2 Women of Conflicting Viewpoints to Step Down

When she was sworn in as mayor in 1993, Elois Zeanah proposed a new rule requiring developers and lobbyists testifying at public hearings to take an oath swearing to tell the truth.

Her colleague, Judy Lazar, meanwhile, has taken a lower-profile approach to politics over the last eight years, devoting herself to tackling the decidedly unglamorous topic of solid waste disposal.

Theirs is a difference in both style and substance.

For the last eight years together on the Thousand Oaks City Council, Lazar and Zeanah have talked differently, thought differently and voted differently on many key issues.

In a city where the weekly council meetings are derided by some residents as the “Tuesday Night Fights,” the two have lobbed more than a few acidic words at each other.

On the divisive topics of building the Civic Arts Plaza, approving a $75-million waste-water plant upgrade and endorsing the various procedural steps allowing the massive Dos Vientos housing project to move forward, they have represented opposite camps.

Both Lazar and Zeanah will step down from the council tonight--as two newcomers take their places--to the applause of their respective fans.

In retiring, they will become only the fourth and fifth women to leave the Thousand Oaks council since the city’s inception 34 years ago.

“With two people who have been [on the council] for eight years [each] departing, you’re losing all that experience--no matter what side of the issues you’re on,” said Cal Lutheran University political science professor Herb Gooch, who helped steer Councilman-elect Dennis Gillette into office earlier this month.

“You’re losing two very strong women, articulate women, willing to fight for what they believe in,” he said. “The city should take its collective hat off to them.”

After weathering a withering recall election last year, Zeanah decided not to seek a third term in office, citing her belief in term limits and her health.

Lazar, who previously sat on the city’s Planning Commission, was defeated earlier this month by Gillette and businessman Dan Del Campo, who Zeanah backed.

A passionate populist with a Mississippi drawl and a flair for rhetoric, Zeanah rose to political power through homeowners groups and her involvement in Maria E. VanderKolk’s successful bid for county supervisor in 1990.

Criticizing development in Newbury Park and waivers granted to builders and businesses, Zeanah tapped into the anger of development-wary residents to win a City Council seat.

She was the city’s first self-appointed “slow-growth” council member, with three others soon to follow. However, Zeanah and her allies never held more than two seats at one time on the five-member council and lost many battles.

Peppering her patter with phrases about “sweetheart deals” for developers and “smear campaigns” to discredit her, Zeanah’s speech is as flashy as her appearance: bright red hair, religiously applied cosmetics and curvy pumps.

“I know my legacy will be that I have been a voice for residents--that’s a phrase my many supporters in this city have used throughout the years,” said Zeanah, 57. “I have proven that a politician can keep promises to people without being co-opted by the very people you’re supposed to regulate.”

Zeanah counts championing more vigorous code enforcement, bringing about community-based policing and saving Jordan Ranch from development among her accomplishments.

What her fans see as feistiness, Zeanah’s critics call intransigence, arguing that the councilwoman is a source of divisiveness who so distrusts city bureaucrats that she won’t ask them questions, preferring to draw her own conclusions.

A New York native, the 57-year-old Lazar is a pro-business councilwoman who can recite city budget figures and vote counts by memory. She speaks bluntly when she believes that a colleague is mistaken and sheds tears of joy when affordable housing projects move forward.

Not 5-foot-3, Lazar favors a crisp haircut, minimal makeup and tailored suits.

“I am not looking for headlines; I never have,” said Lazar, who counts the city’s purchase of Broome Ranch, dedication of permanent open space and commitment to open a child-care center among her achievements.

“I certainly will stand on my record of accomplishments. I have no regrets.”

Her community ties are born of her involvement in charities that help the aged, the homeless and people with AIDS. Lazar had ferried hot food to senior citizens through the Meals on Wheels program and weathered countless meetings of the Ventura County Sanitation District.

She is the details person who makes city employees sigh.

“The best we’ve ever had, the best we’ll ever get,” as one longtime staffer put it.

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But her support for some of the city’s more controversial development projects prompts Lazar’s critics to say that she is too cozy with business interests and willing to break city rules to accommodate them.

While she campaigned as the city’s “voice of reason,” Lazar had ventured into the City Council frays, bickering with Zeanah most frequently about a two-year impasse over the sewer plant upgrade.

Disparate on the issues, both women do enjoy at least one thing in common: undying affection from their fans.

Witness the words of Save Open Space President Mary Weisbrock and former City Manager Grant Brimhall.

Zeanah is “kind of a saint to me,” said Weisbrock, whose environmental group has sued the city over controversial housing projects.

“She has been a defender of the environment and a protector of the Santa Monica Mountains for years,” she said. “Unfortunately [after Zeanah’s departure], the vote on overdevelopment will still be 3 to 2. She will be missed, very missed.”

Brimhall, the city’s top administrator for 20 years, said Lazar was a fine legislator and even finer person.

“I think I’ve worked with probably 50 or more council members in my career,” he said. “And in terms of ethics, integrity, intelligence, capacity, vision, compassion and the ability to quickly grasp issues and put them into perspective, Judy would be in the top two. She’s truly one of the most exceptional human beings I’ve ever known.”

Amid laudatory speeches, the women will leave the council chambers tonight laden with gifts, commendations and flowers.

Zeanah said it’s time to spend more time with her husband and two adult children.

“I am looking forward to picking up my life where I left it,” she said. “It’s a time of celebration. . . . My life has been so public that now I’d like to keep my private life private. But I’m not going to be bored.”

Lazar, who left Wall Street for motherhood--she has three children--vows to continue her volunteerism. And she might hunt for another job in the business world after New Year’s.

“I am going to stay involved in the community because I am unable to keep my fingers out of it; I care too much,” she said. “So Elois and I become the has-beens and new people ascend. In some ways, I will not be unhappy to be a has-been.”

’ You’re losing two very strong women, articulate women, willing to fight for what they believe in. The city should take its collective hat off to them.’

Herb Gooch

Cal Lutheran University

political science professor