‘Snubbed 6’ Plan Rival Forum for Council Candidates

When businessman Tom Parker kicks off his exclusive, front-runners-only candidates’ forum at the Civic Arts Plaza on Wednesday, David Seagal will not be home whining about its unfairness.

Far from it. Actually, Seagal and some of the other Thousand Oaks City Council contenders not invited to Parker’s private forum will be spiritedly duking it out down the road at Temple Adat Elohim, holding a competing candidates’ forum.

And they are now urging the four candidates who were invited to Parker’s forum to jump ship, arguing that their “Thousand Oaks Freedom Forum” is the more legitimate gathering because of its inclusiveness.

“This Emerald Forum [is] an example of the very worst of back-room deals and manipulative politics,” Seagal said of Parker’s event. “In our view, our forum represents democracy as it is supposed to work.”

Ten candidates are vying for two seats in this fall’s council election. Councilwoman Jaime Zukowski resigned from the council last month and Councilman Mike Markey, a homicide detective in Compton, is running for reelection.

Parker, a retired FBI agent who owns a corporate security firm in Westlake called The Emerald Group, opted to invite only the four candidates he considers to be most prominent. He said he based his decision on the idea that fewer participants would result in a more informative forum.

Parker invited Markey, Planning Commissioner Linda Parks, retired auto dealership manager Marshall Dixon and marketing consultant Dan Del Campo. All four accepted.

The Emerald Forum was designed to be the first public candidates’ discussion leading up to the Nov. 5 election. Several other organizations, such as the men’s club at St. Paschal Baylon Church, plan to have gatherings of all the candidates before the election.

Meanwhile, the “snubbed six,” as some of the candidates not on Parker’s list have called themselves, blasted the Emerald Forum as an example of exclusive politics. They are UCLA student Tom Lee, retired auto repairman Norman Jackson, salesman Nick Quidwai, children’s court investigator Ramaul Rush, mobile carwash owner Lance Winslow and Seagal, a civil engineer.

In addition to criticizing Parker for excluding the majority of candidates, several council contenders also questioned his motives for including Dixon. They accused Parker of being directly involved in Dixon’s campaign, which Parker later admitted.

But after getting mad, Seagal said he and some of the other uninvited candidates concluded that they had only one recourse: getting even.

They decided to organize a rival forum at the same time as Parker’s, with all those participating sharing the cost. After a frantic search, they secured Temple Adat Elohim for the 7:30 p.m. forum, which may last up to three hours.

“In the last council election when Dixon ran [in 1994], I got twice as many votes as him,” Winslow said. “If I’m not viable, Marshall Dixon is certainly not viable. I think my feelings and my ego were hurt a little bit.

“But I decided there was no use in sulking over it. We decided to do this other forum. This should be fun. I knew this election was going to get ugly. I just didn’t think it would happen this early.”

The format for the alternative forum will give each candidate time at the beginning to state their views, then a pre-selected panel will conduct a question-and-answer session. Finally, if the audience is still interested, the event will take a less formal structure and candidates will be able to talk about any subject.

Seagal said he has formally invited all 10 candidates to the event, but believes that some will decline to attend--particularly the four already committed to the Emerald Forum. Del Campo has said he will honor his prior engagement and Lee, who has been extremely critical of the Emerald Forum, said he is not sure whether he will take part in the alternative.

“The reality is, we expect the candidates to be split, probably six in our forum and four in theirs,” Seagal said. “But if candidates truly believe in open government and not elitism, they will participate in ours.”

Rush said he plans to attend the Thousand Oaks Freedom Forum. But he fears that honest debate and discussion of the city’s top political issues have become hopelessly muddled amid the debate over the feuding forums.

“This community is getting more drama, more theater,” he said. “I don’t know that they’re going to get any more dialogue, any more facts about these candidates. I was hoping to take the high ground here, but this race is already out of hand.”