Lazar Will Serve as Mayor of Thousand Oaks for 9 Months

Thousand Oaks City Councilwoman Judy Lazar was selected Tuesday to serve a nine-month term as the city’s mayor and was sworn in at a ceremony that also welcomed new council member Jaime Zukowski.

Elected to the largely ceremonial post by a unanimous vote of the council, Lazar is the third woman to serve as mayor in the city’s 28-year history. Her first goal for 1993, she said, is to unify a council that has bickered publicly in recent years.

“My goal is to have this council get along . . . privately and publicly,” Lazar said before the meeting.

But the selection of the city’s mayor has been a matter of dispute. Some citizens have publicly criticized council members for overlooking Councilwoman Elois Zeanah in handing out official appointments.

The mayor usually holds office for one year, but in a compromise vote, council members agreed to shorten the term to allow Zeanah to serve for nine months after Lazar’s term is over. Then veteran Councilman Alex Fiore will take over the position for six months.

The proposal was made in deference to Fiore, a 66-year-old veteran councilman who was a leader of the drive to incorporate the city in 1964.

Fiore has said he will not run again after his term ends in 1994. He said he wants to serve as mayor in the latter half of the year because the long-awaited Civic Arts Plaza will be dedicated in October of that year.

“I’ve been on the council for 28 years, and with all the buildings we’ve developed . . . I have never been mayor at a time when we dedicated one of those facilities,” Fiore said. “It would be a nice way to leave the city.”

Council members and citizens also thanked outgoing Mayor Robert E. Lewis, who lost his seat to Zukowski last month, for his years of service on both the council and Planning Commission.

Lazar, 51, is the first woman to serve as mayor since former Councilwoman Frances Prince was selected by her colleagues to hold the post in 1983.

Lazar graduated from Albertus Magnus College for Women in New Haven, Conn., with a degree in economics and political science.

A mother of three, Lazar moved to Thousand Oaks in 1971, when her husband was hired by a local aerospace company. For six years, she directed Conejo Valley Senior Concerns, a nonprofit social-services group for the elderly. She also served on the Planning Commission for five years.

Lazar said she hopes to spend the upcoming year promoting affordable housing, revising the city’s 23-year-old General Plan and making sure local businesses stay in the community.

Lazar said the city should continue its effort to retain businesses, citing the city’s assistance to Sears, Roebuck that helped keep the retail store in Thousand Oaks.

“Simi Valley practically had a commitment from Sears, and we were fortunate to change their minds. It’s the sort of thing that we as a city must do,” she said. “We have a tough year ahead. If we thought it was tough this year, it’s going to get tougher.”