Diverse Field of 13 Vying for 3 Seats on City Council

Say what you will about the pettiness of politics here, it hasn’t discouraged a passel of candidates from joining the race to become a City Council member.

When Thousand Oaks voters head to the polls Nov. 3 to elect three council representatives, they will face a daunting roster of 13 diverse people seeking a seat on the dais--the site of frequent quarrels.

The contenders include two incumbents, a few self-appointed pundits from the public comment segment of City Council meetings, a park district director, a schoolteacher, an engineer and businessmen.

They range in age from 33 to 73, and their community involvement is similarly varied.

From fostering public safety and maintaining services as the city ages to tapping a new city manager and building affordable housing, the candidates promote divergent views.

Although about 95% of the city’s residential development has already occurred or has been approved, most of the opponents are still talking growth, growth, growth--that favorite of political topics in this semirural city ringed by 14,000 acres of open space and trails.

They are also quarreling about how quarrelsome politics has grown in a city that--to the untrained eye--seems to possess too few real problems to quarrel about.

Witness candidate Marshall Dixon, a 73-year-old retired businessman who portrays himself as the elder statesman of the contenders.

“Unless there is a substantial change in the makeup of the City Council, the infighting problem will only escalate,” he predicted. “You’ll just substitute one set of problems for another. You have a group of people who are pugnacious, belligerent, combative, don’t want to be challenged, adamant, have no gift of compromise, no concern for consensus, this-is-the-way-I-see-it-and-nothing-else-matters.

“You can’t have that attitude and run any organization successfully.”

Beyond the debate over council relations, the election has the potential to be a watershed event for the city on two fronts.

With three seats up for grabs and one incumbent bowing out of the race, the balance of power could shift between the council’s majority, which is pro-business and urges moderate growth, and its minority, which questions city spending priorities and supports minimal growth.

As Councilwoman Elois Zeanah departs after eight years, she, political ally Linda Parks and their supporters see the chance to turn their Populist, put-the-brakes-on-development minority into a majority.

Toward that end, they are sponsoring a slate of three “clean-sweep” candidates, borrowing from a theme Zeanah sounded repeatedly when she announced she would not seek a third term. Equipped with yellow T-shirts emblazoned with a broom, the clean-sweep candidates--businessman Wayne A. Possehl, schoolteacher Laura Lee Custodio and marketing manager Dan Del Campo--are hoping to woo enough voters to unseat incumbents Judy Lazar and Andy Fox.

If the incumbents stay and only one of these candidates makes it aboard--a strong possibility given the cluttered field of candidates--a 3-2 balance of power could remain.

The incumbents stand to solidify their political standing if the candidates split the vote and fail to land a seat.

It marks the advent of campaign finance reform in Thousand Oaks, the city previously known as host to Ventura County’s most expensive council elections and the recent site of a $500,000 unsuccessful recall bid.

Candidates are now bound to accept contributions of $250 or less from each person or organization.

The new law could signal a dramatic change from past races, said Jim Bruno, a financial advisor and co-chairman of the committee drafting the ordinance.

“I think you’ll see more parity with the money that is raised by incumbents and new aspirants with the limit of $250 per person,” Bruno said. “A more popular candidate with a more populous base will be at an advantage.”

Nearly all the challengers call themselves independent thinkers who could span the differences in beliefs and personalities between the two warring council blocs.

Dave Anderson, a planning commissioner nominated by Councilwoman Parks, said he shares many of her views but is not part of the slate of candidates she is backing.

“I have shared [Parks’ and Zeanah’s] ideas and we have similar ways of looking at growth, but they are slower-growth than I am, much more extreme and unwilling to negotiate--that’s a big problem when you consider relations on the [council] dais,” said Anderson, 39, a paint store manager. “Then again, the pro-development folks are just as extreme.”

A vital consideration as the city nudges toward build-out is finding a revenue source other than development fees to keep the budget in tact--and, thus, city services strong, Anderson says.

Candidate Chris Buckett, a 39-year-old volunteer and part-time corporate start-up executive, believes the city’s much-touted growth issue is largely “a political straw man.”

While she supports the SOAR initiatives and would like to see stronger ridgeline and oak tree protections, Buckett is premising her campaign on outreach to the public, a quelling of council fighting and a more businesslike approach to governing.

