ELECTIONS / SIMI VALLEY CITY COUNCIL : Contenders Measuring Support for Fall Contest

While candidates for June’s state and county elections are busy raising dollars and grabbing headlines, at least half a dozen contenders for the Simi Valley City Council are quietly gauging support for the local race, still 10 months away.

Gearing up to compete in November for the seats held by Councilwomen Judy Mikels and Sandi Webb, the potential challengers are shaping platforms on issues ranging from trash to development of a long-sought regional mall.

In a city that prides itself on tranquillity, most of the contenders praised the current council, saying they plan no major departures from its course.

“I think the city is well-run and I’d like to continue that,” said Larry B. Dennert, who owns a local garage door business. “It just helps to have some new blood every once in awhile.”

Dennert, 45, who lost a 1992 council bid, said his decision whether to run in November may depend on the impact that June’s countywide elections have on city government.

Councilwoman Barbara Williamson, 48, in the middle of a four-year term, has said she might seek Supervisor Vicky Howard’s seat. If Williamson decides to run and is elected to the Board of Supervisors, her council seat would be up for grabs.

Also, Mayor Greg Stratton, 47, whose third term ends in November, has said he will announce later this month whether he plans to run for county auditor against incumbent Thomas Mahon.

Although Stratton’s election to county office would open up the mayor’s position, only one potential candidate, Councilman Bill Davis, has said he would seek the seat.

Davis, 66, a retired electronic repair shop owner who has served on the council for seven years, said he will run for mayor only if Stratton does not seek reelection for the post.

Bob Larkin, chairman of the Ventura County Republican Central Committee, said background and political experience will be as important as the issues in the November council race.

“I don’t think there are any issues that are really going to jump out,” Larkin said. “Barring some scandal in the next 10 months, it’s going to come down to strong candidates with solid backgrounds.”

Along with Dennert, who is president of the Simi Valley Athletic Assn., potential council candidates include two board members of the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District, Bonnie Carpenter, librarian for the city’s school district, and Debi Schultze, 37, a mortgage loan processor.

Also pondering runs are Chamber of Commerce President Michael S. McCaffrey, 34, who runs an insurance and investment business, insurance salesman Dean Kunicki, and attorney Tim Hodge, 37, a member of Citizens for a Safe and Scenic Simi Valley, which has criticized city developments.

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Incumbent Webb, 44, said she intends to seek reelection and will focus her campaign on luring a regional mall and building support for a new police station.

Mikels, 48, said she also will seek reelection if her husband, whose company has moved to Tucson, finds another job in Simi Valley.

Challengers might have a hard time persuading voters to oust Mikels and Webb if voter sentiment from the 1992 elections carries over to November.

In 1992, voters cast more ballots than in any other city election in Simi Valley history, retaining incumbents Stratton and Davis.

And voters chose Williamson, an outspoken booster of the city and its policies, from a field of 12 newcomers to fill an open seat.

“The big issue in 1992 was how badly the city was doing, but the public said, ‘No, they’re doing a good job,’ ” Stratton said. “Outsiders who want to get in have to figure out if somebody is doing something wrong, and then the burden is on them to prove it to the public.”

Among the possible challengers, Hodge, who lost a council bid in 1992, is the most critical of the current council.

Hodge has questioned the way the city spends its Redevelopment Agency funds. Instead of offering cash incentives to lure large discount stores such as Costco, Hodge said the city should spread the money around, shifting a large chunk of it to schools.

He also criticized the city’s plan to subsidize the planned Cultural Arts Center by providing $100,000 a year. Hodge said the center should be funded with private dollars.

“If there’s a theme to my concerns, it’s that I think government should be brought back to the basics, providing roads, a police force and schools,” Hodge said. “After the needs are met, then we can take a look at the wants.”

While more supportive of the current council, Schultze said she would like to see the city spend more of its resources on low-income housing.

“There is a real need out there,” Schultze said. “I think we could do better to bring in developers who might be interested in building affordable housing here.”

Schultze also said she would like to get the city more actively involved in trash issues by seeking creative ways to dispose of trash.

“It’s ridiculous that we’ve been able to put men on the moon but we’re still filling beautiful canyons with trash,” Schultze said.

Kunicki, 49, who serves on the city’s Planning Commission, said he will use his planning experience to help lure developers to the city and the hillside where the city is hoping to build a mall.

“We always need to work on expanding the local business community with clean, non-polluting industry,” Kunicki said. “It brings in dollars and cuts down on the commute.”

Carpenter and McCaffrey said they are still deciding which issues they would focus on if they decide to run.

“Right now I’m still trying to figure out if I would have enough time to do a good job,” McCaffrey said. “It’s a major commitment for someone who has a family and a job.”

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Stratton, who works full time as a computer software engineer and spends more than 40 hours a week on council business, cautioned potential candidates not to underestimate the amount of time that serving on the council involves.

“Somebody who’s never seen the three attachments and thousand pages of history and endless (environmental impact reports) is in for a big surprise,” Stratton said. “There’s tremendous piles of stuff, and that’s before you’ve even set foot in the community.”