ELECTIONS / EAST COUNTY RACES : Simi Valley Voters Reject Wal-Mart Proposal to Construct Hillside Store : In Oak Park, two sets of incumbents win seats to the Municipal Advisory Council and school board. In Moorpark, Gary Cabriales easily wins education seat.

Simi Valley voters have rejected the idea of building a Wal-Mart on an undeveloped hillside, and city officials said Wednesday they will abide by the outcome of Tuesday’s ballot showdown.

They have no plans to break ground on the pristine land until a developer comes forward to build a mall on a neighboring site, officials said.

Although the Simi Valley City Council still has the power to give Wal-Mart permission to proceed with the project, all council members said they will abide by the will of the voters.

“The council made the decision to let the voters decide and we will stick by that decision,” said Mayor Greg Stratton, who opposed building the Wal-Mart store.

Councilwoman Sandi Webb, who backed the Measure V proposal to construct a Wal-Mart, agreed. “We put it on the ballot and I can’t see us turning around and changing the outcome,” she said.

By rejecting Measure V, residents upheld a hillside protection ordinance that allows for construction of Wal-Mart-type stores in the undeveloped hillside area but specifically states that a regional mall must be built first.

In recent years, no developers have expressed interest in building a mall in Simi Valley.

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In other east county elections, Gary Cabriales handily defeated two opponents in a contentious battle for a one-year term on the Moorpark school board.

And in Oak Park, school board incumbents Wayne Blasman and Robert Kahn and newcomer Jeri Fox were victorious, as were Municipal Advisory Council incumbents Kent Behringer and Ronald Stark and newcomer J. Paul Fredericks.

In Simi Valley, the defeat of the Wal-Mart measure became clear early Wednesday as unofficial vote counts from the city’s 31 precincts were tallied.

About 54% of the voters said no to Measure V, which would have allowed construction of a Wal-Mart on the hillside east of the Radisson Hotel. Nearly 46% of the voters favored the project.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Jane Arend said corporate executives were disappointed with Measure V’s defeat, which came despite a $140,000 campaign funded by the nation’s largest discount retailer.

But Arend said Wal-Mart has not ruled out Simi Valley as a site for a future store.

“We are reviewing our options and are looking at alternate locations for a Wal-Mart in Simi Valley,” Arend said.

Arend would not specify what sites the company is considering and would not say when Wal-Mart plans to approach the city with another proposal.

City Planner Laura Kuhn said the City Council still has the power to allow the Wal-Mart development, but city officials agreed that with the measure’s defeat, such an action by the council is unlikely.

“You can betcha that I’m not going to go up against the voters,” said Councilman Bill Davis, who opposed the measure. “The margin of defeat has made it pretty clear. The people don’t want a Wal-Mart.”

Wal-Mart paid the city a $42,000 deposit to fund a special election asking voters to make an exception to the city’s plan. The corporate giant spent an additional $100,000 on a campaign consultant, mailers and signs.

Calling themselves the Coalition to Save the Environment, Jobs and Business, foes of the Wal-Mart proposal operated on a shoestring $5,000 budget, which they spent on signs and mailers.

Coalition leader Steve Frank said the “No on V” campaign triumphed because it united a wide array of groups whose reasons for opposing the project varied, but whose ultimate goal was the same--the demise of the measure.

“We had people who wanted to save the hillside entirely, people who wanted a mall before a Wal-Mart, and people who were opposed to a Wal-Mart, period,” Frank said. “There were so many different kinds of people who were opposed to the project that it just built its own momentum.”

Wal-Mart consultant John Davies blamed his measure’s defeat on the wording of the measure, which he said was confusing, and on “people’s inclination to more readily vote ‘no’ than ‘yes’ to change.”

Indeed in Moorpark, faced with an open seat on its school board, voters chose the candidate who promised to smooth ruffled feathers and maintain the current order of district operations.

Gary Cabriales, who was endorsed by the teachers union, promised to resolve years of squabbling over development of a downtown park and bring an end to stormy negotiations over a teachers’ contract.

Cabriales attributed his victory over Helen Taylor and Ted Green to the community’s overall satisfaction with the school district.

“The thing I heard loud and clear from people in the community was that they felt that the schools were doing a good job,” Cabriales said. “We want to make them better by working on the inside, not tearing down the walls.”

Similarly, Oak Park voters retained two school board incumbents--board President Wayne Blasman and Robert Kahn--while Jeri Fox won the seat left vacant by the retirement of board member Pat Kavulic.

All three winners said they believed their mandate is to continue the policies of the present board.

Topping the list of priorities for the new board, they agreed, is handling continued decreases in state revenue and upcoming contract negotiations with teachers, and fostering continued excellence in the district’s academic programs.

“We want to continue to move forward in making education accountable in Oak Park,” Blasman said.

Despite the lack of controversy in Oak Park, criticism of the school board apparently came into play in the election of three people for the Oak Park Municipal Advisory Council. While incumbents Kent Behringer and Ronald Stark retained their seats, incumbent Barbara Bronson Gray, an outspoken critic of the school board, was running behind J. Paul Fredericks by a margin of 55 votes.

But with 13,000 absentee ballots yet to be tallied countywide, Fredericks declined to declare victory.

“When I went to bed, Barbara was ahead,” Fredericks said, “and when I got up this morning, it was switched. I wish it was over. I’m just not convinced.”

Times correspondents Robin Greene and Jim Maiella contributed to this report.