THOUSAND OAKS : Candidate Levels Charge Against Rivals

Thousand Oaks City Council candidate Greg Cole has filed a complaint against three of his rivals, claiming their supporters violated campaign disclosure laws by failing to register as an organized group.

Cole accused the Grassroots Coalition, which includes six citizens groups, of contributing to the campaigns of Elois Zeanah, David Hare and M. Ali Issari without completing necessary paperwork.

Under state law, any person or group who contributes more than $1,000 to a political campaign must file a statement of organization with the secretary of state and the city clerk, according to Jeanette Turvill, a spokeswoman for the state Fair Political Practices Commission.

A leader of the Grassroots Coalition, Michelle Koetke, said the umbrella organization has spent only about $800 on a flyer backing the slate of Zeanah, Hare and Issari. “We’ve been very careful about it,” she said. “I’m keeping strict records.”

But Koetke acknowledged that individual coalition members may have dipped into their own wallets to make additional copies of the literature. “I can’t stop people from going out and doing their own thing,” she said.

If members of the coalition, emptying their own pockets, have bumped the group’s total expenditures above $1,000, the coalition could be required to register as an official political organization, Turvill said. Violations of the campaign code carry a $2,000 administrative fine.

Cole said he would ask the Fair Political Practices Commission to investigate the matter.

Zeanah, however, dismissed the charge as ludicrous. “It seems some candidates will do anything to grab a headline,” she said. “It’s an attack on residents.”