A Developer and the Environment

David Murdock’s claim that he is an environmentalist is absurd. And his promise to keep agricultural land in farming should be viewed with suspicion.

In Hawaii, he paved over pineapple fields for luxury resorts. He promised not to use the island’s limited fresh water on his golf courses. He broke his promise. In 1994, he illegally blocked public access to a public trail on the island.

Murdock’s funneling of thousands of dollars to Randy Hoffman’s and Judy Mikels’ campaigns is reason for alarm. Murdock doesn’t care about the public or the environment. It is likely that his candidates don’t either.

Jeff Mikulina

Director, Sierra Club,

Hawaii Chapter

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Ventura County is on the auction block! Supervisorial District 2 and District 4 are now bearing price tags, courtesy of developer David Murdock.

Murdock claims that he is only interested in creating a “good business climate” in Ventura County and cites Orange County as having less bureaucratic hurdles. It might have less hurdles, but it also has a great deal more concrete, thanks to rampant, unbridled development. Murdock should know that the vast majority of county residents don’t want to emulate Orange County. We would rather remain a green county instead of an Orange County/Los Angeles monolithic look-alike with every city running together in one continuous traffic tie-up.

In that sense, Murdock and one of the chosen recipients of his “generosity,” Judy Mikels, are both out of step with Ventura County. She stated that SOAR was not an issue in her district, yet Simi Valley passed the initiative with the highest percentage of any area in the county.

We think that the wealthy few can gain disproportionate access and influence, and therefore power, which adversely affects the interests of society as a whole. By “buying” access and influence via Randy Hoffman and Mikels (40% of the Board of Supervisors), Murdock is blatantly identifying what direction he wants this county to travel and what politicians he expects to help him to achieve that goal. A strong hint of that direction was shown at a recent Hidden Valley residents’ meeting.

Murdock requested that they not vote on cityhood until after the supervisorial election. Is this to ensure that the county political climate will be receptive to the Murdock-desired “business” climate?

It is no small coincidence that Murdock sought the assistance of Supervisor Mikels (not his district, not his supervisor) when he wanted an intervention with Ventura County planning on one of his personal projects.

She is well known for being receptive to out-of-county development and business campaign contributions. At least the public has now been given fair warning as to what we are letting ourselves in for if both Mikels and Hoffman are elected.

It is interesting to note that the companion to large, highly suspect influence-buying donations, namely, mudslinging, has apparently begun.

First, one has Hoffman and Murdock’s charge that Linda Parks solicited Murdock for donations to her supervisor campaign. Now, with convenient timing, three members of the Thousand Oaks City Council are speaking darkly of a conspiracy, a political plot and bogus violations of the Brown Act affecting the Western Plateau “deal.”

Anyone who has known Parks for any length of time is not going to believe these accusations for a country second. But considering what is at stake, the surfacing of these plain untruths is not surprising.

Let’s vote for supervisors who are not for sale and who will give more than lip service to maintaining the unique qualities and integrity of this beautiful agricultural county. That will be Parks in District 2 and John Lane in District 4.

John and Barbara Kerkhoff

Somis