Parks Is Not Looking for a Fight, but . . .

When Linda Parks joins the City Council for the first time Tuesday, she will be looking to make amends with her new council colleagues--most of whom she slammed relentlessly during her anti-establishment campaign.

“I have heard council members say there were stung by my remarks, and they felt I challenged their integrity,” Parks said, adding that she too felt under attack during the recent council campaign. “But politics got all of us here, and we need to put differences aside and work as a unit.”

Parks, who was elected to the council last month along with incumbent Mike Markey, stresses that she in no way plans to temper her strong views on restricting development, encouraging small businesses rather than national retailers and preserving open space. These views often put her at odds with the council majority--Markey, Mayor Andy Fox and Councilwoman Judy Lazar.

Parks said she hopes this group, unlike the past few councils, can get along whenever possible, and disagree in a civilized way when consensus is out of the question.

“I’m hoping to get a collegial atmosphere back on the council,” Parks said. “But then I look at the hearings coming up and I see I’m going back into the fire.”

Fox, who contends he has always tried to take the high road in council discussions, said he welcomes Parks’ olive branch.

“That’s certainly the way I’m going to represent myself,” Fox said. “But that’s always the way I have represented myself. I have represented Thousand Oaks on a lot of [intergovernmental] committees, and never have I experienced the kind of problems we have on the City Council.”

One issue that may quickly destroy the fragile truce, according to Parks, is an upcoming hearing on the $75-million plan to upgrade the Hill Canyon Wastewater Treatment Plant. The project has been the subject of a 17-month council stalemate.

Councilwoman Elois Zeanah and former Councilwoman Jaime Zukowski, who resigned to move to Colorado, opposed the sewer fee increases needed to pay the upgrade, arguing that the project is larger and more expensive than necessary.

Parks, who shares many views with Zeanah and Zukowski, her political mentor, has already indicated that she will not support the $75-million plan as it stands. Any sewer fee increase requires a four-fifths vote.

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“I have a strong sense of where I’m headed with that,” Parks said, “and I hope that other council members are looking for ways to lower the costs of this plan.”

Of more immediate concern is the appointment of a new mayor and mayor pro tem from among the council members, which is scheduled to happen Tuesday. In line with Thousand Oaks tradition, Lazar, the current mayor pro tem, is expected to replace Fox as mayor. The one-year ceremonial position carries no additional voting authority.

“I think, absolutely, Judy will be the next mayor,” Fox said, adding that he is proud to pass her the gavel.

But Zeanah, who is next in line on a seniority basis to become mayor pro tem, may be passed over in favor of Markey--at least, that is the opinion of Parks and Zeanah herself.

“That will really be an acid test,” Parks said. “We can really talk about wanting to work together, but that issue will really show whether we can.”

For his part, Fox said he has not made up his mind about who he will support as mayor pro tem. Although it is the norm, not all mayor pro tems in Thousand Oaks history have been appointed mayor by their peers.

Former Councilwoman Madge Schaefer, who served from 1978 to 1986, was similarly snubbed during her tenure.

“I don’t think I want to add to the controversy Mrs. Zeanah is trying to generate there,” Fox said. “We have not made any decisions. There’s no news there.”

Although Parks said she does not intend to back down on any issues she talked about during the election just to avoid infighting, she has had a change of heart regarding one topic she vigorously campaigned against--Measure E, the growth management ordinance sponsored by Fox.

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Voters last month approved Measure E by a nearly three-fourths margin. It requires private development projects that exceed the density standards in the city’s General Plan to go before voters for approval.

Parks now believes that Measure E could be good for Thousand Oaks. But she still worries that the ordinance is based on untested legal arguments and may not survive a court challenge.

“I’ve been talking to the city attorney, and Measure E is not as bad as I thought,” Parks said. “It could be a good thing. It’s a lot stricter and more broad than I thought it was. But it is still subject to lawsuits.”

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Fox said he doubts that Parks had ever truly believed Measure E was bad for the city. He contends it was simply a case of someone opposing something for political reasons. Nevertheless, Fox said he is glad she has decided the ordinance has merit.

“It’s good that she has now changed her position to support a slow-growth measure that was overwhelmingly backed by our residents,” Fox said. “We are a form of representative government and the people she is representing supported Measure E.”

Now that she is taking over the council seat vacated by Zukowski, Parks--who just finished serving four years on the city’s Planning Commission as Zukowski’s appointee--must appoint a commissioner of her own.

Parks, a former transportation consultant with a master’s degree in urban planning from the University of Washington, said she has not found a suitable choice from among the applications the city has received. However, she remains hopeful that she can find an ideological soul mate, even if the person may not have the nuts and bolts planning skills she values.

“I’m having a tough one,” Parks said of the search for her replacement.

“From the applications I’ve gotten, I have not found anyone who is a planner, who is familiar with land-use issues. But that is not as important as finding a person with the right philosophy.”