By Eliza Ridgeway and Lauren McSherry

A proposal by a Los Altos Hills councilman to hand management of Westwind Barn to an independent commission pitted members of local equestrian groups against one another last Thursday.

Councilman Jean Mordo suggested during a regular city council meeting that a town properties commission should oversee barn management, barn stalls should be reassigned and some barn space should be converted into a community room.

Friends of Westwind Barn, which runs the facility and holds its lease, would be “first among equals” in the plan, he said.

But members of the public alleged a conflict of interest because the group manages the barn and competes with others for use of the facilities.

Barn oversight is divided among several organizations: Supporters of Westwind Barn, a non-profit charged with fund raising for barn maintenance; Friends of Westwind Barn, which runs programs such as 4-H Riding for the Handicapped; and the parks and recreation department, which hosts a summer camp and year-round riding program there.

Tensions surfaced during recent months between Friends of Westwind Barn and the parks and recreation department over sharing the site and adding paddocks for use by department programs.

Nancy Couperus, who founded the 4-H riding program and helped acquire the barn in the mid-1970s, supported installing a higher administration level and reducing the number of privately owned horses stabled there.

“We always accepted the status quo,” she said. “There’s no place to (expand programs) without causing problems.”

Jane Kawasaki, former co-chairwoman of the parks and recreation department, said changes could derail the development of the year-round riding program, which has been suspended this year due to a lack of infrastructure.

“Give these programs a chance to work,” she told the council.

Cheryl Acheson, a Supporters of Westwind Barn board member, said she personally was not in favor of a commission or a reduction in the number of horses at the barn.

“A barn without horses isn’t really a barn,” she said. “I would like to see the council remain involved and give the boarders and people at Westwind the opportunity to work things out.”

Council discussion ended without consensus. Councilman Mike O’Malley disagreed with Mordo, saying Westwind issues should come before the council rather than a committee.