THOUSAND OAKS : Gadfly, Council Members at Odds

Thousand Oaks gadfly Ekbal Quidwai had no sooner taken the podium this week, armed with pages of facts and figures about the Civic Arts Plaza, when Councilman Frank Schillo threw out a statistic of his own.

“I did a little research and I found out that Mr. Quidwai has talked before the council 71 times this year,” Schillo said. “Many times, he’s come up four times in one night. He’s already on his second time tonight.”

Quidwai--who indeed comes to every council meeting and testifies on nearly every big issue--has clearly gotten on the nerves of at least two politicians, Schillo and Councilman Alex Fiore.

Although council members are not supposed to debate public speakers during meetings, Fiore frequently challenges Quidwai to prove his statements or explain his statistics. And Schillo has recently launched a mini-campaign to dissuade Quidwai from taking up so much time at council meetings.

“This is democracy at its worst,” Schillo said. “One person is monopolizing all our time. He says people are intimidated from coming down here because they get criticized all the time. Well, no one else gets criticized except him, and I complain about him because I’m getting complaints from other residents.”

Undaunted, Quidwai has been firing back.

He read the Declaration of Independence during the public comment period of last week’s council meeting, after Schillo chided him for speaking too often. And when Schillo started to question him during his third presentation Tuesday, Quidwai responded icily: “I guess it’s OK to interrupt those who we don’t agree with.”

Slowing his speech--usually extra-rapid so he can cram as many comments as possible in a five-minute period--Quidwai also offered an impassioned defense of his motives.

“I plead guilty to enjoying coming to this forum,” Quidwai said. “I plead guilty to believing that this is the place where one citizen can make the most difference. I plead guilty to being passionate about the issues.”