ELECTIONS / VENTURA COUNTY SUPERVISOR : Loh Says Tough Stance on Environment Sets Her Apart

When it comes to development issues, Ventura County supervisor candidate Trudi K. Loh wants to make it clear that she’s the alternative candidate.

One of five people competing for the 2nd Supervisorial District seat being vacated by Supervisor Maria VanderKolk, Loh said it is her tough environmental stance that “sets me drastically apart from my opponents.”

For starters, Loh said she believes the county and its cities should strictly adhere to their development guidelines and “stay out of our open spaces and stay out of our greenbelts and stay off of our hillsides.”

“I’m not saying that we shouldn’t develop anything,” said the Thousand Oaks resident. “I just believe if you zone something a certain way, it ought to stay zoned that way.”

To that end, Loh said she would not have supported the 1992 approval by the Board of Supervisors of the giant Ahmanson Ranch housing project planned for eastern Ventura County.

And she said if elected to the seat that covers Thousand Oaks, Oak Park and Port Hueneme, she will oppose any request by the developer to extend its agreement with the county. The developer is scheduled to turn over three mountain properties owned by entertainer Bob Hope to park agencies by 1995 before proceeding with the project. So far, only one of Hope’s properties has become public parkland.

“If they don’t turn over those properties by 1995, the deal is gone; it evaporates,” Loh said.

The candidate said if opponents of the Ahmanson project are successful in their legal battle to overturn the board’s decision, and if the development were to come back for reconsideration, she would oppose it.

Loh also opposes the development of a new county landfill, preferring instead to explore other alternatives for disposing of trash. Those options include advanced recycling and composting programs or, perhaps, shipping waste by rail to another county or state.

“I have seen nothing to convince me that we need another landfill,” Loh said. “And putting one in the mouth of Weldon Canyon is absurd to me.”

A group of San Diego investors is collecting signatures to qualify a November ballot initiative that would let voters decide whether a landfill should be developed at Weldon Canyon near Ojai. If successful in acquiring a permit for the dump, the investors would then sell off their rights.

“To me, that’s the environmental equivalent of a drive-by shooting,” Loh said.

Despite her tough environmental stance, Loh, 37, said she believes her views are very much in line with those of her Conejo Valley neighbors.

“I consider myself as someone who reflects the views of the majority of the people who live here,” said Loh, an attorney who gave up her practice five years ago to rear her children. “We all come here and stay living here because we like the natural beauty of the environment we live in.”

But Loh, who has been endorsed by environmental groups such as the Sierra Club and Save Open Space, also makes it clear that she is not opposed to all development. After all, she points out, Thousand Oaks businessman and developer Larry Janss is her campaign finance chairman.

Janss--whose family so far has donated more than $2,000 to Loh’s campaign--said that developers understand that Loh represents managed growth, rather than no-growth.

“I think she is thoughtful and reasonable in her environmental concerns,” Janss said. “I think individuals who happen to make their grocery money through development see that we just can’t go willy-nilly and spread the sprawl around.”

But some Thousand Oaks business leaders said that Loh’s alliance with groups such as Save Open Space, which supported VanderKolk in 1990 but then dropped that support when the supervisor voted for the Ahmanson deal, would hurt her with the local business community.

“Save Open Space is against development, period,” said Steven Rubenstein, executive director of the Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce. “Personally, I don’t think it’s going to be to her advantage. People are looking for a balance. They don’t want anybody too radical either way.”

Thousand Oaks City Councilman Frank Schillo, one of Loh’s opponents, said he believed Loh’s views on zoning are unreasonable.

“I have a real problem with blanket statements that affect an individual’s property,” he said. “There’s always some sort of exception to an individual’s property rights.”

Loh said protecting land zoned as open space is not radical, but responsible.

“There are people in this community who are developers who know me and they are not going to panic when I get elected, because they know I’m a rational person with an open mind,” she said.

Still, Loh is firm when it comes to zoning. “If you buy a piece of property that’s zoned for no development, and you don’t get it up-zoned, well, that’s the risk you take. That’s your problem. You should have been aware of that.”

Protecting the environment isn’t Loh’s only concern. In fact, she says, it wasn’t even the reason she entered the supervisor’s race.

What propelled her into action, Loh said, was a Feb. 3 brawl at North Ranch Park near her home that led to the shooting of two Westlake High School students. The same week, a 14-year-old student was stabbed to death at a Simi Valley junior high.

“I think there has been a series of events that have occurred over the last six months that I perceive as a real change in violent crime in this area since I moved here” in 1981, Loh said. “I think everyone perceives that it’s a problem and they want it to be dealt with.”

