ELECTIONS / THOUSAND OAKS COUNCIL : Candidates Focus on Issues, Not Panel Factions

The June 6 special election is supposed to be a definitive event for Thousand Oaks, the day the stalemate in philosophical differences on the City Council is broken.

But as voters go to the polls in little more than a week, there is still no clear picture of how each candidate would function in the role as the fifth and deciding vote.

Two candidates, Mike Markey and Trudi Loh, have emerged as the front-runners in fund raising, stashing away about $25,000 each for their campaigns. The other three--John Ellis, Ramaul Rush and Lance Winslow--are knocking on doors whenever they can, distributing photocopied brochures instead of glossy mailers and hoping voters consider them serious candidates despite their lack of financial backing.

Instead of picking sides, the five candidates have focused on issues, treading lightly where their answers might indicate a slant toward either slow-growth or pro-business--the perceived factions on the current council.

Public safety is literally a safe issue. As candidate John Ellis says: Who is in favor of crime? Both Loh and Markey have made a point of their commitment to enhance crime-fighting efforts while campaigning.

All the candidates stress the need to keep the city financially sound as it reaches build-out, expected in the next 12 to 15 years. Their answers range from Ellis’ idea to houseclean at City Hall to Markey’s proposal to hire an economic liaison to attract new businesses to Thousand Oaks.

And they all call for preserving and maintaining a ring of untouched land around the Conejo Valley, responding to voters’ concerns that the rural nature of the community may be lost without adequate funding for parks and open-space acquisition.

About the only thing they split on is how to find the money to accomplish these goals.

Beyond the sweeping questions put to candidates on the city’s future lie more specific requests from residents: When will you build new athletic fields for us? When will you sell the deteriorating old City Hall on Hillcrest Drive? Will you do something to improve that ugly copper curtain hanging on the side of the Civic Arts Plaza? And what will become of Thousand Oaks Boulevard, the aging commercial strip that cuts through the heart of the city?

At the seven forums held throughout this campaign season, voters centered their questions on these issues of growth, development, environment, the city’s financial future and public safety. But as they trudged door-to-door through precincts, many of the candidates found voters most concerned about maintaining the status quo.

“The heart of people’s concerns is preserving their quality of life,” Loh said. “I don’t think it gets as technical as the questions we get at forums. The typical voter is concerned about their quality of life.”

Safe streets and neighborhoods are part of that quality of life. In a 1994 attitude survey, Conejo Valley residents cited the low crime rate as the single most important factor in why they moved to Thousand Oaks.

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Markey has relied heavily on his 18-year career as a Compton policeman to persuade voters he is dedicated to keeping crime down. “I am public safety,” he is fond of saying. Used to dealing with gangs on a daily basis, Markey says he fears Thousand Oaks is not paying enough attention to growing numbers of gang members in its neighborhoods.

He would impose curfews on the city’s youth, using loitering laws to clear them out of gathering places. Markey also wants two police officers reassigned to a full-time gangs unit. But he doesn’t believe the sheriff’s station in Thousand Oaks can afford to hire additional officers.

Loh says it is the City Council’s job to find the money for a few more officers, but that decisions on how to assign officers should be left in the hands of Sheriff’s Cmdr. Kathy Kemp. Loh, however, advocates a collaborative effort by the city, schools and park district to find creative, preventive solutions to keep local children out of gangs.

Winslow and Rush both say they would push for more youth activities as well, while Ellis said more work needs to be done in the home.

“The real way to prevent crime is to start when they are about 3 years old and turn them into human beings instead of animals,” Ellis said.

Even as the candidates toss out ideas to save Thousand Oaks from gangs and bank robbers, some say they are taking advantage of public fears for political gain.

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“In the old days, politicians would kiss babies,” said Ekbal (Nick) Quidwai, who dropped out of the race last week and endorsed Loh. “Nowadays they knock criminals.”

The fiscal future of the city is a key concern for voters. They know the city will reach its planned capacity sometime after 2005, and no matter what their feelings about developers, they know that with new development comes new parks, roads and improvements--all courtesy of development fees.

About 40% of the city’s general fund budget comes annually from sales tax revenue. So keeping local businesses--from The Oaks mall to Thousand Oaks Boulevard--healthy and flourishing is also a concern. At forums, residents have been peppering candidates with questions on how to boost local sales tax revenue.

Markey favors a buy-local program that would extend to city government. If the city needs supplies of any kind, it should try to buy them in Thousand Oaks, he says. But Loh disagrees, saying such a policy could end up costing the city more money.

