Mayor Backs Off Oath Requirement : Thousand Oaks: Colleagues decry Elois Zeanah’s pledge to force developers and lobbyists to be sworn in at hearings.

Thousand Oaks Mayor Elois Zeanah, retreating from an inaugural pledge, has dropped a plan to force all developers and lobbyists to take oaths to tell the truth at public hearings.

During a heated hourlong session Tuesday night, other council members attacked Zeanah for championing the proposal in her inaugural address and accused her of insulting the integrity of everyone who testifies at City Hall.

“I think it’s embarrassing to even be discussing this,” Councilman Frank Schillo said. He added that residents have come up to him on the street and offered mock-Nazi salutes, “indicating that this is a Gestapo technique, to have people swear when they testify because we don’t believe they’re telling the truth.”

Fighting back under a veneer of icy politeness, Zeanah tried to distance herself from the proposals that had generated so much controversy.

She insisted that a city staff report outlining the council’s options--to swear in all speakers orally or by a written oath--did not reflect her own opinions on the issue.

But City Manager Grant Brimhall said the report represented a “good-faith effort” to follow through on Zeanah’s mayoral acceptance speech in September, during which she vowed to “ask that testimony by applicants, their lobbyists and representatives be considered sworn testimony.”

During that speech, which drew a standing ovation from a packed council chamber, Zeanah also said: “Never again shall applicants, their experts, representatives and attorneys come before this city and knowingly give false or misleading information or empty promises to fraudulently further their case with impunity.”

Again and again Tuesday night, Councilwoman Judy Lazar pressed Zeanah to disclose specific instances in which developers or expert witnesses had deliberately misled the council.

Councilman Alex Fiore, too, urged her to name names, saying that misstatements may have been genuine errors rather than calculated lies.

“Believe me, there have been times when you have been wrong too, Mme. Mayor,” he said.

But Zeanah refused to identify specific cases, though she contended to hold a list of liars. After the meeting, Zeanah said she would not release the list publicly, thereby preserving the reputations of businesses and professional people within the community.

“This is nothing outrageous,” she said of the proposal. “It’s accountability.”

In researching Zeanah’s proposal, city staff found that Thousand Oaks could not legally require oaths of only a select group, such as developers. Instead, the council would have to impose a blanket policy swearing in all witnesses, including residents.

And that prospect alarmed some council members--and citizens.

Everyone who testifies “has a tendency to exaggerate or stretch their point of view,” Fiore said. “That’s no secret. It’s our job to sort it all out.”

Several residents said that requiring a sworn oath would discourage people from speaking out at public hearings and would create a chilly atmosphere of distrust.

*

The plan would “lead us to big-city politics and away from the small-town atmosphere that we all enjoy,” former Planning Commissioner Andy Fox said. He pointed out that developers and expert witnesses place their credibility on the line already when they testify in taped public hearings, even though they do not formally swear to tell the truth.

Repeatedly, Zeanah accused her colleagues of grandstanding, which she defined as making negative statements with unwarranted flamboyance.

“Grandstanding is not allowed in council chambers,” she told Lazar.

“It certainly is not,” Lazar snapped back, “but the mayor is guilty of it frequently.”

The heated debate Tuesday culminated in Fiore’s motion to “table this item forever,” which passed in a unanimous 5-0 vote, including Zeanah.