Thousand Oaks Council Issues

* Apropos Miguel Bustillo’s piece on campaign reform in Thousand Oaks, the central posture in the comments attributed to Mayor Andy Fox and Councilman Mike Markey, is not responsive.

Specifically, it makes a world of difference whether candidates take money from special interests or use their own funds. Money from the former can easily be labeled as hiring out to special interests. Using one’s own money means the individual will be responsible for what he does--good or bad--and can be held personally accountable by voters.

Nearly all of Messrs. Fox and Markey’s funding in their election came from special solicitors for city favors whom they have since loyally supported.

The suggestion of Councilwoman Jaime Zukowski to adopt the Ventura plan of limiting individual contributions to $250 per donor is a step in the right direction, and at least a good gesture.

We cannot cure so many things which make life an uneven prospect. But we should strive to identify bad acts. And we lean on the indispensable media to make the clarion calls.

EDWARD SHUCK

Ventura

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* The public elected a policeman, Mike Markey, to the Thousand Oaks City Council because of concern over public safety. Judging from his votes on development and financial concerns, he should have run for chief of police instead.

He obviously doesn’t understand land use and budget issues. The recent vote on repaying the millions of dollars borrowed from city accounts to pay for part of the Civic Arts Plaza financial fiasco is a case in point.

Markey championed the idea to repay loans borrowed from cash reserves by using money from the same accounts. If there had not been a 3-2 vote for this nonsensical idea, I would have taken it to be a joke. He made the motion to use $1.25 million from general fund cash reserves to pay money borrowed from the general fund cash reserve. Then he asked the City Council to forgive the loan of $2.5 million from developer fees and counted this money as new money to repay part of the debt.

Does Markey believe that we can’t see through this paper trick, or is it that he doesn’t know the difference?

JOHN MRAK

Thousand Oaks