Councilman Drops Plan to Black Out Televised Public Comment Session

Complaining that the idea had become unfairly “politicized,” Councilman Mike Markey has pulled the plug on his proposal to black out the council’s public comment sessions from television.

Markey dropped his proposal at the start of Tuesday’s council meeting after distributing a letter to his council colleagues telling them that the issue had become too political.

Markey said last week that he would propose the ban because the public comment sessions had gotten out of hand and were increasingly dominated by slanderous accusations and vitriol.

The one-hour public comment session, like the rest of the council meetings, is broadcast live on TOTV, the city’s government access channel.

Markey’s proposal met with strong opposition Tuesday night from groups such as the League of Women Voters of Ventura County and even former mayor Jaime Zukowski, who chided the council majority of Mayor Judy Lazar, Councilman Andy Fox and Markey for saying they supported the idea.

“Taking criticism is part of the job,” said Zukowski, who now lives in Boulder, Colo., but was visiting Thousand Oaks this week. “I hope that at no point will this council, or any council, [black out] that portion of our meetings from the rest of our public meetings.”

Other speakers were less diplomatic, accusing Markey of censorship.

“Apparently, Mr. Markey realized he was slitting his own political throat,” Rachel McCollum said. “. . . If you don’t like it, too bad. You are elected officials, and you were elected to represent us. Thank you, so much, for your patriotism.”

“We’re not stupid and we won’t be outfoxed, even if TO means ‘television off,”’ Mark Nicholas said. “You might ban TV, ‘the television’, but you cannot ban TV, ‘the vote,’ and you might find us changing the channel and pulling your names from the fall lineup.”

Toula Colovos, a frequent council speaker and Markey critic, gave an emotional speech in which she recounted her family’s move from Greece to America and what this country’s democratic freedoms meant to them.

“You can pull all the plugs you want,” Colovos said, “but you cannot quash the human spirit.”

Markey, who had retracted his proposal before the grilling that came during public comments, initially said in a letter to the council that he wanted to postpone the blackout until after the Nov. 4 recall election of Councilwoman Elois Zeanah.

But he later said he would not bring the proposal back.

Councilwoman Linda Parks said she hoped it was the last Thousand Oaks would hear of the blackout.

“It’s just not democratic,” she said.