From a Landfill to President--Voters to Make Diverse Choices

It’s not every election that lets voters decide the fate of a landfill, a hospital clinic or a local library. All while choosing a Republican presidential candidate.

But Tuesday’s ballot offers a wide range of candidates and issues for Ventura County residents.

There are the traditional political races--with candidates vying for three supervisorial seats, two state Assembly seats and a congressional post. Then there are the ballot initiatives: statewide campaigns for education funding and mobile home rent control, local questions on tax rebates for developers and library taxes for residents.

“There are some very crucial issues for voters to decide in this election, especially with the ballot initiatives,” Supervisor Maggie Kildee said.

In the city of Ventura, voters will determine if the city can continue offering deals like the one it gave the owner of the Buenaventura Mall, who could receive large tax breaks to help finance a $55-million expansion.

Across the county in Moorpark, voters will pick a new council member to fill an open seat, while their counterparts in neighboring Simi Valley will decide whether to extend the city’s slow-growth ordinance.

Meanwhile, county officials are urging voters to support Proposition 203, a $3-billion statewide bond measure that includes nearly $1 million to keep moving forward on planning a new Cal State campus near Camarillo. It would also raise $4 million for the local community college district and bring needed millions for refurbishing and expanding local public schools.

In Thousand Oaks, voters will pick both Democratic and Republican nominees in a congressional race that could be one of the pivotal contests this year to determine which party controls the House of Representatives.

Seven Democrats and three Republicans are competing for a chance to replace retiring Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) in the swing district that is being closely scrutinized by strategists from both parties in Washington, D.C.

And in an Assembly district that includes Simi Valley and Fillmore, Republican voters will pick from six GOP hopefuls to replace Assemblywoman Paula Boland (R-Granada Hills).

The race has many strong candidates, but former Assemblyman Tom McClintock may have the most at stake because he has lost his last two elections--one for Congress and one for state controller.

If he were to lose again, said rival GOP candidate Bob Larkin, “I think that would be the end of his political career. People get tired of sending money to a loser.”

The only other contested Assembly race pits incumbent Republican Nao Takasugi of Oxnard against Moorpark engineer Matt Noah.

Of the three supervisor contests on Tuesday, only one is for an open seat. Kildee is retiring after 16 years representing the 3rd District, which stretches from Piru to Camarillo.

Candidates vying for her job include Fillmore Mayor Roger Campbell, Camarillo Councilman Mike Morgan and Kildee aides Kathy Long and Al Escoto.

If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, then a runoff will be held in November between the two top vote-getters.

For her part, Kildee said she has had no second thoughts about bowing out of the race and is looking forward to spending more time with her family. “It’s been very nice to simply be a spectator,” she said.

In the 2nd District, which includes Ventura and most of the Ojai Valley, Supervisor Susan Lacey is seeking her fifth term on the county board. She is being challenged by veteran Ventura Councilman Jim Monahan.

*

If she wins, Lacey said, it will be her last term.

Supervisor John Flynn, who is seeking his sixth term in the Oxnard-based 5th District, faces three opponents in his race, none of whom has ever held elected office before. They are Arlene Fraser, who lost a bid to unseat Flynn in 1992, Enrique Petris and Angel Diaz.

In addition to deciding these three races, voters will be asked to consider three countywide ballot initiatives.

Of the three, Measure X has received the most publicity thanks to its sponsor, Ventura-based Community Memorial Hospital.

The hospital has spent more than $1.3 million--the most ever spent in a local election in the county--to persuade voters to block rival Ventura County Medical Center from building a new outpatient center.

A no vote on Measure X would kill the financing plan for the project.

Community Memorial officials argue that the proposed $56-million outpatient center is part of an ongoing campaign to lure away its privately insured patients.

County officials say the new outpatient center is not designed to compete with other hospitals, but to replace several dilapidated clinics, the hospital’s kitchen and laboratory and other facilities.

Regardless of what happens with the election, supervisors Frank Schillo and Judy Mikels said they want the fighting between the hospitals to end and will work toward that goal. “It’s time to bury the hatchet,” Mikels said.

After 11 years of legal and political wrangling, county voters will also get their say on whether a new, 551-acre landfill should be built in a virgin canyon between Ventura and Ojai.

Taconic Resources, the sponsor of Measure T, wants to build the dump to replace Bailard Landfill in Oxnard after it closes this summer. A yes vote on Measure T would allow Taconic to move forward with its plans.

Opponents of Measure T say that a new dump is not needed and that Taconic’s real motive is to develop a large regional landfill that would import trash from surrounding areas, including Los Angeles County.

*

In Ojai, Camarillo and Piru, library supporters are hoping that voters will support homeowner tax initiatives to help keep their libraries afloat.

A yes vote on Camarillo’s Measure P and Measure V in the unincorporated area outside the city would raise annual property taxes by $25. The two measures have sunset clauses, which would allow voters the option of renewing the tax in five years.

Kildee, a resident of Camarillo, acknowledged that it will be tough to win a two-thirds majority vote for a new library tax in a city that has rejected a school bond measure four times.

“I’m not optimistic,” she said. “But there has been a valiant effort to help people understand the need.”

Library backers are also urging Piru residents to vote yes on Measure W, which proposes to increase property taxes by $35. The tiny community is the only one with a parcel tax on the ballot that also has a library targeted for closure.

“I think the library tax may have a chance in Piru,” Kildee said. “The town is so small and the library means so much to them.”

But of all the communities, Ojai may have the best shot at approving a new library tax.

A yes vote on measures R and U in the city and surrounding area would levy a $35 a year parcel tax to expand hours at the Ojai Library.

A similar measure on the November ballot lost by a few percentage points.

In the city of Ventura, voters will decide whether to allow the City Council to enter into tax-sharing plans with developers. The issue was sparked when the city announced it would give the owner of the Buenaventura Mall a $32-million tax rebate to help finance its expansion plans.

*

A group of citizens and tax advocates placed Measure S on the ballot in an attempt to kill the agreement, which they see as a tax giveaway. The council approved the plan anyway, but the measure could bind its hands from adopting any future tax-sharing agreements.

The owners of The Esplanade, angry that the expanded Ventura mall would take the Oxnard shopping center’s only two anchor stores, have spent more than $122,000 to support Measure S. A yes vote on Measure S would stop future tax rebate plans.

If approved, city officials say, Measure S would rob the city of its ability to attract businesses.

* MORE ELECTION COVERAGE

A look at last-minute mailers and the many statewide propositions. B10, B11