Council to Wait and Let Voters Fill Seat in Fall

Former Councilwoman Jaime Zukowski’s seat, which has been empty since she resigned last month to move to Colorado, will remain vacant until voters choose her replacement in November, the City Council has decided.

For weeks, several council members had been floating the possibility of appointing a temporary successor.

But when it was time to discuss the issue late Tuesday, council members hardly debated, voting unanimously at about 10:30 p.m. to leave the seat open and proceed with a four-member City Council for three months until the newly elected person takes office in December.

Two seats are up for grabs in this fall’s elections: Zukowski’s vacant seat and the position held by Councilman Mike Markey, who is seeking reelection.

Mayor Andy Fox said before the meeting that he believed Thousand Oaks should operate with a full council at all times, and he was planning to ask his fellow council members to appoint one of several community leaders he had suggested.

Among Fox’s recommendations were Otto Stoll, best known for his work with the affordable housing group Many Mansions, and Rorie Skei, chairwoman of the Conejo Open Space Preservation Agency.

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Councilwoman Elois Zeanah, in turn, maintained that if anyone was appointed it should be Planning Commissioner Linda Parks, because her slow-growth views are closest to those of Zukowski, Parks’ political mentor.

But Councilwoman Judy Lazar, Markey and Fox all strongly opposed selecting Parks, who is a candidate in this fall’s elections. They said appointing Parks would be unfair to the eight other contenders--excluding Markey--who are vying for a council seat.

“I don’t see any point in appointing someone,” Lazar said before the meeting. “Even assuming they were competent, by the time they learned everything that was going on, it would be time for them to step down.”

Meanwhile, several council members said early Tuesday they want to discuss eventually removing Parks from the Planning Commission, arguing she has politicized what is intended as a nuts-and-bolts panel on growth impacts and development standards.

“I think she’s way off base with some of the things she’s done,” Markey said before the meeting. “We have removed people in the past in this city for doing things like that. But she would surely turn this into a big political issue if we remove her, even though it’s totally justified, so we have to consider that.”

Each City Council member suggests a person to serve on the five-member Planning Commission. Those recommendations are generally approved by the entire council regardless of political differences. The appointees usually serve as long as the corresponding council member, or until a newly elected council member decides to appoint a planning commissioner.

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Speculation that the council may boot Parks from the Planning Commission has been rife since Zukowski announced in July she would leave office three months before her term expired to move with her family to Boulder, Colo.

Earlier this year, Parks butted heads with Fox, Lazar and Markey over her initiative to protect open space in the city, which was later adopted as an ordinance by the City Council.

Parks has maintained throughout that she has done nothing improper as a commissioner, arguing she has every right to criticize the City Council outside commission meetings.

“My comments [at the Planning Commission] are strictly about the impacts of development,” Parks said. “I also have concerns with the way developers fund campaigns, and a lot of other things. But that’s not something I discuss at the commission.”

Zeanah, a strong Parks supporter, said she would be surprised if her council colleagues pulled Parks from the commission.

“If they remove [Parks], I believe they’re handing her the election,” Zeanah said. “They have set the stage to do it, but I don’t think they have the guts to go through with it.”

Lazar said she was unhappy with the way Parks has mixed politics with her Planning Commission duties, and therefore is willing to discuss removing her from the panel. But she does not expect the council to remove Parks, because it would probably make her a more viable council candidate.

“I’m concerned with the way she [Parks] has been acting,” Lazar said. “Frankly, as a former planning commissioner, I am ashamed. But what can we do? If we remove her, she’s going to make it sound as if we’re afraid of her, when that’s really not the point at all.”