Councilwoman at Center of Battle Over Alliance : Thousand Oaks: Some call the citizens’ group Elois Zeanah’s political vehicle. She says it will analyze issues without taking sides.

A Thousand Oaks councilwoman frequently at odds with the rest of the City Council has become involved in a new battle with her critics over formation of a citizens’ group that her opponents denounce as a thinly disguised alliance of political activists.

Councilwoman Elois Zeanah, an environmentalist who often finds herself at the short end of 4-1 council decisions, says one purpose of the new citizens’ group will be to “counterbalance the entrenched special interests” in the Thousand Oaks city government.

The group is called the Citizens Q of L Action Alliance for the Conejo Valley because of an emphasis on “quality of life” issues. It will hold its first meeting tonight amid charges by two city councilmen that it is essentially a political vehicle for Zeanah.

Zeanah, who said she foresees the alliance becoming an advisory group for the entire City Council, described it as nonpartisan. She said it will analyze issues without taking sides in Thousand Oaks politics.

“I’m just wanting to expand additional opportunities of the public to get involved,” she said. “The citizens’ voice is just not heard very clearly or very loudly” by city government, she said.

But Councilmen Frank Schillo and Alex Fiore, frequent opponents of Zeanah on local issues, said they view the formation of the group as a move by Zeanah to increase her influence in city affairs.

Fiore said the new group will not be advising him.

“This is her advisory committee, not an advisory committee of the city of Thousand Oaks,” he said. “You can’t have one councilwoman controlling a committee and have it represent the entire council. That’s political. We don’t do things that way.”

Schillo, denouncing the alliance as a “thinly disguised political activist group,” said the selection of Robert E. Murray to speak at tonight’s meeting demonstrates its bias.

Murray, a Thousand Oaks retiree, has been an outspoken critic of the $62.8-million Jungleland civic center now under construction. Schillo criticized Zeanah for aligning herself with Murray.

“I think that it is unconscionable to spread misinformation about the city that you are elected to represent,” Schillo said.

Earlier this year, Fiore and Schillo were threatened with a recall election because of their support for the Jungleland civic center, which will include a city hall, performing arts center and a smaller theater.

But the recall effort failed because organizers did not have enough petition signatures to qualify for an election.

Zeanah said a city official will be invited to rebut Murray at the new group’s meeting in September. She said organizers did not believe there was enough time in one meeting to present both sides of the redevelopment issue.

Murray said this week that he hadn’t expected his upcoming talk to generate so much controversy. He said he had thought he would be talking with “a few people around a table,” not addressing a group. Murray said a heart condition prevents him from public speaking.

Defending the purposes of the new group, Zeanah said she thinks it can play an important role in informing the public about issues coming up before the Thousand Oaks City Council and Planning Commission. She said the group will not be endorsing candidates.

She added that the public often is not aware of these issues until it is too late to comment. Zeanah said that as a new council member, she lobbied unsuccessfully to increase the public-notice period for items on the council agenda from 10 days to at least 30 days.

Jimmy Sloan, an alliance organizer, also said that a primary goal of the group is to spread information about city projects to the public.

Sloan said he is encouraged by the success of a citizens’ group in neighboring Simi Valley. The group, Citizens for a Safe and Scenic Simi Valley, organized over opposition to a McDonald’s restaurant and an outdoor police shooting range in an exclusive subdivision.

The Simi Valley group has since expanded its political activity. One of its members has been appointed to the Planning Commission, and the group’s founder is on a leave of absence to manage the campaign of a candidate for the Simi Valley City Council.

In addition to Murray’s opening talk about city projects and a planned rebuttal in September, the Thousand Oaks group plans an August meeting to discuss the city’s system of trails and open space. In October it plans to sponsor a public forum for City Council candidates.