Replies

Ventura County Star
http://www.insidevc.com/vcs/county_news/article/0,1375,VCS_226_2290947,00.html

New nonprofit makes winning bid to buy cross

Hastily formed group will pay city $104,000 to save Ventura landmark

By John Scheibe,
September 23, 2003
A relieved Ventura City Council voted 6-1 Monday night to sell a contested city-owned cross high above the downtown and an acre of land around it for a bid price of $104,216.87.
The winning bidder was the Grant Park Conservancy, a private nonprofit group recently formed to save the cross, after it submitted the highest of five bids that went before the council.
"I'm beyond thrilled," said conservancy head Christy Weir.
Monday's sale caps months of fund-raising by Weir, during which hundreds of people donated money to her group. Weir said the outpouring of support "has been amazing." According to Weir, her group received over $50,000 in contributions on Monday.
"The donations have come in so fast we haven't even had a chance to count all of them yet," she said.
Kevin McAtee, a Ventura real estate appraiser, submitted the second-highest bid of $77,250.
The city is expected to finalize the sale within about 20 days. But that's provided the bidder pays the city in full for the cross property and agrees to a number of conditions and restrictions there. This includes more muted lighting for the cross and keeping the property in open space. Councilman Neal Andrews voted against the sale because he disagrees with the restrictions.
City officials and others hope the sale will end one of the biggest controversies to face Ventura in years.
The council voted to sell the cross in late July after San Francisco attorney Vince Chhabria warned that city ownership and maintenance of it violates the constitutional separation of church and state. Chhabria told the city to divest itself of the religious icon or face a lawsuit. Chhabria made the demand on behalf of Americans United for Separation of Church and State and three area residents.
Cross supporters claimed the demands were more an attack on Christian symbols than concerns over the constitution.
But in the end, the council agreed to sell the wooden cross along with an acre of Grant Park land around it, despite pleas that it fight the issue out in court.
"This is obviously a great day for the residents of Ventura," Councilman Jim Friedman told a crowd at City Hall following Monday's sale. Friedman said he and other council members agonized for a long time over what to do about the cross. He said they only reluctantly agreed to sell it after learning city taxpayers might be on the hook for anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million in legal costs if the city did not comply with Chhabria's demands.
Ventura Realtor Bill Duston said prior to Monday's meeting he was considering making a separate bid on the cross property after receiving tens of thousands of dollars in donations from a group of wealthy businessmen.
But Duston decided to give the money to Weir's group instead, so it could outbid anyone wanting to buy the land and remove the cross.
"Ventura would lose an important part of its history if that were to happen," said Duston on Monday afternoon. "The next thing they might try and do is to take down the Father Serra statue in front of City Hall."
While Ventura has had some version of the cross ever since Father Junipero Serra founded the mission in 1782, the current cross has stood high above the downtown since 1941.
Stan Kohls of Somis, one of the three represented by Chhabria, said that although he received death threats over the issue, he believes some positive things came out of it.
"I think this has forced people to really start thinking about issues having to do with religious symbols on public land," said Kohls on Monday afternoon. "More people now realize that having these symbols there is not good."