Group to Confront Council

Blasting Thousand Oaks city government as secretive and unresponsive, a grass-roots citizens group plans to demand a more open decision-making process at a meeting with the City Council this afternoon.

Although the council called the special session to respond to public outrage over a specific issue--the recently opened Circuit City store, which some area residents consider an eyesore--the grass-roots group will air more sweeping gripes.

Several citizens who plan to speak at the televised meeting vowed Monday to charge council members with misleading the public and acting arrogantly. They contend that the council failed to keep residents up-to-date on the status of the Circuit City property, which the city sold to Told Corp. in 1989 in exchange for some cash and a vacant parcel at Hodencamp Road and Hillcrest Drive.

But council members bitterly rebut those charges, noting that all negotiations about the property--which stretch back to 1983--were conducted in public sessions.

“The problem is, no one was the least bit interested at the time,” Mayor Judy Lazar said. “Council meetings are televised--nothing is done in secret.”

Area residents are also furious that they received no notification about impending construction of Circuit City and so had no chance to appeal the development. By law, the city is required to notify only those landowners who own property within 300 feet of the site.

The Circuit City property first sparked public interest, and anger, when construction began on the 23,800-square-foot cinder-block structure on the edge of the quiet unincorporated neighborhood of Lynn Ranch last summer.

Residents protested the building at regular demonstrations on the construction site and in several packed City Council meetings, charging that its blocky silhouette would mar views of the mountains and create an eyesore at one of the gateways to Thousand Oaks. In response, the developers modified the design and color scheme to better match surrounding structures.

Still dissatisfied, Concerned Citizens gathered more than 2,500 signatures on a petition to stop construction altogether. The group says it has the support of thousands more in the community. Despite their efforts, the electronics store opened in late November--a muted, sand-colored building that looks little like the vibrant red stores characteristic of many other Circuit City outlets.

But some citizens remain furious.

“It’s going to be a tough, rough meeting,” said Donald Davis, a leader of Concerned Citizens of Thousand Oaks. “The council may not have done anything illegal, but the way they’ve done things is just not right. It’s in back rooms and behind closed doors. We want to be part and parcel of the decision making.”

In response to these charges, the Thousand Oaks finance director has compiled a four-inch-thick binder containing all the documents about Circuit City property, located along Lynn Road and Hillcrest Drive, to outline the city’s steps and demonstrate that every action was public.

“The record will show that the city acted prudently and we did get fair value for the property,” City Manager Grant R. Brimhall said. “I don’t think they could find a city anywhere that has spent more time trying to make public processes accessible to the public. But despite their best-faith efforts, it’s never possible to have everyone understand and support everything they do.”

Nonetheless, Concerned Citizens member Manny Ferrara said he plans to speak out at today’s meeting against council members who “pat themselves on the back” for doing “exactly what they damn well please” without consulting their constituents.

“Any time they have a project that’s so complicated they can’t explain it to the public on one page, they shouldn’t do it,” Ferrara said.

Recognizing that his group cannot force the city to tear down the building now, Davis said he simply wants to vent his frustration at “being left out in the cold” about the deal. Still more important, he said, is to ensure that “no other Circuit City-type occurrence happens again--we want to be involved in government and we want it all to be aboveboard.”