Agoura Hills Council : Defeated Mayor Has Harsh Words for New Majority

The dust from Agoura Hills’ bitter election continued to fly Wednesday as jubilant environmentalists celebrated their seizure of the City Council and the ouster of the town’s pro-growth mayor.

Mayor John Hood finished fifth in the eight-way race for three council seats in Tuesday’s voting. Three slow-growth advocates who were overwhelmingly elected promptly vowed to tighten controls over construction in their eight-square-mile city.

Final but unofficial Los Angeles County results showed incumbent Councilwoman Fran Pavley on top with 24% of the vote. Teacher Jack W. Koenig was second with 22% and graphic artist Darlene McBane third with 21%. All three had been supported by an environment-oriented homeowners’ coalition called For Agoura ’85.

The Agoura Hills race was the hottest of five Las Virgenes-area elections, although neighboring Westlake Village had the closest: Mayor Irwin Shane managed to hang on to his council seat by nine votes as he and council colleagues Franklin Pelletier and Bonnie Klove were reelected. Shane may face a recount.

Things seemed far from cooling down in Agoura Hills on Wednesday, however.

“A new era in our city has been introduced, one of smears and dirt,” said Hood, who collected just 8% of the vote and will leave office on Dec. 2.

“We decided to run a clean campaign. . . . We didn’t attack anybody, even when they lied in their literature and ran a deceitful campaign.” He acknowledged, however, that the election is “a mandate for slow growth.”

Agoura-Las Virgenes Chamber of Commerce President Wayne Adelstein, who has lobbied heavily for recent development proposals in Agoura Hills, also had harsh words for those forcing Hood from office.

“Sleazy, that’s the only word I can think of. That, and dishonest and corrupt,” Adelstein said. He claimed that a last-minute smear campaign waged by homeowner leaders over voter registration may have swayed some voters. Adelstein was angry about charges that he and other businessmen were improperly registered.

“Like it or not, they’re just as dependent on us as we in the business community are of them,” Adelstein said of the City Council.

The winners had a far different explanation for their surprisingly easy victory, however.

“It shows that residents do not want outside interests determining their destiny,” said Pavley, who teaches language arts at Chaparral Middle School in Moorpark. “This election shows clearly that residents of Agoura Hills believe strongly in local control.”

Koenig said the vote was proof that residents have retained the slow-growth mandate that environmentalists have claimed came with the town’s incorporation vote three years ago.

“We’re going to demand that developers give us the very best,” Koenig, a high school civics instructor, said. “This is the election that is really going to decide the direction of this city. The voters have got three people now who can’t be bought.”

McBane, who is now a planning commissioner, said the city can be expected to “preserve as many of the oaks and the hills as we can. None of us is opposed to development. We just want to enhance the landscape rather than destroy it.”

Tuesday’s voting means a firm four-vote, slow-growth majority on the five-member council, which selects its mayor from its members. Current council members who were not up for election are Vicky Leary, seen as slow-growth, and Ernest Dynda, viewed as pro-growth. Councilwoman Carol Sahm, who often has supported development requests, did not seek reelection.

City Hall observers speculated Wednesday that the new majority will move quickly to require developers to plan around hills and oaks and impose tougher guidelines for such things as landscaping.

“Control is back with the residents,” said Stuart Schneider, a leader of the For Agoura ’85 homeowners group. “The residents can determine how they want the city developed and what type and quality development will be.”

In Westlake Village, meanwhile, unsuccessful challenger Anthony Plaia said he will wait until final county tallies of any damaged or lost absentee ballots are completed on Nov. 25 before he decides whether to seek a recount. Plaia, a financial executive, collected 22.7% of the vote to Shane’s 23%--777 votes to 786.

The incumbent council members’ reelection was viewed as an endorsement of the status quo in the 5.4-square-mile bedroom community. Council members generally have sided with homeowners on development issues.

Voters in Calabasas and Hidden Hills also joined those in Agoura Hills and Westlake Village in filling three Las Virgenes school board seats. The main issue in the six-candidate campaign had been school finances and teacher morale. The 7,500-pupil district is in the middle of deadlocked contract negotiations with teachers.

Two candidates who had been endorsed by the Las Virgenes teachers’ union--Bill James and Roni Melago--lost after collecting only 15% and 12% of the vote, respectively.

Planning for Growth

Voters in the 1,500-home Oak Park area, an Agoura bedroom community that lies within Ventura County, picked school board members who promised to anticipate an enrollment boom. About 600 new homes soon will be built in the community, which now has about 1,050 school-age youngsters.

Oak Park Municipal Advisory Council winners will make recommendations to Ventura County Supervisor Ed Jones. Their major task will be to help plan the phased construction of homes in a remote corner of Oak Park called the Sutton Valley.

Officials said voter turnout was 32% in Agoura Hills, about 30% in Westlake Village and about 22% in Oak Park.