Thousand Oaks Sets Nov. 7 Election

Thousand Oaks will conduct an election Nov. 7 to choose a replacement for former City Councilman Lee Laxdal, who left office Tuesday to move to Australia.

Laxdal, a councilman since 1980, had announced plans to step down Aug. 1 but resigned Tuesday so the city could meet Ventura County’s deadline to file for an election. The deadline was extended from July 5 until noon today.

Laxdal’s departure means the five-member council will be one member short for the next 4 1/2 months. But if he had kept to his original timetable, the city could not have elected his replacement before April.

City officials said the vacancy will not hinder them from making decisions in the months ahead. “Most of our votes have been unanimous, so this shouldn’t affect things too much,” Councilman Frank Schillo said.

“The one factor missing now that Lee has left may be that he was in favor of slow growth,” Schillo said. “But I don’t think there’s going to be unrestrained growth or anything now that he’s gone.”

Slow-Growth Law

Laxdal is one of the authors of the city’s growth-control law approved by voters in 1980. It limits new housing construction to 500 units per year. Earlier this year, the council extended the measure until 1995.

The filing period for candidates begins July 17 and ends Aug. 11. Two candidates so far have announced they will run: Phyllis Ellis and Robert E. Lewis.

Ellis, 61, has been a member of the city’s Handicapped Accessibility Committee for two years. She said Wednesday she is running because, among other things, she believes the all-male council needs a woman’s voice. Ellis is a severe critic of the city’s planning policies and appears frequently at council meetings.

Lewis, 44, helped write the city’s growth-control law and has served on the Planning Commission as Laxdal’s appointee since 1980. He said Wednesday he has “a strong and demonstrated concern for environmental and land-use issues.”

Bruce Bradley, county superintendent of elections, said the registrar of voters extended the county’s deadline for notification of elections until noon today to help Thousand Oaks. He said the city would have had to wait until April to hold a special election if the county had insisted on sticking to its normal deadline of July 5.

“It’s not a huge burden on us to give them a few more days, although we obviously wouldn’t want everyone to do it or we’d be overwhelmed with paper work at the last minute,” Bradley said. “They’ll still be plenty of time for candidates to file.”