AGOURA HILLS : Three Sworn In for City Council Terms

Two new Agoura Hills City Council members and one returning member were sworn in this week, beginning what could be the last chapter in the town’s struggle to raze its pole-mounted signs.

Freshman council members Ed Corridori and Denis Weber and returning member Fran Pavley took their oaths of office at a standing-room-only ceremony Tuesday night, during which they avoided direct mention of the pole sign controversy that dominated much of the Nov. 2 election.

In that election, Agoura Hills voters by a 3-1 margin upheld a city law requiring the removal of pole-mounted signs, an ordinance supported by Corridori, Weber and Pavley.

It is unclear whether business owners who oppose removal of their signs will take legal action to try to save them. Opponents have said they are in a “wait and see” mode about what to do next since the election of two new council members.

After the swearing-in ceremony, Weber said he would like to talk with merchants opposed to the law, but that he is resolute in his support of it.

“I’d like to sit down with the business owners and try to convince them that there’s only one way to go on this thing,” Weber said. “They’ve got to understand that this is what the people want.”

At Tuesday night’s event at City Hall, Joan Yacovone was voted mayor and Louise Rishoff was named mayor pro tem.

Retiring council members Darlene McBane and Ed Kurtz received gifts and standing ovations from their former colleagues and supporters. Golf tees and other items for Kurtz were wrapped in a cigarette carton, in appreciation for his sponsorship of legislation approved this fall banning smoking in most public places.

“This is pretty much a love fest,” Pavley said afterward. “We’ll start dealing with the controversial stuff later.”