Flynn and Schillo Align to Back Farmland Initiative

Lending their political muscle to a grass-roots campaign, Ventura County Supervisors John K. Flynn and Frank Schillo came together Monday to support an initiative restricting development on farmland and open space.

But the high-profile endorsements infuriated some members of a broad-based committee trying to build consensus on the issue of farmland preservation--a committee that Flynn founded.

“John has taken some very creative political stances in his lifetime,” said committee member Rex Laird, executive director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau. “But I would like to hear him explain this.”

Hours after Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources (SOAR) sponsors refiled their countywide initiative at the Ventura County Government Center, Flynn and Schillo held a rare joint news conference to declare their support for the measure--as long as it is combined with some other mechanism to pay farmers for the financial hardship it could impose on them.

Flynn and Schillo had different opinions on what that mechanism should be, however: Flynn supports a quarter-cent sales tax increase to purchase development rights and buy land outright from farmers, while Schillo advocates forming a committee of county and city officials to search for funding.

“This is a great thing for us,” said SOAR leader Richard Francis, watching as Schillo, the east county conservative, and Flynn, the Oxnard liberal, literally embraced before a podium.

“It’s very important, because it helps move SOAR from the realm of a radical idea to the mainstream,” said SOAR co-founder Steve Bennett, a former Ventura city councilman. “It shows that they think it can really work.”

But some members of the Agriculture Policy Working Group, a diverse group of politicians, farmers, building industry representatives and business leaders brought together by Flynn and Supervisor Kathy Long, called it a betrayal of what had been a positive, productive effort.

The working group recently concluded a string of countywide “town hall” meetings from Ojai to Simi Valley, which were attended by more than 1,000 people, and is set to release a final consensus report in coming weeks on ways to preserve farmland.

“What does this say to the committee members who have spent nine months looking at these issues?” Laird asked. “I have known John for many years, but personally, I am disappointed. If I were another supervisor, I would be livid. And as a member of the community, I wonder whether I would ever take part on a committee with Supervisor Flynn.”

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Neither Long nor Supervisor Judy Mikels, the other county leaders on the working group, could be reached for comment Monday.

Flynn said he saw no contradiction in championing the SOAR initiative while being a part of the working group. He said he suspects that many of the two dozen members on the committee share his views about the initiative.

“I think [supporting SOAR] will actually make the people on the committee feel good about it,” Flynn said. “I think there are quite a few of them that want to speak out on this issue.”

He criticized the so-called Guidelines for Orderly Development, the county’s existing policy restricting development in unincorporated areas, as outmoded. With an estimated 1,000 acres of farmland being lost every year, he said there is a clear need for stricter policies--and SOAR fits the bill.

“The present mechanisms we have in place are not working,” Flynn said. “The Guidelines for Orderly Development are good, but what we will end up with is a county covered with development in an orderly fashion.”

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Modeled after a more restrictive ballot measure approved by Ventura voters in 1995, the countywide SOAR initiative is one of several that the group has launched throughout the county for the November elections.

The county measure seeks to restrict development on agricultural land or open space by transferring the power to rezone the property from the Board of Supervisors to voters.

In other words, farmland could only be developed in unincorporated areas if voters countywide--not the politicians they elect--consider it a good idea.

Critics complain that contrary to the rhetoric of its backers, SOAR initiatives are intended to protect pretty landscapes for suburbanites, not preserve the county’s agricultural industry. They also charge that the initiatives trample on basic property rights, effectively keeping farmers from selling their land for development.

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To that end, Schillo is proposing that a committee of leaders from the county and all 10 cities look at ways to compensate landowners who may be financially hamstrung by SOAR. He believes new development should somehow pay for this, but he wants to leave the final decision to the committee, which he is asking the Ventura County Organization of Governments to form.

“I will support this initiative if there is something on the ballot to raise funds to purchase ag land,” Schillo said, adding that he would support a sales tax increase if the committee recommends one. “We cannot take private property rights away from anyone.”

Working on a plan that would satisfy both farmers and residents was what working group member Mitchel Kahn thought he was supposed to be doing.

Kahn, president of the Ventura County Economic Development Assn., said he was surprised and disappointed by Flynn’s and Schillo’s move to support SOAR rather than wait for the committee’s recommendations on saving farmland.

Kahn stressed that he intended to continue his work on the committee and hoped everyone else would too. But he worried it might not be taken as seriously after Flynn and Schillo’s decision, which he termed “jumping on a bandwagon.”

“If you’re asking, ‘Did we waste our time?’ I don’t think we did,” Kahn said. “Putting it mildly, it’s disappointing to see that Mr. Flynn could not wait to see what the group was going to decide as a whole before going off on his own.

“That’s two-fifths of a county vote,” he added. “It’s not going to change what I do, but it might change how seriously cities and the county take what we do.”

* OPEN SPACE

An urban growth boundary is proposed in Thousand Oaks. B5