Parks Lashes Out After Censure

One day after she was censured by her colleagues, Thousand Oaks City Councilwoman Linda Parks lashed out Thursday at the three councilmen who targeted her, charging that their actions were intended to hurt her bid next month for a seat on the Ventura County Board of Supervisors.

“It was an absolutely groundless attack with no basis other than the fact that they want to end my political career,” Parks said. “It’s because I’m very effective at what I do, which is working to keep urban sprawl out. I’m a slow-growther and they’re pro-development.”

Mayor Ed Masry agreed, saying that the council’s action was done to discredit her and that she should wear it “as a badge of honor.”

Despite vehement protests from dozens of Parks’ supporters, councilmen Dan Del Campo, Andy Fox and Dennis Gillette voted 3 to 2 Wednesday night to censure Parks and oust planning commissioners Michael Farris and Nora Aidukas while alleging they conspired to stall a controversial land-swap deal.

The council majority had accused the three of improperly trying to obstruct the deal with developers to keep Parks from having to take a stand on the issue until after the March 5 election. The council also voted Wednesday to ask the district attorney to investigate the commission for possible violations of the state’s open meetings law.

But Parks and her supporters charge that the council majority is trying to cover up the possibility that the complex land deal may not be valid without voter approval.

Under the proposal, a 191-acre swath of an area known as the Western Plateau would be preserved as open space. In exchange for the land, developers could build more expensive housing in place of 225 senior and affordable units in the Dos Vientos area.

Development at Heart of Dispute

The deal put Parks in a difficult position, the reason it was necessary that a council vote be delayed, according to her detractors.

If she voted for the deal, she might be accused of assisting developers, and if she opposed the plan, it could hurt her reputation as a protector of open space, they said.

But Parks had argued for weeks that, according to the city’s own maps, part of the land involved in the Western Plateau proposal is covered by a city ordinance that requires voter approval before it can be developed.

City lawyers and planning staff disagree, however, saying those land-use maps contained a printing error and that the correct maps would allow the city to strike a deal directly with developers.

Parks acknowledges that she addressed her concerns with Farris and Aidukas--which is permitted by law--and that she and Aidukas made photocopies of the maps together. But she says she spoke with commissioners individually and never pressured them to take any specific action.

Farris, Aidukas and Commissioner Claudia Bill-de la Pena each raised questions about the accuracy of the city’s maps during the commission’s meeting Monday night. They voted 3 to 2 to postpone action by a week to gather more information.

The action prompted City Council members to level accusations that Parks and the commissioners conspired to stall the deal. Convinced that the panel’s action was predetermined, a majority of the council called a special meeting Wednesday to censure Parks and to dismiss the two planning commissioners.

Parks said she will propose putting the plateau deal before city voters. If the council rejects her, land-use attorney Richard Francis, who drafted Ventura County’s slow-growth laws, has volunteered to take the matter to court.

The City Council is scheduled to vote on the deal Feb. 26, but first the Planning Commission must issue a recommendation.

Hoffman May Use Censure in Campaign

On Wednesday, the council voted to fill one of the vacancies on the planning panel with former Planning Commissioner Forrest Frields, Del Campo’s appointee. Parks suggested several replacements for Aidukas, her appointee, but none was approved.

Meanwhile, millionaire businessman Randy Hoffman, Parks’ opponent in the March 5 supervisorial race, said he supported the council’s actions Wednesday night and might well attack Parks in the final weeks of the campaign for being censured.

“Linda Parks continually is caught doing things that are suspect, that are in this case plain wrong, and her and her supporters attempt to point the finger at other people,” he said. “It’s ludicrous.”