Countywide : VanderKolk Quits Woodland Hills Job

Ventura County Supervisor-elect Maria VanderKolk, who defeated Madge L. Schaefer in June, has resigned her job at a Woodland Hills product-licensing firm and says she plans to spend the next five months preparing for her first government job.

VanderKolk, a 25-year-old political novice, said after the election that she is a quick study and will be ready to assume her new post in January.

However, her absences during the last two months at supervisors’ meetings and at hearings where the 1990-91 budget was approved and the site of a new county jail was selected have prompted criticism from Schaefer.

“Where is Maria?” Schaefer asked again last weekend after an environmental group that recruited VanderKolk into politics called a news conference to criticize Schaefer’s position on the proposed annexation of entertainer Bob Hope’s Jordan Ranch property to Simi Valley. Opposition to the Jordan Ranch development was a central theme in VanderKolk’s campaign.

VanderKolk, then on vacation in Colorado, said in an interview that she had resigned her position as creative director at Applause Inc. and would begin full-time preparation this week to be a supervisor.

VanderKolk said she has not attended supervisors’ meetings so far because she was working full time and “I was trying to be very sensitive to Madge’s feelings. She’s got a job to do for the next six months, and the last thing I wanted to do was upset her.”

She has talked frequently with county administrative staff and has been collecting agendas and background documents on issues, she said.

She said she plans to begin attending board meetings in October.