ELECTIONS / COUNTY SUPERVISOR : Campbell Begins Campaign to Unseat Kildee

Promising strong fiscal leadership, Fillmore Councilman Roger Campbell on Wednesday launched what he said will be an aggressive, well-financed campaign to unseat veteran county Supervisor Maggie Kildee next year.

Campbell, 44, said his campaign will focus on public safety, balancing the county budget, reducing government regulations on business and attracting new industries to the county.

“County government doesn’t have any real business leadership to get it through the year 2000 and back to prosperity,” said Campbell, who owns and operates an auto repair shop. “That’s what I’m going to do.”

Campbell said he hopes to raise $100,000 to beat Kildee, a former schoolteacher who is seeking a fourth term on the five-member board. Kildee’s 3rd Supervisorial District includes Camarillo, Santa Paula, Fillmore, Piru and portions of Ojai and Thousand Oaks.

“This county has suffered from a serious lack of leadership in the last few years,” said Campbell, who held a campaign kickoff party in Camarillo on Wednesday night. “We need to stop talking about doing things. We need to take action.”

Campbell, who ran a strong but ultimately unsuccessful race for the state Senate in 1992, said his 11 years’ experience in city government and nearly two decades in business have prepared him well for the supervisor’s job.

“I’ve been in business for 18 years,” Campbell said. “I know what it’s like to struggle to make a payroll, to cut back and let people go. You have to pay attention when you’re a business person.”

He said he plans to use his business skills to help generate more revenue for the financially strapped county, which is $38 million in debt, by reducing government regulations and doing more to attract new industries.

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For her part, Kildee said she has always been supportive of business, citing her push to form a county economic development corporation that would promote the county to outside businesses and provide loans to local firms looking to expand. The county hired a consultant last month to help organize the corporation, which is expected to be up and running by the end of the year.

But Campbell said the county could be doing more to attract businesses, like improving access to the Port of Hueneme or providing free rent in vacant buildings at Camarillo Airport to high-tech companies wanting to locate here.

“There are things we can be doing right now,” he said.

Kildee, a resident of Camarillo, said she opposes using free rent as an incentive to companies. “All the other local businesses would be sending me letters, asking me, ‘Why don’t you give me free rent?’ ” she said.

Campbell said protecting the budgets of the sheriff, district attorney and Fire Department would be a high priority in his campaign. He criticized Kildee for voting last year to divert to other agencies money from a voter-approved sales tax initiative designed for public safety.

“There’s no excuse for that,” he said. “That was a complete misuse of authority in my opinion.”

Kildee acknowledged that some Proposition 172 money was allocated to the medical examiner’s office and for children’s legal services. But she said this was done only after the sheriff and district attorney offered to assume authority over those services.

As far as she is concerned, Kildee said, both of those departments are part of public safety although they operate independently of the sheriff or district attorney.

“The money went to public safety,” she said. “The sheriff said the (coroner’s office) was public safety.”

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Campbell said one issue that Kildee cannot hide from is her past support of bonus pay for supervisors--a perk that would pay Kildee more than $40,000 when she leaves office.

The bonus, which is equivalent to three weeks’ vacation pay for every year served on the board, is part of a benefits package approved by the supervisors in 1989 for elected officials. It was designed to bring the salaries of the supervisors and other elected officials, such as the district attorney and the tax assessor, in line with the county’s senior managers and department heads.

The perk was abolished in 1992 after a storm of public criticism. But Kildee and Supervisors Susan Lacey and John Flynn are still eligible to receive money accrued before the bonus pay was eliminated.

“The idea of a public official getting severance pay, whether they retire or are defeated in an election, that’s wrong,” he said. “It’s one indication of how county government has gotten out of control.”

Kildee said she has not decided whether she will accept the money.

“I haven’t made any decision on that yet,” she said. “It seems to me like a small thing to be quibbling over.”

Meanwhile, Campbell apparently will not be the only challenger Kildee faces in her reelection bid. Camarillo Mayor Mike Morgan has said he is considering entering the race.