Recall Fails to Get Onto Thousand Oaks Ballot : Politics: Petitions targeting Councilmen Alex Fiore and Frank Schillo were short of enough valid signatures to qualify for the June 2 vote.

A petition drive to oust two longtime Thousand Oaks councilmen failed to collect enough valid signatures to place the recall initiative on the June ballot, Ventura County elections officials said Monday.

The group of citizens seeking to recall Councilman Alex Fiore was 162 short of the 8,375 signatures of city voters required to qualify for the June 2 ballot, said Bruce Bradley, the county’s assistant registrar of voters.

A second petition circulated to remove Councilman Frank Schillo from office fell short by 150 votes, he said. “They didn’t miss by that much,” Bradley said. “They just needed to get a few more.”

Fiore, a 28-year councilman and one of the city’s founders, said he was both ecstatic and relieved over the failure of the six-month petition drive that targeted him and Schillo because of their support of a planned $63.8-million civic arts center.

“They’ve tried again and failed again,” Fiore said, alluding to past efforts to thwart the project. “Now we do not have to run an expensive campaign and waste taxpayers’ money on the cost of an election. I’m glad we can get this behind us so we can get down to the business of running the city.”

Schillo, an eight-year councilman, said the results represented a victory for the city and the civic arts project planned for the site of the former Jungleland wild animal park.

“This small group has been nagging at this community too long,” Schillo said. “They should understand that the people don’t want their brand of politics in this city . . . the rabble-rousing and all the lies.”

But organizers of the 1000 Oaks Recall Committee said they are not prepared to give up.

“It is our intention to examine each of those petitions and challenge any disqualified signatures,” said Dick Booker, a member of the group. “It seems awfully peculiar that we got that close and didn’t get it.”

Booker said the recall group plans to exercise its rights to review the work of county election officials, who disqualified more than 20% of the signatures on the petitions against Fiore and Schillo.

If the review adds enough signatures for a recall vote but is not completed in time to make the June primary ballot, Booker said the group would seek a special election.

The recall campaign is the latest tactic of a group of Thousand Oaks residents who have tried without success to let voters decide the fate of the new city hall and performing arts auditorium to be built on the Jungleland site.

The project, which has mushroomed in cost over the years, has drawn more criticism than any other public project in the city’s 28-year history.

In submitting the recall petitions, the 1000 Oaks Recall Committee furnished 10,640 signatures to recall Fiore and 10,547 to recall Schillo, Bradley said.

After checking the signatures against voter registration cards, Bradley said the Fiore petition had 8,213 signatures of voters now registered in Thousand Oaks. The Schillo petition had 8,225 valid signatures, he said.

To qualify for the ballot, each petition needed 8,375 signatures, or 15% of the city’s 55,830 registered voters.

Bradley said petitions typically lose about 20% of the signatures as invalid because the person has moved or is not registered to vote. In this case, he said, 367 signatures on Schillo’s petition and 353 signatures on Fiore’s were registered to vote but lived outside Thousand Oaks.

In a related matter, Schillo has reserved a place in the race for the 19th state Senate district seat being vacated by Sen. Ed Davis (R-Santa Clarita). Previously, he said he would make a bid for the Senate seat if he did not have to defend himself in a recall campaign.

Schillo said Monday that he was too delighted with his recall victory to make a decision on his next step. “I’m still on the ceiling,” he said. “I want to enjoy this.” He said he would make an announcement before the filing deadline on Friday.

If he jumps in, Schillo, a Republican, would face stiff competition for the Republican nomination from Assemblywoman Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley) and former Assemblywoman Marian W. La Follette, who recently moved to Thousand Oaks.