VanderKolk Critical of Anti-Tax Activist : Government: The supervisor attacks ads criticizing proposed expansion of the county medical center.

Supervisor Maria VanderKolk on Tuesday sharply criticized an anti-tax activist whose group ran newspaper advertisements this week criticizing the county’s proposed expansion of the Ventura County Medical Center as a “$50-million boondoggle.”

Holding up one of the newspaper ads, VanderKolk sharply rebuked Jere Robings at the start of Tuesday’s meeting of the Board of Supervisors. Robings declared his candidacy for VanderKolk’s seat two weeks ago.

“Mr. Robings, you don’t know a thing about our county medical center,” VanderKolk said in a raised voice, looking straight at Robings, seated in the back of the room. “I have never seen you at a (hospital) oversight committee meeting. I have never been able to sit down and talk to you about this issue. You really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

In questioning the appropriateness of the ads, the supervisor asked: “Is it legal for special interests to spread lies, outright lies about government?”

Robings showed little reaction during VanderKolk’s public criticism. In a later interview, he said his group decided to place the ads to inform the public about the hospital expansion and attract new members to the 100-member Ventura County Alliance of Taxpayers.

“They’re not lies,” he said. “I think they’re all facts that can be substantiated.

“As far as we’re concerned, this is just information that hasn’t gotten much airing in the public,” he said.

In her public challenge, VanderKolk also asked the county counsel and the district attorney’s office to review the ads, saying, “There could be some legal issues here.”

But she would not elaborate on the legal issues she was referring to, or what she hoped county attorneys would do with the ads.

Other supervisors said they agreed with VanderKolk’s criticism, but Supervisor John K. Flynn said the board should be careful about asking for an investigation of something that could infringe on First Amendment issues.

Three full-page ads sponsored by the Ventura County Alliance of Taxpayers--a group Robings’ founded after he was fired from the Ventura County Taxpayers Assn.--ran Sunday, Monday and Tuesday in the Ventura County Star-Free Press. A fourth was scheduled to run today, Robings said.

Running the advertisements in the Ventura paper would cost about $4,000, according to an advertising salesperson with the paper.

Robings said he purposely left his name off the ads because he did not want them to appear political. He said they were not related to his bid for VanderKolk’s seat, which encompasses the Conejo Valley and Port Hueneme.

In response to VanderKolk’s criticisms that he was uninformed about the county’s health care agency, Robings said he based the statements in the ads on conversations with county Health Care Agency Director Phillipp K. Wessels and county hospital administrator Pierre Durand.

VanderKolk, who sits on a county committee that oversees the hospital, said she made her comments Tuesday because she was tired of seeing government attacked in paid political ads and other ways that do not allow public officials to respond.

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“I get very tired of being put in a position of being criticized for doing a good job,” she said. VanderKolk said Tuesday she will announce in a few weeks whether she will run for reelection.

VanderKolk also demanded to know who had paid for the ads. “A candidate for county supervisor, a local hospital or the Ventura County Alliance of Taxpayers?” she asked. “I would really like to know and I think this board has a right to know.”

Robings said the ads were bought by individuals who supported the position of the alliance, but he declined to name the individuals.