ELECTIONS / SIMI VALLEY COUNCIL : Mud-Free Candidates Forum Focuses on Crime Fighting and Prosperity

The tone was civil and the discussion firmly focused on safety and prosperity as seven candidates for Simi Valley City Council faced off in the first forum of the election season.

Sticking to earlier pledges to keep their campaigns mud-free, the candidates concentrated on the issues Thursday night, vowing to recruit new businesses aggressively and ensure that the city remains the safest of its size in the country.

“What is our biggest problem? Nothing stands still,” Mayor Greg Stratton said in his opening statement. “Just like your garden, you can get it perfect but the next day the weeds come back.”

Stratton, who is running unopposed for reelection, sat in on the forum, offering historical context for some of the questions and describing Simi Valley as a well-run city in need of constant care.

In keeping with the format of the hourlong forum, sponsored by the American Assn. of University Women, participants did not question one another or respond to comments by other candidates.

Instead, each made a four-minute introduction speech and took turns fielding a dozen written questions submitted by the audience on growth, schools and crime. All of the candidates participated, including incumbent Sandi Webb and six challengers vying for two council seats in the Nov. 8 election.

Citing a recent surge in car thefts in Simi Valley, several candidates offered suggestions to improve the city’s Police Department.

Former Police Chief Lindsey Paul Miller, who is now running for the council, said he would propose a volunteer-driven crime-prevention program and called for the creation of a fund-raising board to supplement the department’s budget.

“Citizens afraid to venture forth on our streets may not patronize our businesses,” Miller said, explaining the need for increased protection against crime. “Graffiti lowers property values.”

Another candidate, Planning Commissioner Dean Kunicki, said police cruisers should be equipped with computers. A third, Ernest Federer, pledged that if elected, he would work to have funds from the Proposition 172 sales tax funneled directly into the city’s public-safety programs.

“We need to get that money back into Simi Valley,” Federer said. “We need to make sure people we elect do what they say they will do.”

When asked their positions on new construction in Simi Valley, all of the candidates said they support the city’s growth-control ordinance. The law, approved by voters in 1989 and up for reconsideration next year, sets an annual cap on new home permits and prohibits most construction in the hills surrounding the city.

“Unfortunately, the economy has probably had more impact on growth than any ordinance we’ve ever passed,” Webb said. “I don’t see (growth control) being as much of a problem as the economy.”

The candidates fielded several questions from parents eager for an elementary school to be constructed in the Wood Ranch housing tract.

But Stratton told the audience that the school cannot be built until the district finds a buyer for a large parcel of the estate that it is trying to sell.

In order to raise enough money to build a school, “all we need is a buyer for the land,” Stratton said. “We have all the tools. We just need a buyer.”

Michael S. McCaffrey, a former Chamber of Commerce president, said that if elected, he would work with the school board to find a buyer for the property.

“Whatever the council can do to facilitate that process, we will do,” McCaffrey said.

FYI

Thursday’s City Council forum, which was filmed by Comcast Cablevision, will be broadcast on Channel 19 in Simi Valley Oct. 19 at 6 p.m.