“The main problem we have now is that has shrunk to $16-million,” due to the construction boom that is “building China into a super power, so here we have to pay more, it’s as simple as that.” Miller added that the “other problem is the question, the statement” regarding the Limoneira property. “We don’t have 40 acres yet... we have a lot of people telling us a lot of things about what’s happening, but we haven’t been offered to sign for the 40 acres. We were told even if we did make an agreement with Limoneira, the city would have to agree to it and the city would have to vote on it” due to the property being under SOAR mandates requiring voter approval for a land-use change.“We’ve got raging white water to get through to get a final solution,” although Miller said that “Everything I understand is that the district wants to keep east campus going and try to improve on it.”Enrollment is declining throughout the state, he noted, “but with some advertising and marketing we should be able to raise that.... The clock is ticking, the money is less and less.”Miller also addressed the state of Santa Paula politics. “You folks have your own political issues, have your own internal problems,” and the district can’t take sides on growth issues, he noted.Even if the new East Campus became a reality, “it would be a long way off to turning that first shovel of dirt,” and others, the high school district, Blanchard Community Library and the County of Ventura have all shown an interest in sharing any future facility. Miller said that people from Santa Paula have not contacted him about the issues, although he has met with Latino Town Hall and the Chamber of Commerce.Chamber members and directors in the audience asked Miller when such a meeting with the Chamber had occurred. “Isn’t this the Chamber?” asked Miller.
Larry Miller, VCCCD trustee, says SP has its own internal problems
December 16, 2005
Santa Paula News
Those attending the December Good Morning Santa Paula! were noticeably less than festive after a Ventura County Community College District trustee made remarks noting that the district does not want to become involved in area politics and that Santa Paula “has its own internal problems...” impacting the creation of a new VCCCD campus.
By Peggy KellySanta Paula TimesThose attending the December Good Morning Santa Paula! were noticeably less than festive after a Ventura County Community College District trustee made remarks noting that the district does not want to become involved in area politics and that Santa Paula “has its own internal problems...” impacting the creation of a new VCCCD campus. Trustee Larry Miller, whose district includes Santa Paula, made the remarks as the city weighs a lawsuit against the college district.Voters throughout Ventura County approved the $300-million-plus bond in 2002 for improvements at the Ventura, Oxnard and Moorpark campuses and to create several satellite facilities. Santa Paulans were told that, if the bond was successful, about $24 million would be used to build a new and enlarged East Campus in the city.During the campaign, then VCCCD Chancellor Philip Westin and Ventura College President Larry Calderon said that the district had secured six acres near the existing Dean Drive East Campus for the facility. The creation of an expanded campus was presented to the community as an economic engine offering job training that would draw employers to the river valley area. Voters approved the measure that placed an annual $20 tax per $100,000 of valuation on county property owners.After the election the deal on the donated land fell through, and the city matched the district up with Limoneira Co., which is planning on taking a development measure to voters in November or later. With the city’s encouragement, Limoneira agreed to donate 40 acres of East Area 1 property for a new campus. The Santa Paula Union High School District stepped in and said they needed land for a second campus to relieve overcrowding, and offered to partner on the property, a partnership rejected by the VCCCD.But additional Limoneira land has become available for such use, the focus of a joint meeting between the city and the area school districts, who agreed to partner on educational uses that includes VCCCD.Miller said at GMSP! that the original $24-million bond allotment was to “build and improve the East Campus center,” and that the “tentative offer for 40 acres from Limoneira is to build this east campus, not a college.” Miller noted that during the bond campaign, “unfortunately, some administrators talked more than should have,” by promising a Santa Paula college campus.
