WESTLAKE VILLAGE : Council Meets Dec. 7 to Select New Mayor

The Westlake Village City Council will hold a special meeting Dec. 7 to select a new mayor.

The meeting will be at 7:30 p.m. at the City Hall Council Chambers, 4373 Park Terrace Drive. There will be a reception for the new mayor following the meeting.

Traditionally, the council has tapped the mayor pro tem to succeed the mayor, said Mayor Doug Yarrow. The mayor pro tem this year is Kenneth Rufener.

Rufener, who was elected to the council in 1987, was on vacation and could not be reached for comment Monday.

In 1991, he narrowly defeated challenger Daniel Murphy, who campaigned on a platform to oppose a controversial large-scale housing development proposed by the Baldwin Co.

Rufener, who was mayor at the time, maintained that under the city’s General Plan the developer legally had the right to build 330 homes on the shores of Las Virgenes Reservoir. The city could be sued if it opposed the project without good cause, Rufener argued.

The project never materialized and the land is still vacant, according to city officials.

Yarrow, elected to the council in 1989, said he has enjoyed his term as mayor. Particularly satisfying, he said, was helping the city update its emergency disaster preparedness plan. The city’s disaster response handbook is almost complete and will be mailed to residents by January, he said.