Candidates at Final Political Forum Keep Up Attacks

It was the last political forum before next Tuesday’s election, the last chance for City Council hopefuls to trade barbs on television and unleash unkind sound bites on their opponents.

And seven of the nine candidates vying for two City Council seats seized the opportunity with gusto Tuesday night during the League of Women Voters forum at the Civic Arts Plaza.

Planning Commissioner Linda Parks and fellow slow-growth candidate Dan Del Campo continued to hammer incumbent Mike Markey on the campaign contributions he has accepted from developers, charging that Markey’s vote has been bought by special interests.

“Mr. Markey said he is not influenced by campaign contributions to council members,” Del Campo said. “Well, I ask you, why does a developer give a contribution in the first place?”

Markey and candidate Marshall Dixon, meanwhile, accused Parks and Del Campo of dragging the council race into the gutter with doomsday predictions that Thousand Oaks will be paved over like the San Fernando Valley unless they are elected.

“This is not a job for amateurs or malcontents,” Dixon said. “I don’t agree with [Councilwoman Elois] Zeanah or her slate [Parks and Del Campo].”

Markey is hoping to win his first full term on the council after winning a special election last year to fill the seat vacated by Frank Schillo, who was elected to the Ventura County Board of Supervisors. Former Councilwoman Jaime Zukowski resigned earlier this year to move to Colorado, so the other council seat is open.

The candidates are Nick E. Quidwai, a 45-year-old office machines salesman; Norm Jackson, a 41-year-old retired mechanic; Tom Lee, a 21-year-old GOP activist and UCLA student; Ramaul Rush, a 47-year-old children’s court investigator; David Seagal, a 66-year-old civil engineer; Lee, a part-time computer consultant; Del Campo, a 48-year-old marketing consultant; Dixon, a 71-year-old retired auto dealership manager; Parks, a 39-year-old former transportation consultant; and Markey, a 41-year-old Compton homicide detective.

Jackson and Lee did not attend Tuesday’s forum.

Lance Winslow, a mobile carwash owner, dropped out of the council race in September, but his name will still appear on the ballot, which was printed before he withdrew.

After some audience members cheered in response to a remark by Del Campo, the moderator, Nancy Grasmehr, admonished the crowd of about 40. She then threatened to take time away from Del Campo, and when Parks said she would also like her response time reduced, Grasmehr said, “I’d be glad to.”

And in an outburst later, Grasmehr snapped at Zeanah, who was in the audience. “For your information, Mrs. Zeanah, I’m not working for the campaign of Mike Markey or any other candidate, which is more than you can say.”

Quidwai, Rush and Seagal described themselves as independent candidates. They said that unlike most other challengers they were not aligned with either Zeanah’s slow-growth faction or pro-business interests represented by the current council majority of Mayor Andy Fox, Councilwoman Judy Lazar and Markey.

“I’m running for City Council because I’m a little sick and tired of the divisive politics,” Rush told the audience. “I think you are, too.”

During a section of the forum dedicated to questions from community organizations, Jeff Alexander of the Conejo Open Space Trails and Advisory Committee asked Seagal what had been Thousand Oaks’ largest open space acquisition in the past decade.

Neither Seagal, Parks, Del Campo nor Rush gave the answer--the Dos Vientos Ranch development, which added 1,200 acres of open space to the city.

“Mrs. Parks and Mr. Del Campo know that,” said Markey, the first candidate to answer the question correctly. “They just don’t want to admit it.”