Funds Could Have Bought a Lot of Pizzas From Recall’s Lederer

Four hundred thousand dollars. That’s how much money warring groups spent during the past 10 months on the failed attempt to recall Councilwoman Elois Zeanah. And that record-setting figure is expected to increase in coming months as post-election spending reports come in.

The Yes! Remove Elois Zeanah committee spent about $290,000, while two groups formed to support the councilwoman spent about $108,000.

In fact, both figures amount to $14.85 per person for all 26,936 ballots cast Tuesday.

What could that money have bought instead?

* At a cost of about $200,000 apiece, the recall war chests could have purchased two identical replicas of the copper curtain, the rust-colored thing that adorns the side of the Civic Arts Plaza. Not that anyone would want to do that.

* Every resident of the city could have had a Big Mac meal from McDonald’s--super-sized of course.

* Every voter could be refreshed by an hour with a personal trainer.

* At a price of $5,795 each, it would have bought 69 of the best Wurlitzer jukeboxes stocked with 50 compact discs.

* It could have added almost three new classrooms to schools in the Conejo Unified School District or funded more than one-third of Wildwood Elementary’s projected modernization costs.

* All the benches, street lamps and landscaping called for on Thousand Oaks Boulevard.

* Nine gallons of high-octane gasoline with engine cleaner from Mobil for every person who voted.

* It could have sent 50,000 kids to Club Disney for the day.

* And, each voter could have been treated to two medium Domino’s pizzas with three toppings, plus a soda. Ironically, the single largest contributor in the recall campaign was Domino’s entrepreneur Jill Lederer. She spent a lot of dough--about $220,000.

Bustillo is a Times staff writer, and Metcalfe is a correspondent.