ELECTIONS / THOUSAND OAKS CITY COUNCIL : 16 Candidates State Their Cases at Forum

They may differ on development and clash on crime, but the 16 candidates running for Thousand Oaks City Council share one common goal: teaching voters to tell them apart.

Matching names to faces and then to ideas can be tough with such a crowded field--as candidate Irving Wasserman found out during Thursday night’s forum before a homeowners’ coalition, the Westlake Joint Board.

Although he serves as a planning commissioner and presides over televised meetings each week, the first question Wasserman fielded after his six-minute introductory speech was a slightly sheepish, “What’s your name?”

“Now there’s a downer,” the 72-year-old business executive said, chuckling. “I thought that just by my being up here, you would all know who I am.”

No one else dared make that assumption.

Eager to impress their names into voters’ consciousness, several candidates came up with gimmicks:

Police Detective Michael Markey pointed out that his initials spell “M & M,” and handed out packs of the multicolored candy. Candidate David Hare explained that he cherishes the Conejo Valley partly because conejo means hare or rabbit in Spanish. And activist Ekbal Quidwai wore a T-shirt emblazoned with a photo of himself testifying during a recent council meeting.

Other candidates vying for three open council seats are: dentist Greg Cole, retired businessman Marshall Dixon, firefighter Andy Fox, financial manager Michael Friedman, retired filmmaker M. Ali Issari, former Councilman Lee Laxdal, real estate salesman Chuck Morsa, public access TV producer Jeannette Scovill, mortgage broker Bill Williams, mobile car-wash owner Lance Winslow, and two incumbents, Councilwomen Judy Lazar and Elois Zeanah.

The two-hour forum Thursday night was the first of about six where all 16 candidates are expected to appear as the Nov. 8 election approaches.

A few candidates--speaking to about 50 people at the North Ranch Community Center--devoted their allotted six minutes to detailing their backgrounds.

Cole described his years of service on the city’s Planning Commission and the Ventura County Community College District board.

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Issari, 72, focused on his career as an academic, explaining that he was “not a politician by any means.” The youngest candidate, 27-year-old Friedman, also tried to position himself as an outsider, saying he would come to office with a “clean slate.”

But most candidates focused intently on the issues.

Public safety won top billing from Fox, Markey and Winslow.

Markey suggested several new programs to fight crime, such as assigning two police officers to full-time gang detail, enacting curfew and loitering laws to keep kids off the street at night, and establishing a storefront police station at the Civic Arts Plaza.

Describing himself as energetic and willing to hustle, the 29-year-old Winslow offered details about a new crime-busting tactic he has already launched. The mobile watch program enlists traveling vendors to report suspicious activity they see while driving through the city.

Fox emphasized the need to bolster existing programs by hiring more police officers and boosting Neighborhood Watch efforts.