Cal State Campus Backers Run Into 1st Setback

Supervisor Frank Schillo had just wrapped up his impassioned pitch when the sharp knives came out.

He had gone to Sacramento to urge lawmakers to endorse a bill aimed at creating an agency that would raise the tens of millions of dollars needed to build Ventura County’s budding Cal State campus.

And he had done so with great fervor, telling members of a key Senate panel how generations of students had plowed into an educational dead-end for lack of a local public university.

“I want to emphasize the depth of feeling in Ventura County for establishing this university,” Schillo told the legislators. “We are very proud of our system of community colleges, but far too many students can go no further. We want the university, and we’re trying to come up with creative ideas for making sure we get it.”

Satisfied he had hammered home the point, Schillo took his seat. Then he took a whole lot of heat.

Blistered by fiery questions on the bill and its innovative financing scheme, Schillo and other CSU supporters on hand for the April 1 hearing found themselves blindsided by a wave of Senate scrutiny.

Members of the local government committee demanded more details on the proposal, giving Cal State planners until Wednesday to sort through the questions and come back with persuasive answers.

The panel’s reluctance represents the first significant setback in the push to convert Camarillo State Hospital into a Cal State campus, a project that had enjoyed a relatively smooth ride through what is generally a bumpy bureaucratic process.

And with less than nine months to go before the new campus is scheduled to open, it sent university boosters scrambling to whip up support for the legislation--a key component to transforming the aging hospital property into a modern college campus.

“I had no idea this would happen: I just walked in there like a lamb to slaughter,” Schillo said later. “This is not going to happen unless people up there in Sacramento want it to happen. They’re holding the purse strings, and if they’re not on our side the university could be in trouble.”

Much Work Remains for Cal State Boosters

The birth of a university can be a painful process. And while it has been relatively easygoing so far, the Senate’s scrutiny serves as a reminder there is still plenty of work to do.

“We are going to hit some bumps in the road, but the road will continue,” said Handel Evans, president of the developing Cal State Channel Islands campus. “This is obviously an important time for us. What we’re trying to create is something that’s really different, something that has never been done before. And sometimes that becomes a very difficult thing to do.”

Up against a hard-charging deadline, Evans and other university boosters immediately went to work.

Their first step was to line up a series of meetings with key lawmakers and convince them that the financing scheme is the best response to a CSU mandate that the new campus pay its own way.

And behind the scenes, they set out to modify the legislation, hoping to make it acceptable to legislators while ensuring it would still generate money for university-related projects.

Together with local government agencies, CSU planners are proposing to create a special authority to serve as landlord for the fledgling campus.

A cross between a redevelopment agency and the type of entity used to revive mothballed military bases, the Channel Islands authority would manage all financial aspects of the 630-acre complex--raising revenues from property and sales taxes generated at the site, selling bonds and providing tax incentives to lure private and public ventures to the property.

The authority would not be needed to launch the inaugural phase of the campus, as lawmakers already have earmarked $16.5 million to convert the shuttered mental hospital into the new home of the Ventura campus of Cal State Northridge.

Rather, its role would be to generate the $25 million to $50 million needed to expand the Northridge center into a full-fledged university, a 23rd campus in the CSU system serving about 15,000 students.

Toward that end, planners are hammering out plans to create a commercial hub and establish a range of other money-making ventures to help the college pay its own way.

That is where the authority would play its most vital role, serving as an economic engine to fuel development and pump out a steady stream of cash to support university projects.

At the public hearing earlier this month, Evans outlined some of the possibilities. He said planners are negotiating with a local software company interested in leasing 30,000 square feet at the site. Similar negotiations are underway with the county Fire Department and Sheriff’s Department, which is considering establishing a police academy on the property.

Other proposals in the works include creation of a senior citizens’ community, a high-tech business park and 900 units of residential housing for students, faculty and staff members.

Lawmaker, Cal State Officials Discuss Plans

It was crucial to convey all this to key lawmakers and gain their support for the bill, sponsored by Sen. Jack O’Connell (D-San Luis Obispo).

And no convert was more important than Sen. Patrick Johnston, who led the opposition earlier this month to the legislation.

Specifically, the Stockton Democrat worried about the level of commercial development that would be needed to expand and support the Channel Islands university. Moreover, he tore into CSU trustees for failing to foot the bill for the new campus, a move that would spare educators from having to enter the development game.

