Ex-D.A. Makes Case for $5-Million Donor

Former Ventura County Dist. Atty. Michael Bradbury is on a mission.

The former prosecutor is searching for a corporation or an individual willing to donate $5 million to put their name on a long-planned science museum in Thousand Oaks.

“The unknown factor here is how soon the economy will see an upturn -- that’s really what we need before we can go back and approach the folks we think may be willing to make that lead donation,” said Bradbury, president and chief executive of the Discovery Center for Science and Technology. The veteran attorney retired last fall as the county’s top prosecutor and is now in private practice in Westlake Village.

After more than eight years of planning, the center’s board of directors decided last fall to scale back earlier plans to build a $70-million, 110,000-square-foot complex next to the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza.

Instead, a more modest $25-million building is envisioned on 1.5 acres. Supporters also hope to create a $5-million reserve fund to establish an endowment to benefit the center’s operations.

“It was certainly an extraordinary vision and very laudable goal, but probably not a very practical one,” Bradbury said. “We had always gotten lots of positive reaction to our plan by corporations. They just didn’t feel it was realistic in terms of its grand scale.”

The 70,000-square-foot children’s science center would be built next to a $14.4-million retail and entertainment complex planned on 7.5 acres east of City Hall. The Discovery Center project aims to create a regional attraction and a downtown of sorts for the east county’s largest city.

“It’s not a step backward, in that we went from a $70-million plan to a $30-million plan; it’s a step forward to say, ‘This is achievable and we’re going to get started on this,’ ” said board member Susan Bray. “By no means are we planning to scale down the quality of the center. We just want to make the goal more achievable.”

Organizers still plan five main exhibit areas at the center: space exploration, energy and environment, health and biotechnology, communications and how things work. It would have 5,000 square feet for touring exhibits and special events. In addition, the California NanoSystems Institute, a project coordinated by UC Santa Barbara and UCLA, would have exhibits explaining its scientific research on the atomic level.

While designed as a place where children can learn -- and develop an interest in -- science, the center also would offer internships for older students and opportunities for college-level courses. It would become a site for major technology lectures.

Plans for a large-screen theater remain part of the scaled-down center, though the board hasn’t determined whether it would be of Imax quality. Such venues are known to feature 90-foot-tall screens and show mostly documentaries, but also Hollywood hits such as “The Matrix Reloaded.”

The key to jump-starting the Discovery Center is locating the first major contributor. About $2 million in cash has been raised through the years, but once a donor of $5 million or more signs on, the board believes it will be easier to secure other substantial contributions -- from $1 million to $3 million. The plan is for a third of the project to be paid by corporations, a third by individual donors and the rest through local, state and federal government sources.

Board member Wayne Davey, a Rockwell Scientific vice president and chief financial officer, said a professional fund-raiser on staff was let go at the first of the year in a cost-cutting move. The center’s other employees moved into unused space at Rockwell’s building in Thousand Oaks at the same time.

“A lot of not-for-profits are struggling with their fund-raising campaigns these days,” said Davey, adding that a lead donor could surface in the next year. “I’m very confident that we’ll come up with someone or a company sooner rather than later.”

Bradbury plans to have dozens of government and business leaders on hand to discuss the latest version of the Discovery Center plan during a $100-a-seat symposium this evening at Rockwell. The event, which is to conclude with a barbecue dinner, will feature presentations by Rockwell’s chief technologist, a USC professor and the executive director of Boeing Digital Cinema.