One for Agoura Hills’ Scrapbook : Council Photo Dispute Is Portrait of Politics

Agoura Hills residents are getting the picture: The feud that split their City Council during the fall election is far from over.

Proof of that is just inside the doors of City Hall--where City Council members are facing off in an unusual dispute over official color photographs of themselves.

The city commissioned the pictures after voters ousted Agoura Hills’ pro-growth mayor last November and elected a new council majority that is pledged to slow development in the community 10 miles west of the San Fernando Valley.

But the official city photographer has only taken four of the neatly framed pictures that are nailed in a row along a corridor between the city manager’s office and council chambers.

Councilman Refused to Pose

The fifth council member has refused to pose for the city’s photographer, complaining that the man opposes him politically and was hired in an act of “cronyism” by other council members.

Ernest Dynda said the city’s cameraman actively campaigned for slow-growth candidates in the fall election and attacked him, as a pro-growth incumbent, in a letter to a local newspaper.

Dynda also complained at a council meeting that the city’s photographer was “operating out of the back of his car” without contributing to Agoura Hills tax revenues. So in protest, he said, he hired another photographer to take his official city picture.

Dynda’s stance prompted a counterprotest by other council members. When the bill for Dynda’s photo arrived at City Hall last week, they refused to pay it.

The dispute has turned into a rather unflattering portrait of small-town politics--at least from the point of view of the two photographers involved.

Thom Bancroft, the cameraman hired by the city, said Tuesday that Dynda’s refusal to sit in front of his camera has ruined the “impact” he had sought from the carefully posed portraits he agreed to provide for a total of $150.

Works Out of Home

Bancroft said he works out of his house in Agoura Hills, with the appropriate state permit that assures the city its share of business fees.

Stephen Beller, Dynda’s photographer, said the city offered Tuesday to pay him $37.50 for the picture of the councilman instead of the $162 he billed for the job. Beller said he cannot afford to lose that much money on a high-quality portrait, which Dynda selected from 25 poses.

City Manager Michael Huse said Agoura Hills contracted with Bancroft for the photos after soliciting bids from several photographers and picking the lowest price. Agoura Hills is not obligated to pay Beller anything, he said.

“I just wish Ernie would put the election to rest,” said Councilwoman Darlene McBane, one of those elected on the slow-growth platform last fall, who raised the issue of Beller’s bill last week.

Dynda said Tuesday night that he, indeed, has decided to put the portrait dispute to rest.

“I’m going to pay for the whole thing and donate it to the city,” he said.