County Council Members Seek Control of Transport Panel

A simmering power struggle between two countywide agencies escalated Friday as some members of the county Council of Governments proposed to take over the duties of the county Transportation Commission.

Two council members--county Supervisor Judy Mikels and Ventura Mayor Jack Tingstrom--said their group could better represent the interests of Ventura County cities. The council’s members are drawn from all 10 cities and the Board of Supervisors, while Oxnard, Moorpark, Ojai and Camarillo are not represented on the Transportation Commission.

Mikels had previously suggested that the Council of Governments absorb the duties and powers of the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District.

“We were formed to deal with regional issues, things that aren’t just indigenous to one of the cities or the county,” Mikels said. “Air and transportation are inextricably linked. They are also about as regional as you can get in their impact and their values.”

For the embryonic proposal to be passed state law would have to be changed.

Air quality district officials declined comment, saying only that the proposal might be discussed at a meeting on Tuesday.

But at the Transportation Commission meeting Friday, Chairman Bill Davis called instead for the two panels to work together to determine if there is a real problem with the current structure.

“We should be able to come to an understanding,” he said.

Davis, a Simi Valley councilman, also suggested that the Transportation Commission prepare a precise list of its goals by April to prove it deserves to stand alone in handling transportation policy for Ventura County.

But Mikels insisted in an interview that the current system allows for poor representation and, sometimes, unnecessary conflicts between agencies with countywide responsibilities--such as transportation, air quality and rubbish disposal.

“I’ve actually heard of a time when . . . a city council member was sitting on the Ventura Regional Sanitation District and a different city council member from [the same] city was sitting on the Waste Commission,” she said. “And they voted opposite each other.”

The Ventura County Council of Governments was created in the early 1990s to better deal with important issues that affect all local jurisdictions. Its predecessor--the Ventura County Assn. of Governments--was disbanded in disgust a few years earlier after it was hobbled by jurisdictional disputes.

The new Council of Governments “has talked about issues that are of general importance, the libraries, the university, the guidelines for orderly development,” Mikels said. “It’s in place. Why not, then, move in the [issues] that are most appropriate for the regional body to be discussing and working with?”

Tingstrom, who serves on both the Transportation Commission and the governments council, echoed Mikels’ views at Friday’s meeting.

“I don’t want anyone in here to think I’m doing this to tear apart the [Transportation Commission],” he said. “I came forward and said I want fair representation, throughout the county, of our transportation needs.”

He added later in an interview, “When you talk about how important air quality is and how important transportation is, I think every city should be represented.”

But Transportation Commission citizen member Nancy Grasmehr argued that her panel has helped get more roads built than its predecessors since taking over transportation policymaking from the Ventura County Assn. of Governments in 1989.

“I think the group has done a good job,” Grasmehr said. “We’ve been able to capture more money and work on more projects than ever before, in spite of the fact that we don’t have a sales tax measure [to pay for road projects] in Ventura County.”

After the Transportation Commission adjourned, Chairman Davis scoffed at the accusations that his panel does not fairly represent the communities. He said that its members have a deeper understanding of transportation issues because they serve four-year terms, compared with the council’s one- or two-year terms.

Council of Government meetings would swell to four hours or more with the extra burden of transportation issues, he said.

Mikels replied: “Well, why not? What the heck is VCOG there for? . . . People are just protecting their territory.”