Political Scene in Moorpark Reinvigorated

The coming 12 months will be the year of the election for Moorpark, as seven City Council hopefuls line up for a March special ballot and at least a dozen more set their sights on the regular election in November.

It’s quite a contrast from just over a year ago, when Moorpark had an election and no one came--no challengers emerged, and the City Council canceled the election.

But three factors have reinvigorated the local political scene, said former Councilwoman Eloise Brown, a candidate for the March election.

Those factors are the decision to cancel the 1994 election, the scheduling of several large developments before the council in the next year, and the resignation of Councilman Scott Montgomery in October. Montgomery quit after pleading guilty to felony and misdemeanor conflict-of-interest charges.

“I truly think there’s a renewed interest in representative government here,” said Brown, who served on the council for four years before her 1990 defeat. “Elections give us an opportunity for a little scrutiny of what’s going on.”

Those who favor development believe the city, long a bedroom community for Los Angeles, is losing too much revenue.

They hope an increasing number of residents will not only live in Moorpark, but work, shop and stay in the city for entertainment.

“Moorpark has the highest per capita income in the county, yet we’ve estimated that about 54% of the money those people spend is spent outside the city,” Chamber of Commerce President Debbie Rodgers Teasley said. “If they have a place to go in the city, local stores and a local job that pays well, then that money will stay in town.”

Computer consultant Mike Wesner, 47, a council candidate and former planning commissioner, endorses the current council’s attempt to encourage managed development in the city.

Council members cite their successes over the past year, such as the shopping center and theater complex being built at Mission Bell Plaza on Los Angeles Avenue. The complex is expected to be completed within a few months.

Moorpark officials also were able to lure the Newhall-based company--Special Devices Inc.--and what could turn out to be more than 700 jobs to the city.

City, state and county officials helped work out an incentive package for the company worth about $1.6 million and have pledged to speed the review process to get construction started as soon as possible.

The company, which makes small explosive devices used in such items as car air bags, is completing an environmental impact report for its proposed new plant in an open-space buffer east of the onramp at Los Angeles Avenue and the Moorpark Freeway.

Just as a new dirt road has recently been cut into the Special Devices property, new roads and freshly graded dirt can be seen along California 118 where the theater complex is being built, and dirt is being moved on 500 acres near Spring and Tierra Rejada roads where the 552-residence Carlsberg Development will be built.

Farther along Tierra Rejada Road, American Stores plans to build a large Lucky’s supermarket.

The plans for the store touched off a storm of protest from neighboring homeowners, who believed the project was inappropriate for a residential community and prompted the entry into the March race of three of the seven candidates.

Mountain Meadows residents Christopher Evans, a 38-year-old business owner; Mike Carlin, a 51-year-old program manager, and Gary Lowenberg, a 39-year-old sales manager, joined the local political scene because of the supermarket controversy.

The market has already been approved, but Lowenberg and Carlin said they are concerned about other proposed developments in the city. Carlin, who recently completed a master’s degree in public administration from Cal Lutheran University, did his thesis on the 3,221-residence development that Messenger Investment Co. has proposed for the northeast side of town.

That project, which could bring more than 12,000 residents to the city, has prompted two other candidates to enter the race.

Bill La Perch, a 74-year-old former planning commissioner, and Joe Catrambone, a 64-year-old retired marketing executive who recently moved to the city, said Messenger’s Hidden Creek Ranch development, along with at least five other proposed developments, have the potential to wreck the rural character of Moorpark.

In addition to the seven candidates for the March election, which will fill Montgomery’s seat, at least a dozen city residents have said they are considering the race for three seats in November.