New Council Members Revive Thousand Oaks Controversy

The Thousand Oaks City Council’s new slow-growth majority has come out swinging by requesting a council apology to former Councilwoman Linda Parks and by reviving a bitter debate over construction of three luxury homes near the Dos Vientos community.

New council members Bob Wilson Sr. and Claudia Bill-de la Pena said they are also proposing several initiatives on Tuesday’s agenda to make good on campaign promises to keep residents better informed and involved in city decisions.

The new members have joined incumbent Ed Masry to form a council majority elected on platforms calling for strict limits on city growth.

Masry proposes in a letter to be considered Tuesday that a written apology be made to Parks and two former planning commissioners for council actions against them before Parks was elected to the Board of Supervisors earlier this year. The actions against them should also be expunged from the council record, Masry said.

Parks was censured by the council and the planning commissioners were removed for allegedly conspiring to stall a land-swap deal.

“It was very embarrassing and humiliating for the three of them,” Masry said. “Let’s face it, it was done for basically a political motive. There was no due process involved and no factual basis for the allegations made.”

Bill-de la Pena and Wilson, both endorsed by Parks in their council campaigns, called the incident “a miscarriage of justice” and said they strongly support Masry’s request.

Wilson said the firing of the planning commissioners was one of the reasons he decided to run.

The apology request drew no response from the two current council members who voted to censure Parks and remove the planning commissioners: Councilman Dennis Gillette declined comment, and Mayor Andy Fox did not return phone calls.

“I’m hoping there’s no debate. Let’s just simply clean up the record,” Masry said. “I don’t want to make a big deal out of it. I just want the council to clear up this egregious error and move on.”

In addition, Wilson has proposed altering council procedures by having city staffers provide a description and status report of all major capital projects before the city, with one project being reviewed at each council meeting.

He also asked that a community budget task force be revived. “I had some real issues about $17 million being spent on the golf course, or $1.3 million spent on a City Hall elevator,” Wilson said.

Gillette said timely updates on important building projects can only improve the council’s decision making. He agreed that a budget task force could be useful as the city reacts to the state’s budget crisis.

“Any time we can get qualified residents to look at the budget” the process improves, he said.

As the former Planning Commission chairwoman, Bill-de la Pena is pushing the city to complete an update of its General Plan map, part of the master document that guides all city land-use decisions.

She also wants to undo a city deal to allow development of three estate homes on an 8.7-acre parcel in Newbury Park. Bill-de la Pena and her slow-growth allies prefer to keep the land vacant and fear that any construction south of Potrero Road would open the way for future development.

The former City Council, including Fox and Gillette, granted permission to build on the land in exchange for the owner’s promise to give the city $2.5 million to help construct a public equestrian center on the nearby public open space area Rancho Potrero.

The deal, part of a larger land-swap arrangement known as the Western Plateau Preservation Plan, led to the dismissal of planning commissioners Michael Farris and Nora Aidukas and the censure of Parks in February.

Parks questioned whether construction was prohibited by a 1996 ordinance that protects land designated as parks and open space.

After Farris and Aidukas sought to delay a decision on the Western Plateau deal until the question about the 8.7 acres could be cleared up, the council fired them, accusing Parks of trying to influence their vote and of violating the state’s open-meeting law.

A district attorney’s investigation concluded that there was no evidence of any wrongdoing. But because no formal apology was ever issued, Masry said the council needs to make one now.