Heeding Call for Election Reform

Outside the conference room at the Civic Arts Plaza stands a hatrack bearing the sign, “Please hang your political hat here.”

Inside, the 17-member Thousand Oaks Citizens’ Blue Ribbon Campaign Finance Reform Committee is striving to do what loftier forces in Sacramento and Washington have repeatedly failed to do: scrub the taint of big bucks from the election process.

The challenge outside is nearly as tough as the one inside. That’s because memories of The Recall remain fresh and raw. Last year’s campaign to oust Councilwoman Elois Zeanah burned up nearly half a million dollars--almost $400,000 of that from a single donor--before failing at the ballot box.

The astronomical spending became more controversial than Zeanah herself. That inspired the City Council to convene this citizens panel to come up with reform suggestions in time for the November election, when three council seats will be contested.

Thousand Oaks, where City Council races typically cost $15,000 to $35,000, has no laws governing spending in local elections.

Last week it took the committee barely two hours to come up with nearly 30 problems they would like a city campaign-finance policy to resolve.

Among them:

* The growing cost of running for office.

* Too much secrecy about who is funding which candidates.

* Last-minute “attack” mailers that leave no time for response.

* Perception that special interests--particularly developers--wield too much influence in local politics and, as a result, have too much say in city decision-making.

* The growing role of hired phone banks and petition-circulators from out of town.

The committee’s brainstorming ranged into areas clearly outside Thousand Oaks’ control--such as one member’s desire to shift election day to the weekend and another’s to ban contributions from nonlocal residents.

Co-chairs Jim Bruno and Dorothy Engle are working hard to keep the city’s sharply drawn political rift from engulfing the widely shared desire for more equitable campaign funding. Los Angeles lawyer Craig Steele, an election and campaign law specialist hired by the city to advise the panel, deftly separates plausible strategies from the ones already ruled out of bounds.

It’s gratifying to see this committee working so hard on such an important mission. It’s equally gratifying to see citizens with such a broad spectrum of political views actually trying to heed the sign on that hat rack outside.

With renewed efforts stirring in Sacramento and Washington to restore voters’ faith in the political process, it would be great to see the Thousand Oaks committee get there first.

We wish them patience, persistence and energy. They’ll need them.