Thousand Oaks Agrees to Pay for Crossing Guards : Education: The City Council heeds parents’ pleas and reluctantly approves funding for half a year. But officials insist the county help out.

Crossing guards on Wednesday welcomed students to their first day at Madrona and Walnut elementary schools, just hours after the Thousand Oaks City Council reluctantly agreed to pick up the tab.

In furious early morning speeches, several council members denounced Ventura County’s decision to cut funding for crossing guards at two intersections, both located in unincorporated territory barely outside city limits.

But then, heeding pleas from a half a dozen parents who sat through a six-hour meeting to lobby for their children, the council unanimously agreed to pay the crossing guards’ salaries for the next six months.

While funding a full year of crossing guards would cost the city only $8,400, council members quickly seized on the issue as symbolic of the county’s indifference toward Thousand Oaks.

Because the city’s property values are so high, Thousand Oaks taxpayers pour at least 20% more into county coffers than residents of any other city. For years that figure has rankled Thousand Oaks leaders, who feel the city gets short shrift from the County Board of Supervisors, despite its disproportionate financial contributions.

However, the supervisors say the cash-strapped county can no longer afford to spend $33,000 a year on crossing-guard service at five intersections in the unincorporated pockets, including the two near Thousand Oaks plus one each near Camarillo, Ventura and Ojai.

“Though it’s a great program and we’d love to continue to do it, we just can’t afford it,” Supervisor Maria VanderKolk said, arguing that school districts should pick up crossing guard salaries.

“People accuse the county of all these terrible things we’ve done, but we’re pulled in 20 different directions,” VanderKolk added. “We’re sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place. We can certainly sit down and talk about it, but I’m not sure it’s going to do any good.”

The county did agree to fully fund crossing guards in unincorporated Oak Park. Due to a budgeting quirk, the money for Oak Park came out of a community services fund rather than the beleaguered General Fund, so the supervisors considered it a special case, VanderKolk said.

Thousand Oaks officials have vowed to give the supervisors an earful.

From fire protection to flood control, Thousand Oaks residents end up unfairly subsidizing services in poorer cities, Councilman Alex Fiore said. Echoing a complaint that has intensified in recent years, he charged that his constituents pay for more than they receive.

Although a few thousand dollars for crossing guards would melt almost unnoticed in Thousand Oaks’ $34.5-million General Fund budget, Fiore insisted that the county chip in.

“We’re not talking a million dollars, but there’s a very strong principle involved here,” he said. “We send a ton of money to the county. It’s atrocious that they will fund crossing guards in some parts in the county and not in the area that sends them the most gold.”

Mayor Judy Lazar joined Fiore in volunteering to bombard the supervisors with protests. “It’s a matter of equity,” she said.

Roughly 85% of the students at Walnut live in the county, as do 15% of the students at Madrona. The rest live within the city of Thousand Oaks. Both elementary schools are part of the Conejo Valley Unified School District.

Under the plan approved early Wednesday, the city will pay for crossing guards for half a year at the corner of Wendy Drive and Ruth Drive for Walnut, and at the intersection of Camino Manzanas and Marian Street for Madrona. Fiore and Lazar will lobby the supervisors to pick up the cost for the second half of the year.

That compromise appeased the parents who came before the council with horror stories of cars whizzing through the intersections at 50 m.p.h., making crossing perilous even for adults.

“We cannot play political games that risk our children’s lives,” said Pearl Camin, whose children attend Walnut Elementary. “Please don’t turn your back on these children.”