University Fund-Raiser Group OKd

Gov. Pete Wilson has signed a bill designed to generate the cash needed to turn a closed state mental hospital into the county’s first public four-year university.

The legislation, signed late Friday, allows Cal State Channel Islands planners to proceed with attempting to raise the millions needed to make their vision a reality.

“It’s the final piece in the puzzle in the plan for this year,” said Handel Evans, president of the developing Channel Islands campus. “What it does is it really establishes the relationship for the university and the county.”

The California State University, Channel Islands Site Authority Act establishes a seven-member group of Cal State and local officials to raise the cash needed to turn the old Camarillo State Hospital into a free-standing Cal State campus.

The initial $16.5 million needed to open the school as a Ventura campus of Cal State Northridge in fall 1999 has already been earmarked. But the $25 million to $50 million needed to expand the campus to a full-fledged university will be the responsibility of the special authority created by the legislation.

That group is expected to raise revenues from property and sales taxes, sell bonds and provide tax incentives to lure private and public ventures.

The special authority is a unique cross between a redevelopment agency and the type of entity used to revive closed military bases, and officials believe it may be used as a model for development of future universities.

The Cal State governing board has made it clear that local officials must find their own money to make the campus happen. Plans for a commercial hub and several other money-making ventures are in the works to help the college pay for itself. For business leader Carolyn Leavens, the partnership solidified through the bill is “the final icing on the cake.” She believes the county’s business community has an interest in investing in the new Ventura campus.

“But we as business people expect that return on our investment,” Leavens said Saturday. “We expect to get well-trained employees.”

Earlier this month, the Cal State governing board voted to take possession of the closed mental hospital. The decision came after Ventura County residents worked for more than three decades to establish a public university in Ventura County.

Written by state Sen. Jack O’Connell (D-San Luis Obispo), the bill was approved by the Senate in May and the Assembly late last month.

Between now and when the bill takes effect Jan. 1, university planners will be working out the operating details for the authority, Evans said. Bids to remodel the first 100,00 square feet of the school are already being considered.