ELECTIONS / VENTURA INITIATIVES : COUNTDOWN to the Elections: 4 Days to go : L.A. PAC Contributes $2,500 in Fight Against Greenbelt Measures

A Los Angeles political action committee affiliated with the California Assn. of Realtors has donated $2,500 to the fight against Ventura’s two greenbelt preservation initiatives, according to campaign finance reports.

Over the past few years, the Issues Mobilization Political Action Committee has distributed tens of thousands of dollars to try to kill slow-growth initiatives across Southern California.

The committee’s donation this week to Venturans for a Quality Community, which has raised a total of $17,830, helped fund a glossy brochure that linked Ventura’s greenbelt measures with high crime rates.

Similar mailers are expected to land in Ventura mailboxes in the four days remaining before Tuesday’s election.

Ventura Realtors solicited the late contribution from the Los Angeles group, which had a natural interest in the issue, said Venturans treasurer Kenneth Schmitz.

“From what I have heard, these particular initiatives are not only being watched in the state but throughout the country,” Schmitz said. “I am sure their position is that if this passes in Ventura . . . then it will spread throughout California.”

But supporters of the twin ballot measures, which would limit rural growth by requiring voter approval for development, said the contribution was a classic case of powerful outsiders trying to weigh in on local issues.

“It helps explain why it is so difficult for local citizens to be successful in controlling their own destiny when wealthy outside interests like this weigh in across Southern California and overwhelm local citizens’ efforts,” said Ventura City Councilman Steve Bennett, who supports the measures.

Meanwhile, farmers continue to pour money into their own organization fighting the greenbelt measures, with a late $15,000 in campaign contributions from Ventura farm families pushing their war chest to a hefty $100,800.

Bennett’s organization, Voters Coalition of Ventura, has been outspent by about 5 to 1, having raised only $26,904 compared to the opponents’ collective $118,600.

“I think the point to make is that the only way to win the election is to buy it,” Bennett said. “The citizens fundamentally want to protect the greenbelt.”

In 1992, Issues Mobilization Political Action Committee contributed $13,000 to defeat a slow-growth initiative in Santa Clarita that sought to limit housing until the year 2002. The measure lost.

The PAC also helped bankroll a campaign against Pasadena’s first slow-growth initiative in 1988. The PAC contributed $16,000 to a committee of developers and business people fighting the initiative.

While a spokesman for the California Assn. of Realtors on Thursday declined to comment on the contribution, Schmitz said the political action committee’s money has its source in local dollars.

“The Ventura Realtors contribute to this PAC,” he said. “Even though the check may have come from Los Angeles, the source of the funds is Ventura.”

Venturans for a Quality Community was created in September and is being backed partly by the Greater Ventura Chamber of Commerce, which has contributed $3,000.

But the group’s top supporter is Pierre Claeyssens, the elusive 86-year-old owner of Taylor Ranch, which stretches across 30,000 acres in west Ventura.

A Santa Barbara resident, Claeyssens contributed $10,000 to defeat measures I and J.

“The Taylor Ranch is in an agricultural preserve. I don’t see why we need any more restrictions,” Claeyssens said in an interview Thursday.

Asked whether the family was protecting its rights to develop the ranch, which once was considered a site for a state university, Claeyssens said “that is a question that no one can answer. In the future, looking down the line, that could very well be.”