Mike Markey Takes Seat on Thousand Oaks City Council : Government: About 75 audience members applaud as the Newbury Park resident succeeds Frank Schillo.

Wearing a pink carnation and just a hint of a satisfied smile, Mike Markey slid into the long-empty fifth seat on the dais Tuesday night to begin his career as a Thousand Oaks city councilman.

“That was kind of scary,” Markey said of the oath he had just taken. “The last time I did that oath was in the Air Force.”

Markey took office to a standing ovation from an audience of about 75 supporters, including former council members Alex Fiore and Frank Schillo, Civic Arts Plaza Board of Governors Chairwoman Virginia Davis, Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Steve Rubenstein and Brian Collier, co-founder of Citizens to Save Our City.

After Markey’s long, hard battle to gain the council seat, audience members who watched the Compton homicide detective being sworn in might have expected an undertone of resentment, a hint of “I told you so” in the festivities.

But between Markey and his fellow council members Tuesday, there appeared to be only sweetness and light.

“I have a lot to learn and will rely a lot on the council members that are already up here,” Markey said. “I’m proud to be one-fifth of this City Council.”

The detective, who lives in Newbury Park, was humble and jovial with the other council members--even Mayor Jaime Zukowski, who, along with Councilwoman Elois Zeanah, opposed appointing Markey to fill the vacant council seat in December. Zeanah was not at Tuesday’s meeting because of a death in her family.

“You bring to this dais your tremendous energy and effort you put into getting elected,” Zukowski said. “You can expect support and help from your fellow council members.”

Markey had finished fourth in the fall election to fill three empty seats on the council. When Schillo stepped down to take his place on the Ventura County Board of Supervisors in December, that opened up another seat.

Council members Andy Fox and Judy Lazar wanted to appoint Markey, but Zeanah and Zukowski resisted, saying voters would feel disenfranchised if they did not have a chance to pick the fifth--and frequently tiebreaking--member of the council in a separate election.

The stalemate between the council members forced a special election June 6, which cost the city an estimated $100,000.

Markey won the election handily, pulling in 49.8% of the vote in a field of six candidates. His closest competitor, lawyer Trudi Loh, took 37.8% of the vote.

Throughout the spring campaign, Markey resisted being labeled, saying he could not predict whether he would vote with either the pro-business faction on the council--generally perceived to be Lazar and Fox--or the slow-growth faction, Zukowski and Zeanah.

In welcoming him Tuesday night, his fellow council members made reference to Markey’s dogged persistence in getting elected.

“You probably had to work harder than most people to get here,” Lazar said. “And you did it honestly, cleanly and persistently.”

Schillo, former council candidate Ekbal Quidwai and Marshall Dixon, who ran for the council in the fall and worked in Markey’s spring campaign, also gave brief speeches honoring Markey.

“It is with a great sense of relief that we finally have a full set of council members,” Dixon said. “We can now move on. No longer will applicants or council members find it necessary to delay action because of the possibility of a 2-2 vote.”