Agoura Hopefuls Tackle Issues and Take Issue

Five of the six candidates vying for three Agoura Hills City Council seats appeared at the Canyon Club on Thursday night to describe their positions to constituents before the Nov. 2 election.

Police protection, pole signs and the city’s attitude toward business are among the most important issues in the upcoming election.

Incumbent Fran Pavley and newcomers Denis Weber and Ed Corridori are running against a slate formed by Gary (Paul) Mueller, Steve Soelberg, and Los Angeles Police Officer Lyle Michelson, who are backed by several local business owners.

Mueller did not attend the forum due to illness, but said he had previously considered snubbing the event because he said the organizers, a local homeowner group, had scheduled it to conflict with a fund-raiser that he, Michelson and Soelberg had scheduled.

In the end, Michelson and Soelberg agreed to participate and Mueller’s campaign chairman attended in his place.

Michelson, however, told the forum that he was “upset about the dirty politics” of the scheduling conflict. He then walked off the podium, refusing to take part in a question and answer session.

He protested that the approximately 50 people who attended were stacked with opponents of his slate, and were unrepresentative of the city’s 12,000 voters.

The forum’s moderator, Ellen Pangarliotas, refused to allow Mueller’s campaign chairman, Hayden Finley, to take his place in the forum.

Pavley defended her record on the council, a record she said was especially good in the area of environmentally sensitive planning and fiscal responsibility.

Despite the skirmishes over procedure, etiquette and the issues, political observers describe this as a mild political season compared with past campaigns.

“I’m really proud of the way the candidates have carried themselves this year,” said a former city official who declined to be identified. “No one has tried to forge letters on other people’s stationery and other borderline stupid stuff like that.”

Mueller and his running mates refused to allow a local cable television company to tape the first of the two voters forums. Mueller said he feared that his opponents could edit the tape into a campaign tool against him.

Last week, City Clerk Pat Manning sent a letter to Concerned Tax Contributors, a committee formed to campaign on the pole sign issue, informing them that they had violated the city’s campaign reform law by accepting contributions above the $250 limit.

The group has spent about $58,000 on consulting fees, research and other related expenses since Jan. 1, according to campaign spending statements.

No representatives of the political action committee could be reached for comment, but the group has called a news conference at a local gas station today.