Parks, Hoffman Battle for Title of Nature’s Guardian

In the leafy affluence that is Thousand Oaks, a political candidate needs to remember one thing: Always embrace the environment by protecting the oak trees, ridgelines and open spaces that distinguish this city.

Councilwoman Linda Parks was weaned on that truism; her rival in the supervisorial race, Randy Hoffman, is learning it fast.

The activist politician and the millionaire businessman want to replace retiring Frank Schillo as the Ventura County supervisor representing Thousand Oaks. Each claims to be best qualified to keep the county’s farmlands and open spaces from being paved over.

The 45-year-old Parks has made a name for herself in a strident debate over growth that has marked City Council politics for more than a decade. And she says her long record of preserving Thousand Oaks’ natural environment should assure voters she’s a guardian they can count on.

“I’m the real thing and I have the track record to prove it,” Parks said. “It’s like he’s putting on a wig and trying to say he’s Linda Parks. He has nothing to base his claims on.”

But Hoffman thinks his support of the county’s popular anti-sprawl SOAR initiatives should be considered, along with his ability to work with people of all stripes, including those with whom he disagrees. The 48-year entrepreneur thinks his leadership style sets him apart from Parks.

“She’s an attacker and she’s a divider,” he said. “I am somebody who builds consensus, who is responsible and who hammers out solutions. In the world today, the ‘my-way-or-the-highway’ approach that Linda Parks uses doesn’t work.”

The March 5 primary will decide who represents a district that includes Oak Park, portions of Westlake Village and the coastal areas north of Malibu. But most of its voters reside in Thousand Oaks, and that city’s brass-knuckle politics are factoring heavily in the race.

To understand where the battle lines are drawn, one need look no further than the candidates’ supporters.

Both are Republican, but Hoffman is getting more money and endorsements from business leaders, law enforcement and conservative Republican groups. Residents who favor slow growth but are turned off by what they perceive as Parks’ “NIMBY” tactics are also expected to back Hoffman.

Developer David H. Murdock is Hoffman’s biggest contributor, giving $91,000 to his campaign so far. Murdock has said he is backing Hoffman because he would be more hospitable to business than his opponent.

Sizable donations by other area business owners have fattened Hoffman’s campaign treasury. He has raised $380,000, compared with $106,000 for Parks, who is limiting donations to $500 per individual. Parks, meanwhile, is backed by a network of slow-growth advocates who believe that the city bows to business too much while ignoring the concerns of residents. They say they can trust Parks to hold the line on their top concern--urban sprawl--even in the face of intense pressure.

Devoted to their candidate, many of Parks’ volunteers commit enormous time and energy helping her win elections. In her last City Council race, Parks led a field of seven, tallying the highest number of votes ever for a municipal candidate.

The councilwoman, who switched her party registration from Democrat to Republican before her first election six years ago, is also backed by environmental groups and several Democratic politicians and activists, including Hollywood director Rob Reiner.

The heated divisions on display at the City Council’s “Tuesday Night Fights” have spilled over into the supervisor’s race. In recent weeks, both camps have traded accusations of secret deals and influence-peddling.

Parks’ supporters accuse Murdock of backing Hoffman so the developer can push through more housing in bucolic Hidden Valley. Hoffman has called the charge ridiculous and Murdock has dismissed it.

Murdock in turn has all but called Parks a hypocrite, insisting that she asked for his financial support last year. Parks flatly denies that.

And 20 days before the election, a majority of Thousand Oaks City Council members voted to censure Parks for allegedly arranging for the city Planning Commission to delay a vote on a politically sensitive development deal, a charge Parks denies. The split council also voted to refer the matter to the district attorney’s office for possible violations of the state’s public meeting laws and booted two planning commissioners off the panel.

Parks’ supporters say the council majority--Dennis Gillette, Dan Del Campo and Andy Fox--favors Hoffman and is using the censure to sully Parks’ reputation. The councilmen dismiss those charges as untrue, and Hoffman denies he was involved with the censure decision.

Parks says her opponents are slinging mud because they fear her. She has built her slow-growth reputation by consistently voting against major development projects, usually arguing that the city wanted to give away too much money and other concessions.

She prides herself on her watchdog nature, and--with a master’s degree in urban planning--her ability to digest complex land-use issues.

The daughter of a San Fernando Valley voice actor and a homemaker, she emerged in local politics shortly after moving from Woodland Hills to Thousand Oaks in 1989. Her first target was the 3,050-home Ahmanson Ranch development planned for the county’s eastern edge.

Although the development was approved by the Board of Supervisors in 1993, its construction has been delayed by lawsuits, and opponents are again sharpening knives to see it defeated. Parks has pledged to continue battling the planned mini-city if she is elected.

Parks served as a planning commissioner prior to being elected to the City Council in 1996. She was reelected to a second term in 2000, when her closest ally, lawyer Ed Masry, was also elected.

The two have tangled repeatedly with the council majority and have accused the city’s staff of giving them biased information on projects. Homeowners who believe their voices are not being heard have applauded the two as champions of the underdog.

But others see their tactics as obstructive, with no real purpose other than to generate headlines.

At the county level, Parks said she would continue efforts to permanently preserve open space and to hold the line on sprawl.

Her other priorities would be keeping funding levels for the county’s public safety departments intact, steering more dollars toward services for the elderly and pushing for a new private hospital in the east end of the Conejo Valley.

