Outgoing Mayor Gets an Ongoing Testimonial : Thousand Oaks: Alex Fiore’s three decades of service to the city is being recognized by the Chamber of Commerce at weekly council sessions.

Thousand Oaks Mayor Alex Fiore will retire this fall after 30 years on the City Council. And before he goes, local business people would like to clear up just a few tiny misconceptions about the veteran politician.

Like the notion that he’s a pro-growth zealot, eager to chop down oak trees and pave over parks. Or the concept that he’s a reckless legislator, willing to bend laws to appease developers.

In this heated election season, as candidates attack the political establishment that Fiore represents, the mayor’s legacy is on the line. And his supporters want to be sure he has a fair shot at defending it.

So they have cooked up a program to recognize Fiore’s many contributions to Thousand Oaks. They call it the “Fiore Moment.”

Directors of the Conejo Valley Chamber of Commerce will take turns preparing five-minute tributes to the man who did so much to shape Thousand Oaks. They will offer personal reminiscences, recount political battles, or simply describe the initiatives Fiore has championed over the years.

They plan to present the Fiore Moment weekly, during the public comment period of council meetings.

“This is the chamber’s way of honoring someone who has so selflessly, so willingly, so gracefully and so thoroughly made Thousand Oaks such a wonderful place to live and work,” accountant Jack Tucker said.

Cynics--and Fiore’s political foes--offer a slightly different take on the weekly praise-fest.

In the first Fiore Moment, at last week’s council meeting, Tucker described the mayor’s longstanding support for preserving open space and protecting oak trees. He also mentioned that Fiore founded the Crime Prevention Task Force.

Both topics--the environment and crime--have become hot campaign issues, especially for Fiore’s ardent political enemy, incumbent Councilwoman Elois Zeanah.

Zeanah has long crusaded for slow-growth policies that would preserve more open space, and has voted against several developments on the grounds that they would pollute the Conejo Valley’s air. In her campaign, she has also emphasized her accomplishments as chairwoman of the Crime Prevention Task Force.

Last week’s Fiore Moment seemed to establish Fiore as a leader in areas Zeanah considers her turf.

“That is a very clever tactic for the chamber to take,” former Councilwoman Madge L. Schaefer said. Never a Fiore fan, she added with a chuckle: “There would only have to be one or two Fiore Moments to cover the highlights of his career.”

Chamber directors say they intend the weekly Fiore Moment as a nonpolitical tribute.

But Chamber President Steve Rubenstein acknowledged that the continuing plaudits could boost Fiore’s popularity--and indirectly generate support for the candidates he endorses, including incumbent Judy Lazar.

“I don’t know that we’re necessarily doing this as a political statement,” architect Gary Heathcote said. But given the rough-and-tumble campaign season, Heathcote added, “We recognize that certain people might want to take credit for things (Fiore) has done. We feel that should be corrected.”

In politics, however, one faction’s facts are another faction’s fiction. Some see the Fiore Moment as rewriting, rather than clarifying, history.

Take the Crime Prevention Task Force. Both Zeanah and Schaefer claim they originally proposed the concept, though Fiore formally established the committee. In any case, Zeanah said, she has always made crime a priority while Fiore and other council members long ignored Thousand Oaks’ gang problem.

On the mention of Fiore’s oak tree protection drive, Schaefer responded only, “Oh, baloney.”

Despite her concern about the facts, Zeanah praised the spirit of the Fiore Moment. In fact, she said, she started the concept several months ago, when she suggested naming the Civic Arts Plaza after Fiore during her State of the City address.

“Anything any group or individual wants to do to help make his retirement special to him, I support,” Zeanah said.

For his part, Fiore said he doubted the weekly comments would influence the upcoming election. He had permitted the presentations, he said, only because he will not be running.

Though he says he is flabbergasted by all the attention, Fiore added, “I like the idea of someone coming down and actually saying something nice.”

He showed his pleasure last Tuesday, when Tucker inaugurated the Fiore Moment to a smattering of applause. As Tucker was winding up his speech, mindful of the ticking electronic timer, Fiore called out, “You can have more than five minutes, if you wish.”

That remark was vintage Alex Fiore. And the mayor continued to toss out wisecracks all evening, showing the quick wit that many friends have singled out as his defining trait.

When a Little League baseball coach took the podium to describe how his team rallied from a 5-1 deficit, for instance, Fiore grinned at his colleagues on the council and said, “Wow. I like to go home when I’m losing, 3-2.”

Later, a speaker’s image mysteriously flashed on a 20-foot screen behind the council dais. “Oh, God,” the speaker said in horror, looking embarrassed at his hulking frame magnified to giant, and menacing, proportions. “Now you know what you look like to us,” Fiore retorted.

“Alex has a tremendous sense of humor,” Councilwoman Lazar said. If she had to select a single Fiore Moment,” Lazar added, she would choose an off-the-cuff remark that illustrated his wit.

Although the first Fiore Moment didn’t mention the mayor’s wisecracks, the tribute did contain several humorous anecdotes.

Tucker recounted Fiore’s first ride-along in a police patrol car, back in 1970. Like all police cars at the time, this one lacked air conditioning--and Fiore was soon sweating in heat that climbed to 120 degrees. “After that, he was pretty instrumental in getting funding for air conditioning in police cars,” Tucker said.

Tucker also recalled a period early in Fiore’s political career when he began traveling frequently for his day job as a vice president at Rockwell International.

City staff members would send him the council agendas to read--and after weeks of mailings, Fiore figured out that each pound of paperwork represented 2 1/2 hours worth of debate.

That ratio might be a lot different now, when one page of paper can clog up a good two hours on its own. “But that’s a different story,” Lazar said.