Students Greet Mayor With Hard Questions

The first question hit Moorpark Mayor Pat Hunter less than 10 minutes into his speech.

“When will the footbridge over the Arroyo Simi be built?”

As he answered, other hands shot up. What did Hunter think about building more homes near Moorpark College? Would he allow development in Happy Camp Canyon Regional Park? What was the city going to do about speeding trucks north of town?

For once, the questions weren’t fired by local homeowners gathered at City Hall. Hunter’s interrogators were students in Fran Pavley’s eighth-grade American history class at Chaparral Middle School.

For the past five years, Pavley has invited Moorpark city leaders to address her class and discuss the workings of local government. The sessions also give students a chance to grill local officials on any topic of their choice.

“Of all the levels of government, this is the one where kids can make a difference,” said Pavley, who is also mayor of Agoura Hills.

Hunter spoke to two of Pavley’s classes Wednesday, giving each a brief rundown of how local government works with county and state authorities. But in each class, the mayor spent most of his time fielding the kinds of pointed questions that often consume City Council meetings.

Many involved the pedestrian bridge over the Arroyo Simi, which will be built near the spot where Chaparral student Joel Burchfield drowned last winter. The project’s groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for Saturday.

“The council said it would be up by the end of the year--how come it didn’t go up?” asked Courtney Dolliver, 14.

Hunter launched into a discussion of all the steps necessary to build the bridge--including seizing rights to some of the land through imminent domain--and described how each made the process longer.

“All of this takes time,” he said.

Jessica Averill, 13, wanted to know what Hunter could do about the truck traffic north of Moorpark. She rides her horse in the area and worries about possible increases in the number of trucks on local roads.

“The trucks are spooking my horse,” she said.

Hunter explained that county officials recently gave a gravel mine permission to run more trucks on California 23. Because the mine lies outside Moorpark, the City Council could not block the expansion, he said.

“We don’t make the decision because it’s not in our boundaries,” he said.

Some of the questions, however, concerned topics rarely heard at council meetings. Sean Wade, 14, wanted to know if the city could build a skateboard facility at Arroyo Vista Community Park. Hunter recommended that he write a letter to the council asking for one.

“He seems cool,” Sean said later. “Yeah, maybe I’ll write a letter.”