City runs off TV and movie producers

I have just read the letter from Ray Holm on the subject of filming in Thousand Oaks and wanted to let him know how wrong he is and how right-on Michele Pettes is.

Some years back I was hired to technical produce a McDonald's commercial that was to run in the Midwest. We needed a school with indoor lockers, and I knew that Los Cerritos middle school had the right criteria.

After contacting the school district, getting the fees and the okay to shoot, I called the film office at city hall. I was told that we would have to hire a company to go doorto-door to any house within 500 feet of the school and have the residents sign off on the project. I told the city staff member that we would be inside with no noise audible outside the building and no trucks would be parked on city streets. There was to be a generator, but it would have been a movie silent one, again not audible. The city staff member told me that this did not matter, and we would have to spend the money to hire the company.

When I asked why there was an anti-production environment, I was told that the city did not want any shoots in the city at all. I told the staff that all the crew "Too bad," was the response, "go away."

Well, we jumped all the hoops and brought the commercial to T.O. On the day of production, we arrived to find a construction crew with a jackhammer and very loud compressor making a big noise that could be heard for thousands of feet. When I spoke with the foreman and asked if they had to go door-to-door, he looked at me like I was crazy. "Why would they have to do that?" was his question.

I have a city of T.O. business license, pay my taxes to the city, but I can't bring business to my hometown. Maybe I should ask for a refund for the 20 years of taxes I have paid. Ray Hinton Jr. Thousand Oaks