Lazar Should Favor Campaign Reform

* Some Thousand Oaks City Council members seem to forget that they were elected because voters felt they would represent our collective views, and not because we felt their individual judgment was better than ours. Pablo Casals, the world’s greatest cellist, quotes an old Catalan saying, that any city worker is no better than any citizen, but together citizens are better than any government worker. This does not seem to be the attitude of certain council members, and particularly Judy Lazar.

Take the example of campaign reform. Polls show that the majority of residents want some form of campaign controls on overall spending and to limit the influence of special interests on elections. Judy Lazar voted against any type of campaign reform and stated that if people don’t investigate candidates and their contributions, then it’s their fault if they don’t get the government they expect. Judy Lazar knows that it is impossible to find out what special interests contribute to campaigns before the election, because thousands of dollars are contributed after the election.

Mayor Andy Fox, for example, reported receiving $22,350 before the election. Immediately after the election, he reported receiving $36,334. And one year after the election, he reported receiving $44,505. Thousands of dollars were received after the election from financial interests representing projects that he would have to vote on. The same is true of Michael Markey. He received an additional $5,000 after the election from builders and developers.

Campaign reform is needed to prevent “secret” cash payments to campaigns, to bring contributions from special interest out of the shadows, and to require council members to publicly disclose before voting on projects if they accepted contributions from representatives of those projects.

JACK DAVIS

Thousand Oaks