SUPERVISORS SEE AGENDA IN REPORT VOTE.

Byline: David Greenberg Daily News Staff Writer

Supervisors Frank Schillo and John Flynn vowed to dissolve the SOAR and Measure A Implementation Committee on which they sit if the other supervisors reject an amended status report in two weeks.

Schillo and Flynn charged that the board refused to accept their status report Tuesday because it wants to halt implementation of the growth control recommendations in Measure A that voters approved last November.

``We won't even have a committee if they reject this thing,'' Schillo said. ``We can only go so far before it becomes an ineffective committee. My understanding is that they don't even want a committee to look at (implementation), which flies in the face of the voters. But I'm willing to give it one more try.''

Following the 3-2 vote, a frustrated Flynn resigned from the two-person committee, leaving its status in doubt.

Later that day, he boycotted a hearing on renovations to Highway 118 in Somis. Because Schillo had taken ill and Supervisor Susan Lacey had a business engagement, the board could not reach a quorum and the hearing was tabled until April 27.

But on Saturday, Flynn said he accepted Schillo's invitation to return to the two-person committee in hopes of persuading the other three board members to implement Measure A.

Its recommended actions include adding six greenbelt areas to the existing five, creating an Open Space Conservation District and launching a public education program on land conservation.

Flynn said if the amended report is rejected, he would push for a ballot vote mandating implementation of Measure A components, which garnered 69 percent voter approval in November.

``There would be no need for an implementation committee,'' he said. ``But if the board members recognize that people are in charge of us, then I'll have lots of optimism.''

Following rejection of the report by Supervisors Judy Mikels, Kathy Long and Lacey on Tuesday, Chief Administrative Officer Lin Koester instructed planning staff to return within a month with an amended report.

Thomas Berg, director of the Resource Agency Management, said his office will clarify plans and timelines for establishment and public education of open-space conservation and greenbelt programs.

It will also determine whether an Open Space Conservation District should be established by a countywide or legislative vote.

Keith Jajko, spokesman for Mikels, disputed the claim that three supervisors are trying to stop Measure A altogether.

``The implementation committee has operated in a sort of vacuum,'' he said. ``It hasn't involved everyone who needs to be involved. Our office hasn't been involved in these (planning) meetings.''

Asked to respond to the threat of dissolving the committee, Jajko said, ``We'll just have to figure out another way to implement Measure A. Perhaps the entire board should do this.''

Flynn singled out Long as a driving force behind the opposition.

``Kathy Long needs to get over her opposition of Measure A,'' he said. ``The voters are in charge here, not Kathy Long.''

Long said she supports the original recommendations set forth by the Agricultural Policy Working Group, on which she sat. But she opposed the conservation district that Schillo threw in as an amendment - something that the working group did not have a chance to discuss.

``I wrote the original Measure A,'' she said. ``They need to be reminded of that. I spent 18 months of the working group. I have a real commitment to this.''