This is in response to John Fonti’s “With 13 running, it means voters are unhappy in T.O.” and Billy Martin’s “Candidate shares ideas for the city of Thousand Oaks,” both in the Aug. 19 Thousand Oaks Acorn.

Having served with Fonti on our homeowners association board and having recently cochaired the Thousand Oaks Auto Mall Street Parking Project Ad Hoc Citizens Advisory Committee, I must respond to some of Fonti’s and Martin’s unfounded and inaccurate comments.

On Nov. 17, 2009, the City Council formed an Ad Hoc Citizens Auto Mall Advisory Committee to obtain community input on design features for the project. The committee was composed of 12 individuals, including eight representing homeowner associations plus three each representing the Auto Mall Association and business organizations, and one each representing California Lutheran University, Conejo Recreation and Park District and an architect. The committee held five meetings from February to June 2010.

The citizens advisory committee was asked to address two aspects of the Auto Mall project: the city-funded portion and the freeway sign.

The city-funded portion entails street parking and landscape improvements and directional signs for the Auto Mall. The current estimated cost is about $8.5 million, of which 75 percent will be paid by the Auto Mall Dealers Association. The city’s portion will be about $2 million.

There’s no city money for the freeway sign; it will be paid for by the Auto Mall Dealers Association.

To describe the sign as a TVlike sign is incorrect. The Citizens Committee agreed the sign should include an LED reader board element, but the committee also recommended that each image should remain on the screen eight seconds, with a one-second change time, and no animated, flashing or scrolling messages would be permitted.

Furthermore, the committee recommended that the sign include 24-hour-per-day automatic dimming, limited to 0.3- foot-candles above ambient light. To their credit, the Auto Mall representatives didn’t object to any of these limitations.

The Thousand Oaks planning department and the City Council will consider the committee’s input regarding design aspects of the Auto Mall project, including the freeway sign, at future meetings. Louis Goldsman Newbury Park