SCAG and Public Input

Re “Public Comment, Input Play Heavily in SCAG’s Inclusive Planning Efforts,” Ventura County Perspective article by Supervisor Judy Mikels, Jan. 17.

In Ms. Mikels’ zeal to criticize Patricia Feiner Arkin, our supervisor forgets that one who lives in a glass house should not throw stones. She alleged that the Southern California Assn. of Governments has taken extraordinary efforts to incorporate the concerns and inputs of all, including the public. The facts demonstrate otherwise.

There were four potential occasions when SCAG’s master environmental impact report was to be discussed in Ventura County. At the first (Dec. 11, 1997, Ventura Council of Governments meeting), the public was actively discouraged from speaking. At the second (Feb. 25, 1998, Moorpark City Council meeting), a SCAG representative told us that the appropriate meeting for public input would be the next night in Camarillo. We were assured that we could voice our concerns and [give] input then.

When the public showed up for this third time, they found no descriptive literature available, no plans for a presentation by SCAG and were told that there was no SCAG technical person present to respond to questions.

Ms. Mikels should remember the “facts” of that evening well because she was the moderator of that farce of a public meeting! Ms. Mikels, the presiding president of SCAG, dumbfounded us by indicating that she did not have the necessary knowledge to answer questions but that those in the audience who wished to make comments would have three minutes to do so. That limit was strictly enforced.

The fourth event (April 16, 1998, at the Reagan Library), was for the pomp and ceremony of the official signing and was worthless for meaningful public input. The document and plans had already been finalized.

The facts show that there had been no real public input allowed and that SCAG’s planning process was neither inclusive nor sensitive to local public needs as expressed by individual citizens. The facts clearly demonstrate that the public was discouraged, redirected and then rebuffed from providing input to the process.

If Ms. Mikels can’t understand why some of the public views the transportation trio (SCAG, Ventura County Transportation Commission and Caltrans) as “800-pound gorillas,” she should have heard the callous words of one of the Caltrans speakers at a recent Somis meeting on the proposed California 118 and 34 projects. He stated, “We routinely take out 60 to 80 homes at a time [to build roads] and think nothing of it.”

With threatening words like that spoken to concerned citizens, perhaps transportation officials should have been described as “800-pound arrogant and contemptuous gorillas.”

JOHN F. KERKHOFF, Somis