She’d also be a fiscal hawk, Parks said.

“I voted against the [Thousand Oaks city] budget one year because it included $17 million to study a golf course in Hill Canyon, and I felt that was a waste of money,” she said.

For his part, Hoffman says politics is something he has considered since grade school.

Growing up in a household dominated by an abusive, alcoholic stepfather motivated him to set a different course, Hoffman said. He worked several jobs while growing up in Orange County and earned scholarships to attend USC and, later, Harvard business school before launching a corporate career.

In 1987, he co-founded Magellan Systems, a company that manufactures satellite tracking devices used in cars and military equipment. After the company grew from five employees to 500 in a decade, Hoffman sold his stake and ran for Congress in 1998.

He lost to Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) but notes that he tallied more votes than the incumbent in the Ventura County portion of the 24th District. He decided to run for county supervisor, he says, because his years in business, and the fortune he made, have given him the skills and the means to give back to society.

“I’m my own person,” he said. “I know where I came from. I know what I have done. I am fortunate that I am able to run for public office and give back and maintain my independence.”

As supervisor, he would use his business background to toughen financial accountability among county departments, Hoffman said. That means calling managers before the Board of Supervisors each quarter to report on whether they are staying on budget, he said.

He said he’d also protect the budgets of the sheriff and district attorney to make sure the county’s reputation for low crime continues.

Opponents have attacked Hoffman’s business savvy in recent days amid revelations that one of his business ventures is in financial trouble, leaving a trail of debts. Critics also accuse Hoffman of paying lip service to growth control because it would be political suicide to do otherwise.

If he really meant what he says, opponents say, he would not accept contributions from developers. Hoffman dismisses that notion as misguided.

“When I worked at Magellan, I made a decision to drive 65 miles a day to San Dimas because my wife and I loved the Thousand Oaks area,” he said. “It is where we are raising our kids. Why would I want to change what drew us here in the first place?”

Last week, Hoffman was praised by Reiner and other Ahmanson Ranch opponents when he called on the Board of Supervisors to order a new environmental analysis of the project, saying previous studies are outdated.

“Rob Reiner and Chris Albrecht, the leaders of [Ahmanson opposition group] Rally for the Ranch, know me and recognize my sincere and total opposition to Ahmanson Ranch,” Hoffman said. “As a resident of the Conejo Valley, you would have to be insane to want to put another 50,000 car trips on the 101 Freeway.”

Hoffman is backed by many in the district’s Republican establishment who view Parks as a liberal environmentalist who took on the Republican mantle to get elected in the conservative district.

Schillo said he is endorsing Hoffman to replace him because the businessman hews closer to the party’s core conservative principles.

“This district is concerned about where their tax dollars go,” Schillo said. “They don’t expect environmental services from the county of Ventura.”

Parks challenged the notion that she is out of step with a majority of the district’s voters, whom she described as environmental-leaning Republicans.

“The majority of people here are Republicans, but the majority are in favor of slow-growth,” she said. “It’s not an oxymoron.”

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RANDY HOFFMAN

Age: 48

Occupation: Businessman

Education: Bachelor’s degree in business administration from USC; master’s in business administration from Harvard; certified public accountant.

Background: Started his career at Bausch & Lomb Inc., serving as controller. In 1987, he co-founded Magellan Systems, producing hand-held satellite tracking devices. He sold his stake in the company a decade later and ran unsuccessfully for Congress. Hoffman serves on the boards of several Internet start-ups and volunteers at the East Ventura County YMCA and Kid Safe. He was Gov. Pete Wilson’s appointee to a domestic-violence advisory council. He lives in Thousand Oaks with his wife and four children, ages 5 to 12.

Campaign: Hoffman has raised $380,000, backed mainly by the county’s GOP establishment and business elite. Businessman and developer David H. Murdock has contributed $91,000. Hoffman is relying heavily on cable television ads and several mailings to reach voters. He is endorsed by Supervisor Frank Schillo, county firefighters and sheriff’s deputies and many current and former public officials.

Quote: “My opponent’s classic style is, ‘My way or the highway. If you don’t agree with me on this issue, I’m going to stop talking to you.’ That’s really where the big difference is between us.”

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LINDA PARKS

Age: 45

Occupation: Thousand Oaks City Councilwoman

Education: Bachelor’s degree in political science from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo; master’s in urban planning from the University of Washington.

Background: Worked as a transportation planner in the 1980s. She began her public life as a slow-growth activist, opposing the 3,050-home Ahmanson Ranch development. She served on the Thousand Oaks Planning Commission and is in her second term on the City Council. She was mayor in 1998-99. She also has served on the Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency, Ventura County Air Pollution Control Board, Local Agency Formation Commission and the Conejo Valley Hospital Task Force. Her volunteer activities include founding the Ventura County Discovery Center and service with SOAR Inc., an open-space advocacy group. Parks lives in Thousand Oaks with her husband and four children, ages 11 to 17.

Campaign: Voluntarily limiting donations to $500 per individual, Parks has raised $106,000. She is endorsed by environmental groups, activists opposed to Ahmanson Ranch, several county public officials and the Service Employees International Union.

Quote: “Can you trust somebody who is being funded by developers? Can you really trust him when he says that he’s for slow growth and protecting open space and ridgelines?”