PUBLIC FORUM\Sporting complex bad idea for families.

Family values are alive and well in Thousand Oaks - at least, I thought they were.

One has only to go to a PTA meeting or a Girl Scout or Boy Scout event or watch a practice of Little League or Bobby Sox to see parents donating time and energy to their children's welfare. It is part of your job description to bring a lawn chair and a cooler to watch your child play a sport.

I was proud of my fellow parents and glad that my husband and I decided to stay in the town where he was born to raise the three children we adopted.

Imagine my surprise when I attended a presentation by a group called Sport X. David Gulbranson, head of the group, pointed out many problems and suggested a solution.

Mr. Gulbranson tells us that we should be trotting our children through the 200,000-square-foot shopping center he wants to build on the school board property at the intersection of Janss Road and the Moorpark Freeway exit. Instead of buying drinks from the AYSO fund-raising snack shop, we should use one of the 10 fast-food places. To be really good parents, we should expose our kids to the glitz and hype of the 20 or so sports manufacturers who will have shops in the center.

According to Mr. Gulbranson, we need professional training facilities for our children so they can hone their skills and get college scholarships. And I thought sports was about fun and sportsmanship.

Of course pools and gyms are expensive to build, so he has kindly gathered a group of investors. Now we all know that investors expect a return on their money. That's why there will be 30 to 40 professional tournaments a year. Fourteen thousand people a weekend buy lots of things, and the city will have a windfall from the sales tax. After making so much money from the people who come from all over to watch these sporting events, and after they pay for extra police and helicopter services, the city may be able to build new parks for our kids to use. After all, they won't be able to use them as they do now. We will need a fence around the field to protect the investment.

I thought Thousand Oaks was a nice place to live just the way it is. How naive of me. Thank God for our concerned City Council and those dedicated people at the recreation and park district and on the school board. They have been looking out for my family by quietly discussing giving up all that useless public land so that we might have a state-of-the-art sports venue right in the heart of town. It is so considerate of them not to bother us with any information or details until all the deals are made behind closed doors.

How silly of me to think that because I am a taxpaying voter who lives in the area that I would know as much about what's good for my family's quality of life and property values as they do.

Noise, traffic, lights - why worry about those things when a project like this will increase our property values like they have for the Valley?

How lucky to have the people of Sport X share their vision of what's valuable. Here I thought people riding their horses, kids playing or watching a hawk fly by was as valuable as a sports medicine facility.

It's too bad that I am so stupid that I won't accept that politicians and rich men know what's good for me.

I may regret someday that I let myself become involved with a group of fellow parents and homeowners who decided to fight City Hall. I might be sorry if I take a stand against this terrible idea; I know I'll be ashamed of myself if I don't.

- Joy Meade

Thousand Oaks

Restricting ridgeline 

I was very upset to read about Thousand Oaks' move to relax restrictions on ridgeline development and extremely disappointed in Planning Commissioner Forrest Frields, who appeared to be trying to justify actions that weaken this important ordinance. This looks to me like just one more step in the unraveling of our community standards.

- Ralph Starita

Thousand Oaks

Keep parks public

There is a coalition of concerned citizens who have come together within the last two weeks in response to a concept being presented to various groups throughout the Conejo Valley. The Sport X group, headed by Dave Gulbranson, wants to develop the Conejo Creek Park and the adjacent Conejo Valley Unified School District property. The proposed development is a commercially operated multiuse sports competition complex, called Sport X. We feel development of public land for commercial profit is inappropriate.

The property as it is now configured is used for many major functions throughout the year, such as Conejo Valley Days, Eggstravanza, Neighborhood Cleanup, soccer, chili cook-offs and many other culturally enriching activities that build the moral fiber of our community. It is also used by many individuals for walking, kite flying, bird watching, jogging, bike riding and simple enjoyment of the unobstructed open space.

This is public land, owned by the citizens of this community, entrusted to public officials for proper disposition. The Conejo Recreation and Park District officials have been successful in providing excellent functional use of this land. If it is to be developed, it should not be developed by a private developer for his profit. Nor should the land be developed without a tremendous amount of community input through open-door workshops, hearings and conferences that will allow informed, intelligent decisions to be made by the citizenry of the Conejo Valley.

This land is considered by many to be the crown jewel of open space in the valley, centrally located and significant to the very essence of the environment that has attracted the majority of us to this community. It is imperative that we not allow private development of our public parks and open space. Keep parks public!

- Steve Cook

Thousand Oaks

City helps seniors

As community relations director for Many Mansions, I would like to thank each and every member of the Thousand Oaks City Council for the unanimous vote of approval for the Senior Oak Creek Villas. This will be composed of 60 apartment units to be built in the central part of Thousand Oaks, accessible to shopping, transportation and freeways.

The City Council and staff are very aware of the need for affordable housing for all the limited-income citizens of Thousand Oaks, including the 22,050 seniors who have earned and deserve decent, comfortable and affordable shelter here in our Conejo Valley among their families and friends.

We hope you will continue to approve those affordable housing units that are correctly planned and which our community sorely needs. Thanks again. Keep up the good work.

- Joseph R. Smolarski

Thousand Oaks

Budgetary discipline

The federal government continues to drown in red ink. With an unbalanced budget, the national debt will continue to grow despite the existence of a debt ceiling. This paper tiger guards the hen house after the fact, raising a ruckus only when the accumulated debt has reached that limit. By then it is too late and the limit must be raised, if for no other reason than to accommodate debts that have already been incurred.

Discipline must be applied to the jillions of actions taken throughout government that generate the need to borrow money before those actions occur. Except for two huge loopholes, other laws do - or should do - just that. Legislation implementing the Constitution governs the authorizing and appropriating, in advance, of funds needed to finance the government. (Presumably, those appropriations control outlays, whether the money is derived from taxes or from bond issues.) One of those laws makes it a federal crime to violate those limits.

Moneywise, the most disastrous loophole is entitlement programs. They are exempt from the annual authorizing process, which governs discretionary programs. Given these huge holes in the dike, no wonder the debt is $5 trillion and growing. Secondly, there is no control over trillions waiting in the wings outside the debt ceiling. These are government commitments, also backed by the full faith and credit of the United Sates, such as government guarantees and insurance on loans and private savings deposits and pensions.

In addition to balancing the federal budget and abolishing the concept of entitlements, Congress should remove this ineffective debt ceiling and take control of those commitments not now counted as national debt.

- Robert E. Murray 

Thousand Oaks