A Passionate Populist Bows Out

The steel magnolia of Thousand Oaks is fading away.

City Councilwoman Elois Zeanah, surely the most colorful and deeply polarizing personality on Ventura County’s lively political scene, announced last week that she will not seek a third term in office.

The news brought both cheers and tears in a city where nearly everyone has a strong opinion about her. Thousand Oaks last year endured a viciously divisive recall campaign to unseat her in which spending broke records and ultimately became a larger issue than Zeanah’s merits or demerits.

With her honeysuckle drawl, fluency in sound bites and carefully nurtured image as an outsider come to tidy up City Hall, she is beloved by the neighborhood-focused homeowner associations that form her power base. She has spent much of her eight years in office fighting development proposals and decrying the influence of lobbyists in city politics.

Her gracious Southern charm has never kept her from skewering her fellow council members or berating city staff. While she had some help from her colleagues in adding personal sniping to the City Council agenda, her most avid followers have taken things further by turning the public comments period of council meetings into a weekly barrage of invective and innuendo.

The residents, staff and elected officials of Thousand Oaks deserve better than that. We hope the five City Council members who emerge after the November election will demonstrate--and demand--a higher level of decorum.

With the city closing in on the population limit laid out in its General Plan, most of the large battles over new development have been fought. Yet each week brings decisions that shape the quality of life in Thousand Oaks.

It is good for any civic body to have a variety of views and styles, and Zeanah certainly has provided that. Her frequent ally, Councilwoman Linda Parks, with her extensive background in planning and dedication to doing her homework before each meeting, has represented the loyal opposition even more effectively. Elois Zeanah’s greatest contribution has been providing a passionate Populist voice for residents who feel shut out of the city’s government and business circles.