Lazar Again Served With Recall Papers

A group hoping to oust Thousand Oaks Mayor Judy Lazar and Councilman Andy Fox continued its procedural efforts this week, re-serving Lazar with recall papers and filing another Fox recall petition with the city clerk’s office.

Residents to Recall Fox and Lazar was notified by City Clerk Nancy Dillon last week that it needed to rework its petition to oust Fox and start its Lazar recall from scratch.

The group’s recall petition of Fox only needed minor work. But to continue the Lazar recall, the group had to serve her with recall papers for a third time, and must publish another legal notice in a local newspaper before submitting a new petition.

One of the people who signed the Lazar recall papers put down a wrong home address, and a published notice in the Thousand Oaks Star advertising the recall contained inaccurate information, according to Dillon.

It was a major setback for the group, which had hoped to begin gathering signatures to oust the council members in retaliation for a recall campaign against Councilwoman Elois Zeanah.

Yes! Remove Elois Zeanah, the other recall group, received approval to begin gathering signatures again last week. It had collected more than 15,000 signatures to oust Zeanah, but they were thrown out by a Superior Court judge because the petitions violated state election law.

Kitty Radler of Residents to Recall Fox and Lazar said the group hopes to receive the go-ahead from Dillon on the Fox petition within the week. Radler hopes to have the Lazar petition approved within the next two weeks.

“I hope this is the end of it,” Radler said. “I hope we will have everything squared away soon. I’ll be really, really happy when all the petitions are certified and we can begin with the recalls.”