Measure H election sullied

By John Loesing
Acorn Staff Writer



JOHN LOESING/The Acorn      CAMPAIGN IRREGULARITIES-This anti-Measure H sign was seen at the top of the Canwood Street ramp on the Kanan Road interchange. City laws prohibit campaign signs on public property.

JOHN LOESING/The Acorn CAMPAIGN IRREGULARITIES-This anti-Measure H sign was seen at the top of the Canwood Street ramp on the Kanan Road interchange. City laws prohibit campaign signs on public property.

By John Loesing

Acorn Staff Writer




The Measure H big box referendum last week in Agoura Hills turned into a pitch battle during the final days of the campaign, leaving members of both camps with a strong reminder of just how nasty local politics can be.


Aimed at quashing a proposed Home Depot on Agoura Road, the referendum passed by a scant 107 votes, 51 percent to 49 percent. Retail stores greater than 60,000 feet are now prohibited in the city.


Because it was close—and tainted by alleged dirty tricks—the election failed to produce any type of mandate, said Westlake Village-based developer Dan Selleck.


He said he would explore his options and "take a fresh look" at his plans for an Agoura Road shopping center, despite the loss of his proposed anchor tenant.


"It’s a good site. It’s on the freeway, it’s a redevelopment area and we still want to clean up the blight," Selleck said. "I’m still going to try to go forward."


Selleck said he was irreparably harmed by a Feb. 11 Los Angeles Times article that accused the city of making an under-the-table agreement with Home Depot before the project came under public review. The Times later retracted the article.


Measure H backers—those opposed to Home Depot—reportedly tried to videotape city councilmem-bers in a clandestine meeting with Home Depot supporters, but no such a meeting was ever held.


The attempted videotaping raised the ire of Measure H opponents.


In addition, several campaign signs opposing the referendum reportedly were stolen from private property.


Al Abrams, director of the pro-Measure H Citizens for Responsible Growth, dismissed that allegation.


"There is nobody in my group of 500 people who would do that," Abrams said. "We don’t go there."


Jim Iwanoff, an Agoura Hills chiropractor, said the group opposed to Measure H is to blame.


Iwanoff said Taxpayers Opposing Special Treatment used his name without permission on a flier containing the names of residents supposedly against Measure H. Other residents lodged the same complaint.


"The thing I don’t like is that they arbitrarily think I’m ‘no’ on H when I gave no endorsement to that effect," said Iwanoff, who filed a complaint with the state’s Fair Political Practices Committee.


"The damage has been done," he said.


The most serious confrontation occurred when two female canvassers went to the Agoura Meadows Shopping Center four days before the election seeking support for Measure H.


The shopping center owner tried to have the two women arrested.


"The property owner objected to the presence of those who were passing out leaflets or brochures in support of one side of the measure and the deputies were called to essentially have them removed from the property," said Lt. Pat Hunter of Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station.


"I believe that the individuals that were there left on their own," Hunter said.


Federal law says shopping centers are public places and individuals who wish to exercise free speech can do so—as long as they don’t interfere with business, according to Hunter.


"The volunteers were protected by the First Amendment and the Pruneyard legal decision which allows citizens to hand out literature and talk to people on shopping center private property about upcoming elections," Abrams said.


"One of our ladies had to go home to bed since she was so upset by the confrontation with the deputies who were threatening them with arrest."


Prior to the election, both sides of the campaign were accused of issuing false information during telemarketing calls.


"There was tremendous amount of rhetoric on both sides and I hope that people were smart enough to discount some of the wild claims in both directions and understand what the heart of the issue was," said Howard Littman, one of the authors of Measure H.


Measure H proponents also accused the city council of deliberating canceling its Feb. 27 meeting—the last before the election—to keep critics of the referendum off the air during a televised replay.


Jack Koenig, a former mayor, said these types of antics have been seen before in Agoura Hills, but under different circumstances.


"It’s par for the course for a recall, but not for a proposition," Keonig said. "Recalls are more personal. The problem with this thing is that you had some special interests and people whose livelihoods were involved and who really threw a lot of money in."


Total spending by the two sides was about $300,000.


Littman hopes the wounds will heal now that the election is over.


"We needed something to start the ball rolling to preserve the smaller town character, or what’s left of it anyway, and I would hope the city council would now take that as a signal to start looking at some other things they can do," Littman said.




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