If elected, Loh said that protecting the county’s law enforcement budget will be one of her top priorities. She said she would also work to implement assistance programs in schools for at-risk students.

“I think morally it’s not only the right thing to do, but financially it’s the thing to do,” said Loh, who is not clear on where the money would come from to pay for such programs.

In other areas of public safety, Loh--who has been endorsed by the county firefighters union--said she backs a plan for the Fire Department to establish its own paramedic program. The county is now served by three private ambulance companies, including Pruner Ambulance, which serves the Conejo Valley.

Loh said she has called 911 on four occasions for medical emergencies involving her children and that in every case it “was the Fire Department who was there first.” She also pointed out that a recent study showed that ambulance response times in Oak Park are inadequate.

“I’m not knocking Pruner as a private ambulance service,” she said. “What I’m saying is that the decision on whether we have firefighter paramedics ought to be made on what’s good for the public and not whether that’s a good business decision for a private company.”

Officials have maintained that the county cannot afford to establish a firefighter paramedic program. But Loh said that such a program could be phased in gradually and eventually pay for itself.

“When I called 911 for my own family, I got the bill from Pruner, not the county,” Loh said. “If we have our own paramedics, we could be billing for some of those services and the money would go right back to the county.”

Loh, whose husband Irving is a cardiologist in private practice, takes a more cautious approach to the issue of whether the county should add a $30-million outpatient wing to the Ventura County Medical Center.

The proposal has sparked opposition by the medical center’s neighbor, Community Memorial Hospital, which views the county hospital as an emerging competitor for private patients.

Loh questions how the county can move ahead with the hospital expansion without knowing how President Clinton’s health reform package will affect the health care system.

“To sink a lot of money into building facilities that may not operate optimally under that new system would not be smart,” Loh said. “What we need to do is make sure we use the existing facilities, physicians and health care delivery people to the maximum, whether that’s public or private.”

Although she believes establishing a commercial airport at Point Mugu could help county businesses, Loh said she would want to limit the number of flights and ensure that noise is not a problem for surrounding neighborhoods.

“I think on balance it’s a good thing to do,” Loh said, adding that she would like more time to study the proposal before taking an official stand.

Loh’s critics say she has an uphill battle because she has no name recognition or government experience. They also note that she is the only registered Democrat in the nonpartisan race within a predominantly Republican district.

Loh’s rivals are Schillo, former county Supervisor Madge Schaefer, taxpayer advocate H. Jere Robings and Malibu rancher Carter Ward.

Another concern raised about Loh’s candidacy is her focus on issues concerning Thousand Oaks, rather than the county as a whole.

“Trudi is very bright, but I think some of the concerns she has” would be better resolved at the local level, said David Williams, president of the Ventura County Deputy Sheriff’s Assn.

“You have to understand when you’re a supervisor, you’re in charge of countywide issues,” said Williams, whose union has endorsed Schaefer. “And what may be good for Thousand Oaks, may not be good for Port Hueneme.”

But Loh said her concerns do extend beyond the boundaries of Thousand Oaks, pointing out that she opposed Schillo’s plan for the city to break off from the county system and form it’s own fire department.

As for her lack of government experience, Loh said she sees that as an asset. She said if elected she would bring with her skills she acquired from her 13 years experience as a business lawyer.

“I was a lawyer for a lot of large corporations,” she said. “Pretty much what they came to me to do was solve their problems quickly. And that’s what I am is a problem solver.”

In addition to the firefighters’ endorsement, Loh has also been endorsed by Thousand Oaks City Councilwoman Jaime Zukowski, the Tri-Counties Central Labor Council and the local chapter of the National Women’s Political Caucus.

“She exudes honesty, freshness and energy at a time when we need that,” Janss said of Loh. “The other candidates in the race have been around before. They know how the system works. They know the good old boys and where they need to be scratched. We don’t need anymore of that.”

Profile of Trudi K. Loh

Trudi Loh is one of five candidates competing for the seat being vacated by Ventura County Supervisor Maria VanderKolk, whose 2nd District seat includes Thousand Oaks, Oak Park and Port Hueneme.

Born: Aug. 3, 1956.

Occupation: Homemaker; retired attorney.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in political science from Cal State Fullerton; juris doctorate from the University of Southern California School of Law.

Background: Worked as a business lawyer for 13 years; past chairwoman of the local chapter of the National Women’s Political Caucus; member of the Thousand Oaks Library Restoration Committee; member of the Thousand Oaks Crime Prevention Task force; volunteer instructor at Thousand Oaks High School.

Quote: “We all came to live here and stay living here because we like the beauty of the natural environment we live in.”