‘Grass-Roots’ Group Guards Developer’s Turf

THOUSAND OAKS —  They stood, they clapped, they signed cards, and in the end the members of Dos Vientos Amigos got their wish.

The self-described “grass-roots,” “all-volunteer” group wanted the massive Dos Vientos housing development, and now it is being built.

But the group, which has crowded City Council and Planning Commission meetings for nearly two years, does not meet the usual definition of a grass-roots organization.

Arlen Miller, the developer of Dos Vientos, formed the group, and he pays for its events. Miller’s public relations group, Tom Tomlin Associates, coordinates group events and produces the Dos Vientos Amigos newsletter. And it has formed nearly identical booster groups in the past.

Miller said the group, which he called “completely independent,” initially was formed to disseminate information about his side of the controversial project.

These unusual roots land Dos Vientos Amigos squarely in a movement that critics call “AstroTurf” organizing. As opposed to “bottom-up” organizing, critics say AstroTurf groups are organized by business interests to emulate traditional grass-roots support.

“It’s part of a new trend, a new business specialty in public relations,” said John White, a Sacramento lobbyist with the Sierra Club. “The key is to create the impression of constituent awareness and constituent support.”

Bill Daly, an account executive with Tom Tomlin Associates, played down his firm’s support of the group. His company’s backing does not make the group a facade for development interests, he said.

“I take offense at that,” Daly said. “It’s a channel of communication between the developer and residents.”

The group also acts as a “watchdog” over the developer’s actions, Daly said.

Co-President Sandy Humphrey also said that her group--composed of Dos Vientos homeowners, local real estate agents, builders, businesspeople and others--has larger interests.

“We are extremely involved in Newbury Park,” she said.

The group sets up booths at community events and plans to begin contributing money to local groups, she said.

Dos Vientos opponents doubt the group’s motives.

“To say they represent the public is insulting,” said Michelle Koetke, who heads a group called Residents to Preserve Newbury Park. “They never talk about anything concerning health and safety.”

Former City Council candidate Dan Del Campo said the Amigos organization is simply a front group for the development.

“I don’t see that Dos Vientos Amigos serves any community purpose whatsoever,” he said.

The group’s June 22 dinner, held just before a key Planning Commission meeting, underscored questions about its grass-roots credentials.

At that dinner, members and supporters were treated to professional catering and were attended to by well-heeled volunteers.

Real estate agents from across the Conejo Valley invited their clients to the event.

Some attendees were asked to “sign in” by signing a blue Planning Commission comment card declaring support for the project, and Humphrey asked for a standing ovation, at a time to be announced during the meeting.

Humphrey did not tell the group about the resolutions being discussed that night.

Pat Baker, a large “DVA” button pinned to her shirt, stood and clapped two hours later. Baker also turned in her card.

But Baker, a Northridge resident, is not a member of Dos Vientos Amigos. She does not want to be one, and she said she had no idea what the card or the ovation meant. She, her husband and two friends just came to get more information about the project, she said.

“I felt like I was a puppet because I really didn’t understand what was going on,” Baker said. “We were doing what they told us to do.”

Citing confidentiality concerns, Humphrey declined to release a list of members. She said she doubted Baker and her friends were members, though, and that they should have known the meeting was intended to show support for the project.

But Dos Vientos Amigos is an uneasy “grass-roots” group at best.

Humphrey initially said Dos Vientos Amigos was formed by local residents and businesspeople who sought out Miller’s help. She later changed her story, acknowledging that Tom Tomlin Associates and Miller came to her.

Humphrey also said she did not know details of the group’s budget, referring financial questions to PR account executive Daly.

Daly acknowledged that all of the group’s activities are paid for by Miller, including a $15,000 fund that the group will use this year for donations to local nonprofit groups.

Even the group’s newsletter, which proclaims Dos Vientos Amigos is “one of the largest and most important organizations in Thousand Oaks,” is edited, copied, folded and mailed by Tom Tomlin Associates.

And the membership list, which Humphrey said is not intended for distribution outside the group, is compiled by the PR company.

The Dos Vientos Amigos project is only the latest for Tom Tomlin Associates, a spinoff of public relations firm Carl Terzian Associates. Terzian has backed successful citizen-based, pro-developer campaigns in Simi Valley, Huntington Park and Century City.

The Simi Valley campaign, built around a group called Friends of Long Canyon, helped the Long Canyon housing development win approval with letter-writing, community events and attendance at City Council meetings. Simi Valley real estate agent Theresa Berenger spearheaded that campaign.

But although the community events act as morale boosters for groups such as Dos Vientos Amigos, “the biggest things they do are going out to council meetings,” Daly said.

That has Thousand Oaks Planning Commissioner Dave Anderson worried.

While he acknowledged the group’s right to voice its support for Dos Vientos, Anderson said it should publicize its ties to the developer and its members’ interest in seeing it completed.

Moreover, since nonresidents can join the group and the membership list is not public, Anderson said he was skeptical of the group’s claim to represent the majority of Thousand Oaks residents.

“I have a lot of concern with any group that even flirts with the fabrication of consensus,” Anderson said. “Unfortunately, when you throw around numbers like ‘650 members,’ that does influence the public.”

Councilman Fox said large turnouts at council meetings do make a difference. “Of course it does,” he said, “and it should.”

The main problem with AstroTurf groups, Sierra Club lobbyist White said, is disclosure, both to the public at large and to members.

“It has increasingly gotten slicker and slicker,” he said. “It’s not a problem unless you don’t know it’s going on.”

Newbury Park resident Jim Langsfeld said he thinks the group may be counting people like him as members or supporters.

After calling a Dos Vientos real estate agent about the project two years ago, Langsfeld said he was inundated with Dos Vientos Amigos materials. When the group wrote him a personalized letter inviting him to the June 22 dinner, Langsfeld said he believed he was being counted as a member or, at least, as a supporter.

“I’m not a member of the organization,” Langsfeld said. “I sure don’t want you to count me in the numbers of those supporting the [Dos Vientos] project.”

Although people are supposed to become members only after signing a card, the membership card does not mention Miller, and some members of the group said they did not know about its roots.

Sonny Suarez, who has a house under construction at Dos Vientos, said he did not know about Miller’s involvement in the Amigos group or that the organization represented more than just the homeowners who could start moving into the neighborhood later this year.

Miller said it was not an issue if members knew how the group was formed or who paid for its events.

Public relations director Richard George of the Public Relations Society of America, an industry group with 19,000 members and a 17-part code of conduct, said operations such as Dos Vientos Amigos are walking a fine line.

While Dos Vientos Amigos is open about its financing, its claims to broader interests is problematic, George said. “I would say it violates the spirit of the [ethics] code,” he said.

The litmus test for Dos Vientos Amigos may come at a July 14 hearing on the controversial extension of Borchard Road, one of two avenues feeding into the development.

Local residents are mobilizing against the current road plan, which includes portions at a 12% grade, far steeper than city law usually allows.

While he declined to say whether group members would appear at the hearing as they have in the past, advisory board member Bill Humphrey said, “I can assure you that will be something we will discuss.”