“I think people deserve a choice,” said Buckett, a founding member of the Conejo Valley Jaycees. “Before every council meeting, our council members have already drawn up sides.”

To help restore public confidence in elected leaders, Buckett proposes dedicating at least a full hour of council meetings to public comment, granting each speaker at least five minutes to vent. She also supports bringing back “town hall” meetings on issues of public concern--whether they be affordable housing or the proposed extension of Borchard Road.

The steepness of that road brought Custodio into the Thousand Oaks political fold.

An occasional council watcher who was more preoccupied with earning her law degree and raising her son, Custodio steered clear of politics until she recently learned of the plan to build a 12% grade on Borchard Road near her home--a proposal now being reevaluated because of safety concerns. The 46-year-old now bears the Parks and Zeanah seal of approval as a “clean-sweep” candidate.

“The two biggest issues of the entire election that I see are the issue of controlling growth and fiscal responsibility,” said Custodio, who teaches music and English at a Granada Hills middle school. “If I have a motto, it’s, ‘Follow the rules! Follow the rules! Follow the rules!’ ”

Where finances are concerned, Custodio advocates that leaders draw up a list of wants and needs. Address the needs first, such as a sewer-system upgrade, she said. And then take care of the wants, such as a city hall-performing arts complex, if there’s leftover cash, she said.

Del Campo, a regional marketing manager and another candidate on the “clean-sweep” slate, came close to winning a council seat two years ago when he ran with the No. 1 vote-getter Parks. The 50-year-old Del Campo promotes himself as a protector of the General Plan, and a candidate friendly to mom-and-pop businesses.

“I’m running because I love this city more than any other--that’s why I’ve lived here for 20 years,” he said. “What I’d like to do is maintain the quality of life we have here now.”

Saying he will eschew nasty politics, Del Campo nevertheless intends to bring up incumbents’ views and name names.

“I’m not sure I understand what nasty campaigning is,” said Del Campo, who served on the city’s Budget Task Force. “I do intend to put out voting records and just exactly what the pro-development council has done in terms of granting waivers [to the city’s standards]--and that’s all fact.”

From his work with the library, a homeowners’ association, budget task forces and the Council on Aging, Dixon believes he knows Thousand Oaks pretty well--warts and all.

And the retired general manager of an automobile dealership is pitching himself as a voice of reason and a voice for senior citizens. He believes his budget experience would prove invaluable as the city faces the budget strains of build-out, fines for a massive sewer spill and a slew of lawsuits.

“We have to begin to look 20 years down the road and develop some vision. . . . Thousand Oaks is a $450-million entity with a $113-million budget. That’s not a job for amateurs,” Dixon said.

Incumbent Fox, a Los Angeles fire captain, says curbing growth and promoting public safety are his two greatest accomplishments in office.

Although his challengers say Fox is too friendly with development interests, he proposed the city’s growth-control measure, the 1996 Measure E. “That locks up the city’s General Plan in place and does not allow the kids of overdevelopment past the General Plan without a vote of the public,” he said.

The one-term councilman is also proud of the 25% increase in the police budget and drop in crime that have occurred during his tenure.

Cal Lutheran administrator and parks district director Dennis C. Gillette, 58, is pinning his candidacy on his community ties and his commitment to keeping services strong even as development fees dwindle.

A retired Ventura County assistant sheriff, Gillette has immersed himself in youth sports and charitable groups.

“Our No. 1 concern is public safety--police, fire and [emergency medical services],” said Gillette, a 35-year Thousand Oaks resident. “If residents cannot feel safe and secure in their environment, all other things are secondary.”

Gillette says his background working with diverse groups will help him soothe the tensions that threaten to overtake council meetings at times.

“It takes two to constitute a quarrel,” he said. “What I bring to the process is a high degree of independence, a knowledge of how the system works and the fact I’m not angry at anyone.”

Candidate Nigel “Phil” Greaves, a 33-year-old private security manager, also claims the badge of independence--in part because his community involvement is a virtual blank slate.

“I see [the council members] fight with each other and it seems like an utter waste of energy,” said Greaves, a 10-year Thousand Oaks resident born in London.