“It has to make business sense,” she said. “The city of Los Angeles Fire Department tries to buy local and sometimes ends up paying three times more for what they are buying. That’s not buying local, that’s stupid business.”

A key source of sales tax revenues is the Thousand Oaks Boulevard corridor, a commercial strip that some say needs a more cohesive look to attract more shoppers and businesses.

A citizens’ committee will offer recommendations this summer for redesigning the boulevard, and the City Council will decide whether to redevelop the area or leave it to the private sector.

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Markey thinks something needs to be done fast to prevent further deterioration. His suggestions include redeveloping with a Western motif and seeking beautification grants to spruce up the boulevard, while Loh says the city should allow the merchants to decide what should be done. She favors tree planting and small improvements, leaving major changes to the natural free-market process.

Rush believes something should be done to fix up some of the street’s shabbier areas, but believes the merchants should have the final word on what happens there. Ellis says the city’s involvement should be limited to fixing streets, putting in sidewalks and improving disabled access and drainage.

Winslow wants the city to push hard for an outdoor mall-type development across the street from the Civic Arts Plaza, but is undecided on whether the city should help finance it.

Both Loh and Markey agree that attracting more businesses with high-paying professional positions, such as Amgen Inc., would be a boost to the local economy. But they disagree on how to do it.

Markey wants to hire a full-time economic liaison, Loh says that would be wasteful--she believes that staff members in the city manager’s office could take on the responsibility.

Gung-ho Winslow, who has made a career of marketing himself as the owner of the Car Wash Guys, wants to market Thousand Oaks to outsiders. The Civic Arts Plaza should be the cornerstone of that marketing campaign, he says. He wants to install a drive-up information kiosk for out-of-town visitors, pointing them to local restaurants and shops.

Ellis’ idea to increase revenue is simple: clean house at City Hall, firing unnecessary staff members and retraining others to make them more efficient. Government waste in Thousand Oaks is an outrage, he contends.

All of the candidates remain committed to preserving the scenic, untouched hillsides that surround the city, vowing that they will not allow development to encroach on open space. But paying for upkeep on the land is a challenge; The Conejo Open Space Conservation Authority--the joint powers agency between the park district and city--is already operating on a tight budget.

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A touchstone environmental issue throughout the campaign has been Broome Ranch, the 326-acre parcel the city and park district acquired together two years ago. Anxious to create a new revenue source, officials are dancing around the question of whether to build a golf course on the site.

The current council is split, with two members inclined to keep Broome Ranch as open space, with some equestrian use, and the other two willing to consider a golf course on the property if environmental studies prove it is feasible.

Loh and Markey both said they would need to see environmental studies before making a decision on a golf course. Rush said he believes the community needs more recreational facilities, and that adding soccer fields at Broome Ranch should be a priority. Winslow, an equestrian himself, wants the city to build a golf course at Hill Canyon instead. Ellis wants the land preserved as open space.

Based on their stands on the issues, it is hard to pigeonhole the candidates as falling into either faction on the current council. And that’s how they want it.

Quidwai, the one candidate who was an unabashed supporter of the so-called slow-growth contingent, Mayor Jaime Zukowski and Councilwoman Elois Zeanah dropped out of the race last week, leaving behind a field of five who all vow they are independent thinkers.

Real estate broker and engineer John Ellis says his voice on the council won’t be a deadlock breaker, because he will somehow persuade the other council members to join him in a flurry of harmonious 5-0 decisions.

Mobile carwash business owner Winslow and juvenile court dependency counselor Rush declare their independent viewpoints as well. They both said they believe they can work well with all the council members.

Markey has won support from many of the same business leaders who backed pro-growth council members Judy Lazar and Andy Fox in the fall election. Markey received $13,100 in campaign contributions from dealers at the Thousand Oaks Auto Mall. He has also garnered support from Citizens to Save Our City, a pro-business group that formed to protest the policies of Zeanah and Zukowski.

But Markey says the last thing he wants to be is a swing vote. “I want to be voting with the rest of the council,” he said. “It ought to be a joint effort. I don’t want to be a swing vote and have all that fall on me.”

Loh has won endorsements from the Sierra Club and from business owners such as Larry Janss and Tina Carlson--who supported Zeanah’s campaign in the fall. Loh dismissed the notion that her endorsements mean she would automatically side with the slow-growth faction, saying she would consider each issue separately.

“What people want is someone who is not tied in with either side,” Loh said. “Clearly people want to know that you are going to approach questions intelligently and rationally and that you’re not just mailing in your vote ahead of time on an ideological basis.”