Supervisor Linda Parks Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks announced she’s running for reelection in the 2nd District.

The filing period for supervisor candidates begins Feb. 16 and ends March 12.

Parks represents Thousand Oaks, Newbury Park, Westlake Village, Oak Park and Santa Rosa Valley, among other areas.

“We need strong advocates on our board of supervisors who will protect taxpayer dollars, support public safety, ensure core government services continue and see to it that our environment isn’t sacrificed for a quick buck,” Parks said.

Assemblymember Audra Strickland (R-Thousand Oaks) is said to be considering a run against Parks but hasn’t made a decision about her candidacy. Strickland recently lost her bid to become a candidate for county treasurer-tax collector.

Parks began her political career in Thousand Oaks where she served as a planning commissioner, a city council member and mayor.

As a city official, she worked to preserve open space and parkland in Thousand Oaks, helped write the city’s first campaign reform law, created its residents round table, founded the Ventura County Discovery Center and initiated the annual Thousand Oaks Earth Day/Arbor Day Celebration.

Parks said the fiscally conservative policies she helped put in place have led to a top bond rating for Ventura County.

“When I came on the Board of Supervisors, there were no reserves and the budget wasn’t structurally balanced. We’ve since built the reserves funds and have some cushion to protect core government services.”

Parks is one of the organizing directors of the countywide Save Open-Space and Agricultural Resources campaign (SOAR), which was successful in creating a law to protect open space and farmland in addition to establishing urban boundary limits around county cities. She also worked for more than a decade on the grassroots effort to preserve Ahmanson Ranch, which was purchased as a state park.

As a supervisor, Parks organized a countywide senior summit to plan for the growing senior adult population and is working to improve public transportation to help prevent congested roadways in the future.

She’s also hosted public safety town halls and established fire safe councils.

According to Parks, the executive directors for the Ventura County Deputy Sheriff’s Association and the Ventura County Professional Firefighters’ Association “voiced their strong support for my work to enhance public safety, including bringing back a gang unit, waiving a county policy in order to provide $5 million extra during budget cutbacks so we wouldn’t have to lay off any deputies and shortening fire and ambulance response times.”

She developed county guidelines requiring the testing of water and soil near the Boeing Santa Susana Field Laboratory where lethal contaminants have been found. She’s also led efforts to reduce and eliminate harmful pesticides.

Parks received her master’s degree in urban planning from the University of Washington and her undergraduate degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Parks has been married 27 years and has four children, ages 18 to 24.

County supervisors earn about $120,000 per year.

If the candidate with the most votes in June doesn’t get a majority of the total ballots cast, the top two finishers face a runoff in November.

In the June 2006 election, Parks beat Joe Gibson 18,000 to 10,000 votes and there was no November runoff.