Groups With a Cause Investing a Lot in Voters

Money talks, the old adage goes.

But the question is whether Ventura County voters will listen when they go to the polls March 26.

Backers of some key ballot measures are betting big that they will.

Community Memorial Hospital and its supporters have pumped more than $132,000 into their campaign to stop the neighboring Ventura County Medical Center from constructing a new walk-in clinic, which the private hospital sees as a threat to its business.

A San Diego firm pushing for the rights to build a new west county landfill in the rugged Weldon Canyon area between Ventura and Ojai has anted up $102,000 for its cause so far and plans to spend another $400,000.

And in a battle with its neighboring rival, the owners of The Esplanade in Oxnard have spent nearly $40,000 to put a measure on Ventura’s ballot aimed at derailing the expansion of the Buenaventura Mall.

Before each of these groups starts counting votes, however, they may want to consider the lesson of those who spent big to oppose a Ventura farmland preservation measure last November.

Ranchers and pro-business advocates poured more than $180,900 into their campaign against Measure I--and still lost. By contrast, the backers of the successful greenbelt measure spent $30,900.

“Sometimes the core values of a community come through in spite of the money being spent,” said Ventura Councilman Steve Bennett, who led the Measure I campaign.

Still, Bennett cautioned that the power of money cannot be overlooked. He said it is important for those groups that find themselves battling big dollar campaigns to raise enough money to get their message out.

“It’s not easy,” he said. “Money can overwhelm an issue. If Measure I had been a countywide issue, and we only had $30,000 for our campaign, we would have really been in trouble.”

Of the two countywide initiatives on the March ballot, the most expensive battle being waged so far is between two hospitals located next door to each other in Ventura.

*

Community Memorial Hospital has poured tens of thousands of dollars into its campaign to stop the Ventura County Medical Center from constructing a $51-million outpatient clinic. The countywide referendum appears on the ballot as Measure X.

Community Memorial officials argue that the proposed county clinic is too costly and too risky for taxpayers. If the federal government fails to come through with its share of construction costs, officials say, the county will have to foot the entire bill.

But Community Memorial’s biggest concern is that the walk-in clinic will be used to lure away some of its privately insured patients.

County officials dismiss this notion, saying that the outpatient facility is part of a consolidation of specialty clinics now housed in leased buildings. They said the move is expected to save the county $1 million a year on rent.

“The Board of Supervisors is doing exactly what the taxpayers want them to do, and that is to operate more efficiently, and now that is being jeopardized,” said former county Supervisor Madge Schaefer, a spokeswoman for an advocacy group supporting the county project.

*

More than half of the cost of the new clinic is expected to be paid for with federal grant money, and the rest from hospital revenues.

County officials say there is little chance that the federal government will cut funding for construction, noting that several public hospital projects around the state are being financed the same way. They warn that if the county does not receive the grant money, it will simply go elsewhere.

So far, Schaefer’s group has raised $15,000, most of it from county doctors, to wage its own campaign in support of the county project.

In another countywide issue, backers of a proposal to build a garbage dump at the mouth of the Ojai Valley are spending heavily to win voter support for their project. The dump would replace the Bailard Landfill in Oxnard, which is scheduled to close this summer.

So far, Taconic Resources, a San Diego investment firm, has spent $102,000 to put the Weldon Canyon landfill initiative on the March ballot. And Taconic officials said last week that they intend to spend an additional $400,000 on mailers and campaign ads before the March election.

A majority of the Board of Supervisors has long opposed the dump project, prompting Taconic to bypass the governing panel and take its proposal directly to the electorate.

A newly formed group called Citizens Against Measure T has raised only $5,000 so far--a contribution from Malinda Chouinard, co-owner of Patagonia Inc.--to counter the campaign.

Milton Kramer, a member of the group, said his biggest concern is that the dump will end up taking trash from Los Angeles County and other areas.

As currently written, Measure T would not prohibit the operator of the Weldon Canyon landfill from importing trash.

In the city of Ventura, voters will be asked in the March election to help settle a retail shopping war.

The owners of The Esplanade in Oxnard have spent $39,700 to qualify Measure S on the Ventura ballot that seeks to derail a city-approved financing plan for the expansion of the Buenaventura Mall.

*

The Buenaventura Mall wants to add a second level of shops and two department stores to the aging shopping center.

But to help pay for the $50-million project, the mall’s owners asked the City Council to enter into a deal in which developers would pay $12.6 million in public improvements to be reimbursed by the city’s share of increased sales tax revenue over 20 years.

Including interest, the city’s payback would total $32.3 million at the end of 20 years. If the city’s share of tax revenue does not exceed its current $1-million base, however, Ventura would not have to pay the developer back.

City leaders say the deal is risk-free and a smart investment. Initiative backers, however, are calling it a tax giveaway.

Although Measure S had already been placed on the ballot, the City Council went ahead and approved the mall expansion last week. And City Atty. Pete Bulens says he does not believe the measure could retroactively affect the council’s action.

Initiative backers also doubt whether it is retroactive and, as a safeguard, are now pursuing a referendum to overturn the council’s vote.

*

Paid petitioners, who started gathering signatures Friday, have 27 days to collect 6,026 signatures needed to force a July special election.

City leaders, Chamber of Commerce members, and even local environmentalists have rallied together to fight both the referendum and Measure S under the banner of Venturans United for Economic Security.

The group received more than $58,000 from the owners of the Buenaventura Mall to launch their campaign.

Meanwhile, the cities of Camarillo and Ojai and surrounding communities have joined the unincorporated area of Piru in placing library tax initiatives on the March ballot that would expand book budgets and library hours in their communities.

Officials of the county Library Services Agency have warned that if more money cannot be found that they will be forced to shut down several libraries and scale back hours at remaining branches. The agency has lost half of its $10-million budget from state cutbacks.

*

Attempts by Ojai-area residents in November to shore up three branch libraries with a $35 parcel tax failed when their initiatives did not gain the required two-thirds majority vote.

But Ojai Valley library supporters have drafted two new $35 parcel tax measures that they say stand a better chance of passing.

Initiative backers said they have cut some unincorporated areas out of the parcel tax boundary where it had less of a chance of winning the 66.6% of the vote needed. And unlike the November initiatives, measures R and U contain no annual cost-of-living adjustments.

Camarillo backers of measures P and V are hoping to pass a $25 homeowners tax that would pump about $550,000 annually into the city’s library. Betty Sullivan, a member of the campaign committee, said the infusion of cash would add at least eight hours to the library’s weekly schedule and boost its annual book budget from zero to $170,000.

Sullivan said the Camarillo measures are also voter friendly because they do not have a cost-of-living adjustment and have a five-year sunset clause.

Moving ahead with his own library rescue plan, County Supervisor Frank Schillo is attempting to persuade local officials to establish a library federation that would transfer control of libraries to a joint-powers authority made up of the county’s 10 cities. Schillo said this move would free up about $400,000 in overhead costs libraries could use for operations, but critics say the plan needs a large cash injection to succeed.

Schillo said he agrees his plan is not the solution to the library agency’s budget crisis.

“If a city has a library tax on the ballot in March, I would encourage them to vote for it,” he said.

Also in March, voters in Simi Valley will be asked to renew the city’s slow-growth ordinance. First adopted in 1986, the ordinance was designed to ensure adequate housing for seniors and lower-income people without putting a strain on county services.

City officials said they expect voters to overwhelmingly support the measure.

Times staff writer Tracy Wilson and correspondent Eric Wahlgren contributed to this story.