So O’Connell and Cal State officials sat down with him for a series of heart-to-heart conversations on the university’s plans.

Last week, Johnston said he was prepared to support the effort, so much so that he has agreed to co-sponsor the bill and help guide it the rest of the way through the Senate.

“This is all part of the legislative process, but I know it’s anxiety provoking when there is a good project such as this hanging in the balance,” said Johnston, who also is chairman of the Senate’s powerful Appropriations Committee.

“The details of the proposal are being worked out now, and I anticipate the bill passing the local government committee the next time it’s heard,” he added. “I intend to support it and I think we will have a good opportunity to have this campus launched in the near future.”

The lobbying effort also reached another key lawmaker: Sen. Ruben Ayala (D-Chino), vice chairman of the the local government committee. He said the panel got too caught up in extraneous details the last time it reviewed the proposal.

“I would suggest that we should focus on the principle of what that bill will accomplish and determine whether it’s good policy to put a university there,” Ayala said. “It appears like a good idea, and I think it has a good chance of passing.”

Camarillo Mayor Gives Support in Letter

With legislative momentum building, Cal State planners were taking no chances.

All last week they were busy modifying the legislation, tweaking it here and there to make it acceptable to lawmakers while ensuring it still serves its purpose.

CSU officials are scheduled to meet with county staff members Monday to go over the changes before heading to Wednesday’s hearing in Sacramento.

One potential obstacle was taken out of play last week when Camarillo Mayor Charlotte Craven agreed to draft a letter to the committee expressing full support for the local campus.

The Camarillo City Council fired off a letter to committee members before the last hearing asking that the bill be amended to name Camarillo a permanent member of the new authority’s governing board.

As it stands, that seven-member board would be made up of four CSU trustees, two county supervisors and a representative of one of the county’s 10 cities.

Because the new university very likely would have the most impact on Camarillo, officials from that city wanted a permanent voice on the governing board, and wrote a letter saying so. But O’Connell feared the letter could be misinterpreted as opposition to his bill.

He met with Craven and Councilman Kevin Kildee last week to lay those concerns to rest.

“I was shocked to learn that our letter had been interpreted differently than we had intended,” Craven said. “The city of Camarillo is behind this university 100%. Even if we’re not added to the bill, we will still overwhelmingly and unconditionally support this legislation.”

Craven plans to be in Sacramento Wednesday to say the same thing before committee members.

Opposition to Current Legislation Remains

Even if the legislation receives the committee’s blessing, it still has some hurdles to overcome.

The bill must also make it through two other committees--revenue and tax and appropriations--before going to the full Senate for a vote.

And at least one critic said he will be waiting to dissect the legislation, arguing it is a dangerous way to go about building a college campus.

“I wouldn’t vote for it in its present form, and I cannot envision any permutation that would lead me to support it,” said Sen. Quentin Kopp (I-San Francisco), who sits on the local government and revenue and tax committees.

“It represents commercial development on a college campus, which I innately disfavor,” he said. “I have found in 27 years of local and state government that these types of fancy proposals usually mean trouble for taxpayers.”

But Cal State planners argue it is because tax dollars are in short supply that the proposed financing scheme is so desperately needed.

The CSU governing board has made it clear the new campus would grow only if it finds a way to generate the cash needed to make that happen.

“What we’re trying to do is pay as you go,” Evans said. “At the same time, we realize that we are walking a fine line between existing statutes and something that is really innovative in terms of public funding for higher education.”

It is the first time that a developing Cal State campus, and perhaps a new campus anywhere, has been forced to contend with such a pay-as-you-go reality.

Even with support building for the legislation, O’Connell said he will continue to work right up to Wednesday’s hearing to ensure the bill continues to move forward.

“It’s a big bill, and we’re working it hard,” he said. “I just need to keep doing my homework and make sure the right players are with us. All I can say is that I win more than I lose.”

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About This Series

With the conversion of Camarillo State Hospital into a college campus less than nine months away, the focus has turned to how to raise the tens of millions of dollars that will be needed to build the budding university. “Birth of a University: Countdown to a Cal State Campus” is an occasional series chronicling development of the campus. This third installment takes a look at the effort to create an agency dedicated to generating money to make the campus a reality.