Mall Owners and Hospitals Pile On Cash in Campaigns

Owners of rival shopping malls in Oxnard and Ventura continued to pour tens of thousands of dollars into the fight over the planned expansion of the Buenaventura Mall, financial reports filed Thursday show.

The Buenaventura Mall’s owners have spent more than $192,000 on the campaign against Measure S, a March 26 ballot initiative aimed at derailing improvement plans for the 31-year-old shopping center.

At the same time, the owners of The Esplanade mall in Oxnard have spent more than $122,000 to support the ballot measure.

The Esplanade’s owners are trying to halt the project because it would strip their mall of its only two department stores. Sears and Robinsons-May plan to relocate to the improved Ventura mall.

But the amount of money spent on the mall war pales in comparison with the big dollars Community Memorial Hospital has plunked down to stop the county from building a new $56-million outpatient wing at the Ventura County Medical Center.

The nonprofit, private hospital filed amended financial statements showing that it has spent more than $864,200 on its campaign supporting Measure X, a countywide referendum that seeks to stop construction of the outpatient wing. The hospital, located two blocks away from the county medical center, sees the project as a threat to its business.

Community Memorial’s revised financial statements do not include money it has spent during the latest reporting period, which covers the time between Feb. 11 to March 10.

It also does not include the money Community Memorial has spent on its ongoing lawsuit it filed nearly two years ago to block the clinic project and to stop the county from accepting patients with insurance or the means to pay.

Community Memorial officials have refused to say how much their hospital has spent on the lawsuit. The hospital’s 1994 tax returns indicate that Community Memorial paid $445,184 that year to the Los Angeles law firm of Cadwalader, Wickerson & Taft, which is handling the lawsuit against Ventura County. The lawsuit was filed in July 1994.

But attorney John McDermott, a member of the law firm representing Community Memorial, said that this money was for a variety of legal services. “You cannot assume it was all for the lawsuit,” he said. The hospital has not yet filed its 1995 tax returns.

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Meanwhile, a group supporting the county hospital project reported raising a total of $49,800 for its cause. Most of the money raised by SMART, or Saving Money as Responsible Taxpayers, came from physicians affiliated with Ventura County Medical Center.

In the race for an open seat on the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, Fillmore Mayor Roger Campbell reported raising a total of $73,500 in his bid for the job now held by retiring board member Maggie Kildee.

Campbell reported raising $10,536 since Feb. 11 and has $13,700 cash on hand for the final days before the March 26 election. He is seeking to represent the county’s 3rd District, which includes Fillmore, Camarillo, Ojai, Santa Paula and portions of Thousand Oaks.

“I think what this amount of money says is that people see me as someone with fresh new ideas, someone who can lead us into the 21st century,” Campbell said.

Trailing behind Campbell in overall fund-raising is Kathy Long, Kildee’s top aide, who has raised a total of $41,000 to date. But Long was quick to point out that she has raised more than Campbell during the last three reporting periods, including the $17,700 she raised between Feb. 11 and March 10 that she still has on hand for the final days of the campaign.

“I feel very strong right now,” she said. “I’m right on target as far as where I want to be.”

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Candidate Al Escoto, another Kildee aide, and Camarillo Councilman Mike Morgan each reported raising about $20,000 in overall contributions. Escoto has $1,300 left in the bank, and Morgan has $11,000.

In the 2nd District race, which includes Ventura and most of the Ojai Valley, Supervisor Susan K. Lacey has raised about $46,000, including $21,904 cash on hand. Ventura Councilman Jim Monahan, Lacey’s opponent, reported raising a total of $43,000, with $1,576 leftover in the bank.

And Supervisor John Flynn, who is seeking reelection in the Oxnard-based 5th District, has far outpaced his challengers in the money race, collecting a total of $32,000. He reported having $5,146 cash on hand.

Trailing behind Flynn was Arlene Fraser, with more than $13,300 in contributions. She had $354 left in the bank.

Two other candidates in the race, Enrique Petris and Angel Diaz, did not file campaign finance statements.

Meanwhile, Taconic Resources, a San Diego investment firm that wants to build a 551-acre landfill at Weldon Canyon north of Ventura, reported spending a total of $1,050 on its campaign for Measure T since January.

Taconic spent more than $125,000 to qualify Measure T for the March 26 ballot and had vowed to spend $400,000 on its campaign to win over voters.

In Ventura, the high-priced battle over the expansion of the Buenaventura Mall expansion continued to draw sizable contributions from mall owners.

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In the last month alone, Buenaventura Mall owners La Salle Partners of Chicago contributed $61,500--or $2,196 a day--to a committee of city leaders, firefighters and residents who oppose Measure S.

The Esplanade’s San Francisco-based owners gave more than $62,700 in the same period to a group of residents and taxpayers’ advocates who support the measure.

If approved by the voters later this month, the measure would prohibit the city of Ventura from giving tax breaks to developers.

Supporters say it would safeguard taxpayers’ money. But opponents say the measure would rob the city of its ability to attract businesses and threaten the $55-million expansion of the Buenaventura Mall.

The initiative was launched last fall to stop a $32-million tax rebate promised to the mall’s owners as part of the expansion plan. The council approved the deal before the issue came up for a vote. Now the anti-mall group is trying to qualify a referendum aimed at overturning the City Council’s approval of the project.

Last month, mall opponents turned in about 8,000 signatures supporting a referendum. Those signatures are now being counted. If 6,026 signatures are valid, it would force a July special election.

La Salle Partners has contributed an additional $34,500 to fight the referendum. The Esplanade’s contributions to the committee are being spent on both campaigns.

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Financial statements filed by the rival groups Thursday showed money being spent on campaign mailers, surveys and the salaries of campaign workers hired to walk door-to-door to woo votes.

“Communicating with voters is expensive,” said Eric Lambert, campaign coordinator for the committee backing Measure S. “It is difficult to mobilize grass roots support. People don’t get excited about a mall--there’s not a lot of personality attached.”

According to financial reports, Citizens Against the Sales Tax Giveaway paid a petition management firm about $27,000 to collect signatures needed to qualify the referendum.

The group also paid 27 Ventura residents and a UC Santa Barbara fraternity nearly $7,000 to help gather signatures and walk door-to-door campaigning for Measure S and the referendum.