Greaves said he is disturbed by what he sees as speedy growth, the addition of many traffic signals and the daytime curfew law for teens.

“I am very pro law enforcement--they do a great job,” he said. “But they have to enforce some bad rules--one of which is the daytime curfew. A $150 fine for children walking down the street during school hours? To me that’s not a problem, it’s a symptom of a problem.”

Two-term Councilwoman Lazar, 56, sounds a different note than Greaves, stressing her experience governing and her long history of community involvement.

“I think I bring perhaps better skills to the job than probably anybody else that’s running by bringing experience and community involvement,” said Lazar, who worked on Wall Street before moving to California to raise three sons. “I certainly have been willing to work for this city looking at all sides of the issue and coming up with real solutions.”

Like Anderson and Gillette, Lazar said one of her top concerns for Thousand Oaks is addressing a drop in revenues as the city builds its last remaining homes.

“We need to look at how we want to provide services for the next 30 years,” she said. “Development fees amount to $3.5 million a year--that’s equivalent to the library budget or one-fourth the police budget.”

A retired systems scientist who worked with the Rand Corp. in Santa Monica, candidate Richard Messina is touting “smart, controlled growth” as his campaign mantra.

Messina, 64, is also concerned about the way council members handle city finances. “Right now we’ve got five people up there [on the dais] who are making decisions that are going to bankrupt the city,” Messina said. “We’re well along that path by virtue of the lawsuits we’re going to incur, the staff being tied with big developers” and fines the city will incur for a massive sewer main break.

Much like the other slate candidates (Custodio and Del Campo), Possehl, a businessman and retired Air Force colonel, states he will represent residents, not special interests, and protect the Conejo Valley’s natural beauty from the bulldozer.

A five-year Thousand Oaks resident, Possehl, 54, was drawn to politics when the City Council endorsed a development he opposed. Yet he said his business training will help him collaborate if he serves with the incumbents.

“I’ve gotten to know the General Plan pretty well--it’s a pretty good plan if you apply it well,” he said. “If we’d had nice, orderly, slow growth with a balance of homes and businesses, we wouldn’t have the noise problems, the pollution problems and the school-crowding problems we have now.”

A perennial council candidate and speaker at nearly every public meeting the city hosts, pool designer Nick E. Quidwai left Pakistan more than 20 years ago and began his love affair with U.S.-style democracy.

A colorful public speaker known for his jabs at entrenched leaders, the 47-year-old Quidwai believes he speaks for the common resident who feels disenfranchised from, or disgusted by, city politics.

“I’ve been at it for about six years now,” said Quidwai, a father of three. “And its nice to see some of the things I’ve espoused come to pass, such as the taking of $1 million from the general fund to put in a sports endowment. . . . A lot of the important issues are still on the table.

Quidwai also fears over-development, but says most of the damage has already been done.

A personal run-in with city bureaucracy spurred civil engineer David Seagal to run for City Council advocating the codifying of the city’s purchasing manual and more efficient management of city assets.

Seagal, 68, was part of a group offering to evaluate the condition of the former City Hall, but another group won the contract, despite offering a higher bid. Seagal says this solidifies his belief in City Hall’s inefficiency and cronyism.

“What it amounts to is this city can now buy things it doesn’t need, spending more money than is reasonable and they can give the business to their cronies and accept poor quality,” Seagal said.

Among Seagal’s campaign proposals are a monthly balance sheet for city finances, support for local businesses in the awarding of contracts and the repair and re-leasing of the old City Hall.

As for the city’s vitriolic politics, Seagal says, “We’ve got nasty politics because we’ve got nasty politicians. . . . We’ve got to get rid of them.”

FYI

At least three forums are scheduled for Thousand Oaks City Council candidates in upcoming weeks: A forum hosted by the Westlake Joint Board is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the North Ranch Community Center, 1400 Westlake Blvd. * The Ventura County League of Women Voters is planning a forum, which will be taped for television replay, for 6:30 p.m. Oct. 1 at the Forum Theatre of the Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd. * A forum hosted by the St. Paschal’s Men’s Club is set for 7 p.m. Oct. 16 at the church’s Aquinas Hall, 155 E. Janss Road.