Judge Sides With Recall Group Over Signatures : Thousand Oaks: A citizens committee is granted more time to examine invalid petitions in its unsuccessful drive to remove two councilmen.

A Ventura County judge on Monday strongly rebuked Thousand Oaks officials for trying to block a citizens group’s attempt to examine signatures on petitions calling for the recall of two veteran councilmen.

Superior Court Judge Richard D. Aldrich ordered the city clerk’s office to give the 1000 Oaks Recall Committee up to 20 hours, or about three working days, to examine signatures collected in the unsuccessful recall drive against Councilmen Alex Fiore and Frank Schillo.

The committee fell 162 signatures short of the 8,375 required to qualify Fiore’s removal for a vote. A petition to remove Schillo fell short by 150 signatures.

Committee members hope to find enough additional valid signatures to convince a judge to order an official recount.

“The city is here to serve the people, not vice versa,” Aldrich told City Atty. Darryl R. Wold, who had argued that the city clerk’s office would be swamped during the height of the election season by the request to examine the signatures.

“If they had been given access (earlier) . . . we wouldn’t be here,” Aldrich said. “I think the people the city serves should have the time to check these signatures.”

Committee members said an appointment to examine the signatures, which were submitted in January, will be scheduled as soon as possible. But committee members said they were unhappy with Aldrich’s tentative denial of their request to be reimbursed $7,772 that they spent taking the city to court.

“We should never have been locked out in the first place,” said Joan Gorner, one of the committee’s leaders. “We’ve lost time and we’ve lost money.”

The decision was the latest development in a longstanding feud between Thousand Oaks and opponents of the city’s $63.8-million civic arts center project.

After a series of unsuccessful attempts to kill the project, the committee last year launched a recall drive against Schillo and Fiore, the project’s two primary supporters.

Schillo, whose council seat is up for grabs in November, said he believes the city was justified in challenging the group’s request for more time to examine signatures.

The judge’s decision “is just mind-boggling,” Schillo said.

Committee members said they had spent less than 24 hours examining the petitions when City Clerk Nancy Dillon decided to withhold access to the documents April 24.

Dillon maintained that the group had plenty of time to verify signatures that were invalidated by the county elections office. She decided to bar access to the files after committee members began to record signatures that were never contested.

“Documenting the invalid signatures I could understand, but I have a problem with them documenting the valid signatures,” Dillon said, citing a state law that protects information on petitions from being used in other campaigns.

Committee members promised the court not to copy addresses and agreed to hand over records of their search to the city once they have completed their work.

The files will be opened to the committee as soon as the city clerk’s office receives a written report on the ruling from Wold, Dillon said.

“Nobody wants to extend this,” she said. “The sooner we get this over with, the better.”