Supervisor Linda Parks likely will have to vacate her offices in the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza by June 30 because city officials have declined to renew the county's lease.

Officials say they need the 1,796-square-foot space to alleviate cramped city offices.

Parks, a former Thousand Oaks city councilwoman, says the move is political.

"The message is very clear," said Parks, whose relationship with some council members has been acrimonious.

The area's county supervisor has used the office for 12 years. Former Supervisor Frank Schillo moved in not long after the Civic Arts Plaza opened. Parks followed suit, after the county entered into a four-year lease with the city after her election to the board in 2002.

Now, the office is needed for the Human Resources Department, City Manager Scott Mitnick said. Other office spaces used by a credit union, the New West Symphony and the Alliance for the Arts in Civic Arts Plaza did not have sufficient space.

"Politics has nothing to do with this," Mitnick said. "We have an internal staffing issue that has been in front of us for years."

The lease that allowed Parks to move in was approved by the City Council in a 3-2 vote. The decision not to renew the lease was made administratively. In a memo to the council regarding the issue, Mitnick wrote there was no contractual matter to bring before the council.

Council to take up issue

Councilwoman Claudia Bill de la Pena, a political ally of Parks, wants the council to consider the issue. At her request, it has been put on the agenda for Tuesday night's council meeting. She wants the council to decide.

"I felt that terminating the lease of an elected representative at City Hall is not conducive to a healthy intergovernmental relationship," she said, adding she believed it was politically motivated "because of the pattern of conduct over the last 10 years toward Linda Parks."

In a memo to the council, Mitnick noted the council had been kept abreast of the issue, and the City Council Ad Hoc Capital Facilities Committee had discussed the matter at meetings. The council members who serve on the committee are Dennis Gillette and Jacqui Irwin.

Gillette said the committee has long looked at issues of space, upgrades and renovations. Human Resources' need for more space was brought up some time ago, he said.

Gillette said he didn't believe it was the city's responsibility to maintain space for another public agency.

"It's unfortunate," Gillette said about this being characterized as a political issue.

The county seat is in the city of Ventura, about 25 miles away from Thousand Oaks. Ventura County Chief Executive Officer Johnny Johnston said that while all supervisors can rent at cost office space in the County Government Center, it makes sense for those miles away from Ventura to keep offices locally.

"It just makes sense," Johnston said. "It's less polluting to the environment, and it makes it more convenient for their constituents."

Two other supervisors, Peter Foy and John Flynn, have offices in their home cities. Foy's office is in the county's courthouse building in Simi Valley, and Flynn's is in a private office building in Oxnard.

Parks to move to Ventura

Parks will move to the Government Center once her current office lease is over at the end of June. Constituents in her district will then have to travel to Ventura to meet with her.

Johnston said the city has worked with the county's real estate division to find space in Thousand Oaks for Parks. Parks said the city gave her a list of spaces, and she is working with a real estate broker. But none of the sites has been sufficient.

Mitnick said there is plenty of office space available in Thousand Oaks and that the issue illustrated a county — not city — problem. "What it really reflects is the lack of services provided in Thousand Oaks," he said. "The county's facilities are primarily in west county. Why is this?"

Parks said her requirements for an office are that it be both handicapped and bus accessible. "It's important to me that people can get to my offices."

The supervisor said her current office provided a one-stop shop for residents and also made communicating with local elected officials easier.

Schillo, the district's previous supervisor, helped design the space Parks is now in after talking to the then-city manager.

"They wanted to maintain really good relations with the county," he said. "I wanted to be someplace where the people are."

Parks said the city's decision would affect not just her but also constituents. "I do think this is trying to burn bridges," Parks said. "I think 100 percent (it's political) just because they have other choices. It's not just Linda Parks they are getting rid of."

There is a long acrimonious history between Parks and several current council members.

In 2002, three weeks before her first supervisorial election, council members Andy Fox, Gillette and Dan Del Campo, who is no longer on the body, voted to censure her and fire two planning commissioners for violating the state's open-meeting law.

A little more than a month after the February vote, the Ventura County District Attorney's Office found the allegations untrue. Prosecutors also found the three council member majority that requested the investigation "had no reasonable basis for having alleged" the violation in the first place, according to previous coverage in The Star.