ON THE ISSUESTIM McCarthy speaks at a candidate forum May 11 at the Lundring Events Center, Thousand Oaks campus of Cal Lutheran University. MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspapers
The election day (June 7) is fast approaching and the three Ventura County Supervisor candidates traded jabs last Wednesday while discussing the economy, housing, and homelessness.
Claudia Bill-de la Pea and Jeff Gorell, District 2 Supervisorial Candidates, answered a series of questions by Acorn Newspapers editors at an Acorn Newspapers forum hosted by Cal Lutheran University’s Greater Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce on May 11.
Only two of them will make it to fall general election.
Bill-de la Pea was a long-serving Thousand Oaks City Council member. She was on the offensive most evening, accusing her opponents of choosing Big Oil over the environment, and opposing measures A-B on the ballot.
McCarthy, who owns a local security firm, said that he voted against the measures because he doesn’t want any more bureaucracy in an already overregulated industry at a difficult time.
Claudia Bill-de la Pea answers a question at CLU’s May 11 forum. Jeff Gorell, Tim McCarthy, and Bill-de la Pea are all vying for the position of Thousand Oaks, Oak Park, Newbury Park, Oak Park, and a portion of Camarillo on Ventura County Board of Supervisors. MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspapers
McCarthy spoke of A and B by adding restrictions to allow the Board of Supervisorsanyone of us threeto sit there arbitrarily and say, no, not want to do that. As we all know, energy independence is vital. We need to increase production, hire more people and produce more oil.
Gorell, a former Assembly Member and Ventura County Prosecutor, had a similar mindset.
He said that there is a lot of regulation, oversight, and scientific evaluation of continuing conditional use permits for oil in this community. What A and B would do is to take this process from the worlds of natural science and put it in the worlds of political science.
Bill-de-la Pea replied by saying that she was uncomfortable leaving oversight to the state.
Look at what happened to Santa Susana Field Lab, where oversight was left to the state. She said that local control is essential, as we are the ones who care. If the oil industry invests $7 million in defeating a referendum to protect our health and groundwater, it is a sure sign that something is wrong.
Bill-de la Pea said that her opponents are supported also by people who want the repeal of SOAR (Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources), which is the county’s long-standing open-space law. This law was recently extended to all counties by voters.
She said that it is not impossible to build anything, but you must put it on the ballot to get voter approval.
McCarthy and Gorell reacted angrily to the suggestion that they were against SOAR.
I’m not a fan going into open spaces (for housing developments). . . . McCarthy said that’s one reason I moved to Ventura County and Thousand Oaks. I think we need to be smart about how and what we do.
Following the May 11 forum in CLUs Lundring Events Center Jeff Gorell speaks to audience members. MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspapers
Gorell stated that Bill-de la Pea’s talk about losing open space was fearmongering.
Conejo Open Space Conservation Agency has preserved 15,000 acres and they won’t be going anywhere. He said that those acres are protected for life. The agricultural community is the other open space we are referring to. . . I want to work with the ag sector to ensure they succeed. We can only keep our open spaces open if they succeed.
Gorell came in somewhere in the middle when asked about the county’s handling of the COVID pandemic.
He said that we can all agree that there was significant government overreach retrospectively. I think that some of our public officials in health tried to follow the example of other state officials, because they didn’t want to be left behind and make the wrong decisions.
He disagreed with Bill-de la Pea. He argued that the hands of the county were tied because of state mandates, and that supervisors follow orders from the governor.
She said that if my opponents have a problem with how everything happened, they should be running for governor.
Gorell stated that it was not constitutionally correct to suggest that supervisors receive orders from Sacramento.
They are elected individually, he stated.
McCarthy stated that he would not have closed down any business or mandated masks.
He said that I would have shared the information to make sure that vulnerable populations and people more likely than others to get sick are aware that they have the right to stay home if there’s a danger.
McCarthy and I were asked our views on the current water crisis and what the county could do to address it. McCarthy stated that we should not wait for others to tell them what to do. We should take a leadership position and be energy producers and water producers. Let’s make our own future.
The 10% difference between residential and commercial water use is only 10%. Therefore, cutting down by half is only about 5% and doesn’t make a dent in the water bill.
Bill-de la Pea disagreed.
She suggested that we should do a real public education outreach and ask residents for a reduction in lawn size or to get rid of their front lawns.
All three mentioned the need of more desalination plant, with Gorell calling them “the opportunity of the future”.
Candidates were invited to give their final words to close the event.
McCarthy reminded the audience that he is not a career politician, but a public servant who represents the common people, unlike the other candidates.
Gorell invoked Ronald Reagan circa 1980 and asked the audience to assess the city today in terms of homelessness and public safety. Then, compare it to 20 year ago when Bill-de-la Pea was in office.
Bill-de la Pea replied by touting her record in defending the environment, slow growth, and then challenging Gorells record. He suggested that he was running for office because he needed work after he lost his job as deputy mayor for the City of Los Angeles.
Go to go! Here.
