New Era Calls for New Leadership

* Steve Rubenstein recently resigned after 14 years as president and CEO of the Conejo Valley Chamber. He was quoted as saying that “most everything is built out or we know where the build outs will be.”

The fact that our community’s most ardent promoter of growth believes we have entered our post-built era is a very dramatic statement. I applaud his years of effort for the business community, his dignified departure and his tremendous insight regarding the arrival of the Conejo Valley’s post-build out era.

Communities like humans are born, move through various stages and eventually die. I believe our community is now passing through the awkward and unattractive phase of puberty as demonstrated by Dos Vientos, Seventh-day Adventists’ project, the Sport X proposal, 70 movie theaters in progress, an $86-million Civic Arts Plaza and 90,000 square feet of civic center virtual reality on the board. I’m looking forward to the next phase: adulthood. We could then step back and address how we might pay for and manage our most recent growth spurt.

This paradigm shift requires a new kind of leadership in our city’s management, planning commission and, most importantly, on our City Council. Our existing leadership worked well when construction project supervisors were necessary, but in the post-built out era, pro-growth leadership is not only irrelevant but unnecessary. Management and preservation of the existing are the latest skills required for the Conejo Valley’s new era. I look forward to the upcoming elections and the potential candidates who may provide this new leadership.

WILLIAM MAPLE

Thousand Oaks