.

Bob Alviani, vice president of First Interstate Bank and chairman of the Chamber of Commerce’s political action committee, said the Comprehensive Plan issue would not be widely discussed.

“It’s a red herring,” Alviani said. “I don’t see growth, no growth as the concern. We’re going to be talking about jobs.”

Unlike the business community, which would benefit from more development, the environmental camp is reluctant to attack the council’s action because two of its candidates voted in favor of it.

Collart and Tuttle, who ran with Bean on a slow-growth platform, supported pushing the population limits of the Comprehensive Plan.

“I’m disappointed in both of them,” said Bean, the only council member who voted against it. “I wish they would return to what we had all run on, which is maintaining that Ventura is a great place to live and not turning it into a playground for developers.”

Collart was out of town and could not be reached for comment.

Tuttle, who joined the Chamber of Commerce in February, denied that his reelection campaign influenced his vote on increased development.

Steve Bennett, a teacher at Nordhoff High School in Ojai, said environmental activists are still trying to assemble candidates to compete for all four seats, and are counting on Collart and Tuttle to lead the slate.

Bennett raised the most money and came in fifth as a write-in candidate during the 1991 city election. He has hinted that he will run again.

“We’re still waiting for a fourth candidate,” Bennett said.

The original strategy was to have a slow-growth slate of Collart, Tuttle, himself and Ventura Planning Commissioner Tim Downey, Bennett said.

But Downey bowed out of the race because of heart problems, and so far no one has emerged to take his spot.

Paul Tebbel, environmental affairs director of Patagonia Inc., said it is typical of the environmental community to get a late start in election campaigns. The Ventura clothing manufacturer heavily backed the slow-growth ticket in 1989.

“We’re late. We’re always late,” Tebbel said. “But the support comes through, and the money comes through.”

Tebbel said he does not know how active his company will be in this year’s election. In the last election, Patagonia kept a low profile and gave only its endorsements, the use of its building, some volunteer precinct walkers and a rooftop billboard at its headquarters.

Patagonia was quiet because “it wasn’t a great slate of candidates as far as we were concerned,” Tebbel said.

This year, he said, “we’re not out there actively searching for candidates, but if they look like the kind of candidates we like, we will get behind them.”

Patagonia and the environmental movement have lost momentum since political strategist Kevin Sweeney left the company in January, 1992. He is now director of communications for Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt in Washington.

“Their key cheerleader and strategist is back in Washington playing other games,” said Carolyn Leavens, a Ventura rancher who headed a group that helped elect the pro-business slate of Greg Carson, Jack Tingstrom and Tom Buford in the last campaign.

Leavens, who said she is undecided about how big a role to play in this election, echoed Francis’ prediction that this campaign will center around water and growth issues.

“We live in a desert. Water will continue to be an issue,” said Leavens, who has pushed for a hookup to the State Water Project. In an advisory measure in November, 55% of the voters supported construction of a desalination plant instead.

Monahan, who has been adamantly opposed to a desalination plant, said residents may have second thoughts about one when they find out how much it will cost. He said he plans to make it a campaign issue.

Monahan, who is running for his fifth four-year term, may be vulnerable this time, said Francis, who clashed with him often when they sat on the council together.

In the 1989 election, Monahan came in a distant fourth despite spending more than $20,000 on his campaign.

Monahan was convicted in December, 1990, of drunk driving charges. Last year, The Times revealed that Monahan had apparently violated state law by not publicly disclosing about $40,000 that his company received for helping build the Ventura Beach RV Resort, where dozens of recreational vehicles were swamped during a flood. Monahan had championed building the park there, even though planners had recommended against it.

“Jim has a history of lots of personal peccadilloes which reflect on his judgment,” Francis said. “Jim is the best reason I’ve seen in a long time for term limits.”

In response, Monahan called the idea of his political vulnerability “wishful thinking. I’m glad they say that because it will get my supporters excited.”

Collart and Tuttle may be vulnerable on the issue of the proposed university at Taylor Ranch, said Francis, who supported the project when he was on the council.

Francis, Monahan and former Councilman John McWherter had supported a proposed California State University campus at Taylor Ranch. Collart and Tuttle both expressed reservations about the site in 1991, saying they feared that it would add to the city’s water, traffic and air pollution problems.

Although no formal vote was taken concerning the site, CSU officials said they dropped the proposal to build a university in Ventura because of the resistance from the council and residents. CSU has since decided to build a university near Camarillo.

“I think we made a tremendous error with the university,” Francis said.

Slow-growth advocate Bennett, however, said he thinks that the university “is a dead issue” and that it is too soon to be discussing what issues will shape the campaign.

“Everything is predicated on what kind of candidates step forward,” Bennett said, adding that he will not decide whether to run until later this summer.

The filing deadline for candidates is Aug. 6.

Francis agreed that it is difficult to predict how this year’s election will turn out.

“Politics is a strange game,” he said, “and it’s a long way to the election.”