Foes of Zeanah Start Their Recall Effort Over Again

Foes of Councilwoman Elois Zeanah cast aside doubts that they would continue their campaign to oust her on Friday when they served Zeanah with a new set of recall papers at her doorstep.

Yes! Remove Elois Zeanah collected more than 15,000 signatures to recall Zeanah before Superior Court Judge Joe Hadden ruled that the petitions the group was using violated state election law, backers said.

Tired of waiting to hear from Hadden on whether the group would have to launch a completely new recall effort or simply submit a revised petition, Zeanah’s foes opted to voluntarily start from scratch.

“Mrs. Zeanah cowardly used a technicality on the recall petition to protect herself from the will of the people,” Yes! Remove Elois Zeanah declared in a news release. “She invalidated the signatures of the 16,000 people who want her removed from office, but she did not invalidate her performance in office.”

City Clerk Nancy Dillon confirmed Friday that she had received a new notice of intent to circulate a recall petition from the group.

Zeanah said she was shocked to be served at home instead of at a council meeting, characterizing the move as a scare tactic.

“They tried to serve me [Thursday] and missed me and got my daughter instead,” Zeanah said. “So I knew what they were up to.”

“We wanted to make sure she was in town,” said Peter Turpel, spokesman for the recall backers. “We had to be very quiet, because it wouldn’t have surprised me if she skipped town.”

The move by the anti-Zeanah group means that the efforts to recall three council members, which appeared dormant just a week ago, have been revived.

Mayor Judy Lazar and Councilman Andy Fox were served with recall papers during a break in Tuesday’s council meeting by a group of residents who acknowledge they are trying to oust both in retaliation to the Zeanah recall.

The group, Residents to Recall Fox and Lazar, decided to start a second recall drive after learning from their legal advisor, Zeanah lawyer Raleigh H. Levine, that the anti-Zeanah group was planning to move forward again.

The first effort by Residents to Recall Fox and Lazar dissolved when the group failed to properly advertise its campaign in a local newspaper and submitted a sample recall petition containing numerous technical errors, according to Dillon.

“They’re starting, so we’re starting,” said Kitty Radler, one of the leaders of Residents to Recall Fox and Lazar. “I don’t think this is what the community wants, but we have to do this to level the playing field.” Radler’s group had offered to drop its efforts if Zeanah’s foes would do the same. But Turpel rejected that offer last week, saying the group was still mulling its options.

Zeanah contends that contrary to what her opponents have been telling the public, Yes! Remove Elois Zeanah had clearly intended to launch a new signature drive against her all along.

“I am surprised,” Zeanah said. “I was taking them at face value that they were still considering their options. But in fact, the court records show that they were planning to recall me all along.”

As part of its discussions, the group filed a sample petition with Hadden to determine if the judge considered it appropriate. But Turpel has denied that his group was clearly moving to launch a new recall drive right away, saying many options were being considered, including waiting until next year’s elections to try and oust Zeanah.

“The basic thing was, the judge rolled us back into another hearing, and we just sat there thinking, ‘This is getting stupid,’ ” Turpel said. “The fact is, we believe Mrs. Zeanah has performed malfeasance in office, and we would not be fulfilling our responsibility to the voters if we didn’t carry this through.”

Both groups must overcome some bureaucratic hurdles before they can begin collecting recall signatures, including submitting draft petitions to Dillon for approval.

Then they will have to gather signatures from 15% of Thousand Oaks’ 69,047 registered voters--10,357 in all--within 160 days to place their recall measures on the ballot.

“We’re hoping to raise the signatures quickly this time,” Turpel said. “We’re really not sure the methods we’re going to use to gather the signatures. But money is a factor. We don’t have as much money as we had before.”