BOARD REJECTS INPUT FROM GLOBAL GREEN; SUPERVISORS SEEK LOCAL EFFORTS.Byline: David Greenberg The creator of this article, or someone who has substantially contributed to it, may have a conflict of interest regarding its subject matter. It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies, particularly neutral point of view. Daily News Staff Writer Choosing to keep growth-control measures localized, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday rejected an implementation committee's recommendation to allow input from an environmental group founded by former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. Supervisors in the 3-2 vote also tabled for two weeks the SOAR and Measure A Committee's status report, instructing planning staff See: central planning team. to clarify plans and time lines for creation and public education of a greenbelt and open space conservation programs. ``This has to come from homegrown, grass-roots . . . folks,'' said Supervisor Kathy Long, before voting against the report. ``All of the work has to be focused on local citizens. This is not meant to discredit anybody's intentions and good work.'' The report called for Santa Monica-based Global Green USA Global Green USA is the U.S. arm of Green Cross International. It is one of 30 national offices with over 70 professional staff worldwide. Global Green USA is a national environmental organization. References Global Green USA Website www.globalgreen. to help oversee and write grants for implementation of Measure A recommendations and the provisions of the Save Open Space and Agricultural Resources measure. Gorbachev founded the organization in 1993 to, among other goals, accelerate the cleanup and reuse of closed military bases following the end of the Cold War. Long and Supervisors Judy Mikels and Susan Lacey - the other dissenters dissenters: see nonconformists. - said they believe Global Green has an agenda that would belie be·lie tr.v. be·lied, be·ly·ing, be·lies 1. To picture falsely; misrepresent: "He spoke roughly in order to belie his air of gentility" James Joyce. the county's vision of creating a balance between development and nature. ``They may be an outside group but they are by no means neutral,'' Mikels said. But Supervisors John Flynn and Frank Schillo accused the rest of the board of sending mixed messages to the public with regards to implementing growth control measures. ``The majority of the board is taking a milquetoast milque·toast n. One who has a meek, timid, unassertive nature. [After Caspar Milquetoast, a comic-strip character created by Harold Tucker Webster (1885-1952). approach on this issue,'' Flynn said. ``I want to do what the people (mandated) us to do.'' Mike Saliba, president of the Ventura County Taxpayers Association, and Rex Laird, executive director of the Ventura County Farm Bureau, both opposed the inclusion of Global Green. The planning staff by April 27 will devise plans for a zoning use study and the coordination of public education for Measure A. It also must determine whether one of the measure's chief components, an Open Space Conservation District, should be established by a countywide or Legislative vote and whether it would be funded through a quarter-cent hike in the sales tax sales tax, levy on the sale of goods or services, generally calculated as a percentage of the selling price, and sometimes called a purchase tax. It is usually collected in the form of an extra charge by the retailer, who remits the tax to the government. . Following the vote, Matt Petersen, Global Green's executive director, denied his office has an agenda, claiming its interest stems from the fact that growth-control measures in this county affect Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. and Santa Barbara counties. The focus would have been to facilitate the public education that all supervisors said is sorely needed, he said. |
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