Supervisor finds new digs but would like to stay on at city hall until August
By Nancy Needham nancy@theacorn.com

Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks will be moving her office away from city hall, down the boulevard next door to the Chocolatine French pastries tea room.

Since her new space won't be available until August- it's currently home to an interior decorating business with a "moving sale" banner out front- she hopes the city will allow her to stay past her scheduled June 30 move-out date, Parks said.

A single move would be a lot more practical than moving all the phones and computers to the county's offices in Ventura for a couple of months and then back again, she said.

Parks' lease expired in January. In April, Councilmember Claudia Bill-de la Peña tried to get other members of the council to extend the lease, but that didn't happen. Bill-de la Peña was the only one to vote in favor of extending the lease.

Parks' current location at 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Boulevard has been the home of the District 2 county supervisor's office for about 12 years, beginning with former Supervisor Frank Schillo. Recently the city decided it needed that space for staff and refused to renew Parks' lease.

"We do not owe the county office space. They didn't financially support us in this building. We do, however, owe our staff appropriately healthy working spaces," Councilmember Jacqui Irwin said during the April council meeting.

The office at city hall was about 1,800 square feet and the new location will be about 1,700 square feet, including a restroom area, which reduces the actual office space, Parks said.

She paid $1.71 a square foot to the city for rent and will now pay $2.30 a square foot to her new landlord at the 2967 Thousand Oaks Blvd. address.

"I was paying the same price they charged Frank Schillo, so I'm sure my rent would have gone up at the city if they had renewed it," Parks said.

She said she loves her new place- not only because of the easy chocolate pastry access. It's just 100 feet from a bus stop and has great parking and handicap access, she said.

"City hall will continue to be convenient, too," Parks said.