Parks to Run for County Board

Declaring herself a people’s candidate who would closely guard Ventura County’s reputation for low crime and tight growth controls, Thousand Oaks Councilwoman Linda Parks announced her candidacy Wednesday for the Board of Supervisors.

Parks said her credentials as a slow-growth stalwart will appeal strongly to voters in the Thousand Oaks-based 2nd District, where Supervisor Frank Schillo is stepping down after eight years.

“What I stand for is listening to residents first and working to maintain their quality of life,” said Parks, 44. “My advocacy in that area has certainly given me recognition with people.”

Parks starts her campaign for the March election with the support of Hollywood director Rob Reiner, environmental activist Erin Brockovich and celebrity lawyer Ed Masry. The three are among 75 sponsors of an October fund-raiser to be held in Masry’s Westlake Village home, Parks said.

The candidate said she will not accept contributions over $500--as long as challengers agree to do the same. She also pledged to refuse money from developers or businesses that stand to profit from board decisions.

There are no laws restricting how much a county supervisor can raise in a political campaign. Parks said her voluntary limits should end speculation that Masry, who teamed with Parks last fall on a successful City Council campaign, will be bankrolling her supervisorial campaign. Masry set a city record by spending $185,000 to win his seat.

“I’m just looking at running my own campaign, getting my message out and letting the voters decide,” Parks said. “I’m not taking more than $500 from Ed Masry.”

Although Parks’ announcement had been expected for weeks, it renewed debate on who would emerge to challenge her for the wide-open seat.

Supervisors earn $85,000 and wield considerable power in setting county policy on such issues as public health care, welfare programs, flood control, roads and development.

But several presumed challengers to Parks’ candidacy have fallen away in recent weeks. Parks’ most formidable opponent, Assemblyman Tony Strickland, appears to be a long shot because new legislative districts unveiled Wednesday favor his ability to be reelected.

Still, there is much behind-the-scenes scrambling to come up with a candidate with enough name recognition and credibility to mount a challenge, said Herb Gooch, a Newbury Park political analyst and former campaign manager for Thousand Oaks Councilman Dennis Gillette.

“There are definitely people out there looking for someone to oppose Linda,” Gooch said. “But I don’t see anyone in the front ranks with name ID out there.”

Many in Thousand Oaks’ conservative establishment are eager to support an alternative to Parks, said Jere Robings, a Thousand Oaks taxpayer activist and campaign manager for Republican Assembly candidate Jeff Gorell.

Parks is a Republican, but some conservatives find her too hostile to business and uncaring about property rights, Robings said.

And they view with suspicion her decision to switch party registration from Democratic to Republican in 1996, a month before she faced her first Thousand Oaks City Council election.

“Parks is not a true dyed-in-blue Republican,” Robings said. “I think she put that mantle on to get elected.”

Parks said she is uncomfortable talking about party affiliation in a race that is nonpartisan. But she acknowledged she was a registered Democrat for 20 before switching parties five years ago.

She made the change, Parks said, to offer voters a moderate option in what she viewed as an increasingly right-wing Republican Party.

“The Republican Party needed me,” she said Wednesday.

She noted despite her environmental and slow-growth platform, she was the highest vote-getter in last fall’s City Council election. She credits that to Thousand Oaks’ strong desire, regardless of party, to manage growth wisely and preserve property values.

“The majority of people here are Republican, but the majority of people are in favor of slow-growth issues,” Parks said.

Halting runaway development will be one of her top priorities as supervisor, she said. As a council member, Parks, who holds a master’s degree in urban planning, said she put her foot down on projects that exceeded city building guidelines.

But she also voted to approve the popular Promenade at Westlake shopping center and other construction.

“I voted for 90% of the projects that have come through,” she said. “It’s those massive projects that I want to hold the line on.”

As supervisor, she would continue her firm opposition to build 3,050 homes on Ahmanson Ranch at the county’s eastern border. But it’s unclear what, if anything, Parks could do to stop the already approved project that is expected to break ground in 2003.

She supports the county’s attempts to halt construction of 21,600 homes east of Fillmore in Los Angeles County. The Newhall Ranch project was temporarily stalled by a Ventura County lawsuit over water rights but is now headed for a vote by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

County government needs to do a better job going after grant money to beef up the county’s treasury, Parks said, and to rein in wasteful spending.

Parks said health care, particularly for seniors, is another area she will focus upon. The nation’s rapidly graying population means that new and expanded services will be needed for elders, she said.

Parks was a Thousand Oaks planning commissioner before running for a council seat. She also serves the county’s Air Pollution Control District board and the Local Agency Formation Commission, which approves changes to city boundaries.

She played an integral role in Ventura County’s SOAR growth-control movement and is co-founder of the Ventura County Discovery Center, a nonprofit educational science center.

Parks has already received a nod from Supervisor Steve Bennett of Ventura, another slow-growth advocate.

The candidate is married to Al Parks, an electronics engineer. They moved from Woodland Hills to Thousand Oaks in 1988 to raise their four children.