Countywide : 18 Show Interest in Seeking City Council, Mayoral Posts

Eighteen candidates for mayor and city council in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley and Oxnard picked up nomination papers or announced their candidacies on Monday. It was the first day that nomination forms for the Nov. 3 elections were available in these cities, where volatile races are taking shape.

In Thousand Oaks, where two council seats are at stake, Mayor Robert E. Lewis announced his reelection bid. Lewis, 47, spent nine years on the Planning Commission before winning a council seat in a special election three years ago.

The other incumbent, Frank Schillo, an eight-year veteran of the council, also picked up nomination papers.

So did Kenneth W. Bauer, who chaired a citizens committee that tried unsuccessfully to oust Schillo and Councilman Alex Fiore.

Planning Commissioner Irv Wasserman, 70, said he plans to announce his bid for the council at a news conference Wednesday in Newbury Park. Wasserman was appointed to the Planning Commission two years ago after serving on the city’s Council on Aging.

Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton said he will kick off his reelection campaign with a press briefing Friday. Stratton has served on the council since 1979 and has been mayor since 1986.

Attorney Robert L. Plunkett and Simi Valley Unified School District board member Kenneth Ashton picked up papers for the mayor’s post.

Two four-year terms on the Simi Valley City Council also are at stake. Incumbent Bill Davis, a six-year council veteran, and attorney Dick Satterlee picked up papers for those offices.

In Oxnard, three people took out papers to run for longtime Mayor Nao Takasugi’s two-year post. Takasugi is stepping down to run for a state Assembly seat. Taking out papers were Oscar Karrin, a retired catering business owner and local activist; Manuel M. Lopez, an optometrist and council member, and Anthony De La Cerda.

Six people also took out papers to run for two four-year Oxnard City Council seats: Roy Lockwood, a retired federal fire chief; Andres Herrera, a small business owner; Bedford Pinkard, a retired city recreation supervisor and a trustee of the Oxnard Union High School District; Fred Schwartz, a retired electronics engineer; Dorothy Maron, an incumbent councilwoman, and Christopher J. Kingsley, a special education teacher.