Linda Parks was born on February 21,1957 and is an American politician who served as the Ventura County, California, Supervisor representing the second district from January 2003 to December 2022.
32 Facts About Linda Parks
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Linda Parks was born in Los Angeles, California at UCLA.
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Linda Parks's mother managed a bookstore and her father, Gene Moss, was a writer, actor, and the voice of Smokey Bear.
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Linda Parks earned her Masters in Urban Planning from the University of Washington 1982.
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Linda Parks began her efforts to preserve the 2,800 acre Ahmanson Ranch from development in 1987 which culminated in the land's purchase by the State of California in 2003.
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Linda Parks was appointed to the Thousand Oaks Planning Commission in 1993 and cast votes in favor of the Amgen Campus, and the Promenade Shopping Center.
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Linda Parks was elected to the City Council in 1996 with the highest number of votes in the city's history.
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Linda Parks started a slow-growth movement leading efforts to protect Ahmanson Ranch in unincorporated Ventura County, successfully fighting an effort to put a golf course in Hill Canyon and to preserve the Lang Ranch ancient oak grove in Thousand Oaks.
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Linda Parks ran for re-election in 2000 with the late Edward Masry, the environmental attorney featured in the movie Erin Brockovich.
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Linda Parks again won with the highest numbers of votes in the city's history.
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Linda Parks ran for a seat on the Ventura County Board of Supervisors in 2002 while voluntarily limiting her campaign contributions to $500 per person; at that time, there were no limits to the amount of money a candidate could accept.
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Linda Parks's win helped usher in the County's campaign finance ordinance which put a maximum limit on contributions.
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Linda Parks successfully established the Santa Rosa Valley Municipal Advisory Council and added synchronized traffic signals to Santa Rosa Valley Road and opened the long-awaited Santa Rosa Valley Park using park bond money.
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Linda Parks was re-elected in 2006, established two more Municipal Advisory Councils, one in Somis and one in Casa Conejo, and a Fire Safe Council.
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Linda Parks led the way to convert an appointed water and sanitation district to an all-elected body making it accountable to the ratepayers.
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Linda Parks began providing a Ventura County Veteran Services office out of her office in Thousand Oaks.
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Linda Parks led the effort to bring the County's Human Services Agency including employment service assistance to the Under One Roof building owned by Community Conscience in Thousand Oaks.
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Linda Parks was key to getting the East County Jail reopened, which kept Thousand Oaks and Simi Valley deputies on their beats instead of having to drive detainees to the jail in Ventura, increasing public safety.
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Linda Parks has championed mental health services for the severely mentally ill as a 15-year member of the Ventura County Behavioral Health Advisory Board.
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In 2010, Linda Parks ran for re-election and faced termed out Assemblymember Audra Strickland.
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Linda Parks ran unopposed for re-election to Ventura County Supervisor in 2014 and 2018.
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Linda Parks has taken a leadership role in providing transportation alternatives that have reduced congested roadways, including leading the effort to help college students with free bus fare, and started the Kanan Shuttle, a free popular bus route with students and residents in Oak Park.
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Linda Parks organized a 'Unity in the Community' event to promote peace, respect, and acceptance in response to anti-Semitic graffiti and hate messages found in Oak Park, Agoura Hills and Newbury Park.
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Linda Parks fought to protect the public from harmful pollutants and developed County guidelines that require testing water and soil near the contaminated Boeing Santa Susana Field Laboratory.
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Linda Parks opposed a federal proposal for new off-shore drilling.
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Linda Parks established a policy to eliminate the use of anticoagulant rodenticides by the County because they harm non-targeted wildlife.
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Linda Parks set a goal to plant two million trees in unincorporated areas by 2040, with the County of Ventura planting 1,000 trees a year.
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Supervisor Linda Parks helped establish the largest buffer in the nation between oil wells and schools.
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Linda Parks has won numerous awards, including the national Small Business Administration's Phoenix Award for Outstanding Contributions to Disaster Recovery by a Public Official for her work helping recovery after the Woolsey Fire, and the Ventura County District Attorney's Justice for Victim's Assistance Award for her assistance to victims and families devastated by the tragic Borderline Bar and Grill mass shooting.
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Linda Parks launched her campaign for the newly redrawn California's 26th congressional district in January 2012, following the announcement that Republican Congressman Elton Gallegly would not seek re-election.
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Linda Parks has the distinction of having had hundreds of thousands of dollars spent in campaigns against her by both parties, the Republican Party in 2010 and the Democratic Party in 2012.
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Linda Parks termed out from the Board of Supervisors December 30,2022.