Mailers Sent, Libel Suit Filed : Agoura Hills Recall War Heats Up

A recall drive in Agoura Hills gained intensity this week, with both sides mailing appeals to the city’s 11,000 registered voters and one of the targets filing a libel suit.

The Recall--For Responsible Leadership group is seeking the ouster of four of the five City Council members. In its mailer, the group calls Mayor Darlene McBane, Mayor Pro Tem Vicky Leary and council members Fran Pavley and Louise Rishoff the “gang of four.”

The mailer accuses them of blaming traffic-congestion problems on developers and on Los Angeles County and of not suggesting solutions. Council members have said some of the city’s traffic woes were caused by the county’s closing of Medfield Street in August.

Enclosed with the mailer were recall petitions and postage-paid return envelopes. If 2,150 registered voters sign and return the petitions by early May, a recall election would be held in June.

The city’s general election is scheduled in November when the terms of McBane, Pavley and council member Jack W. Koenig, who is not a recall target, expire.

The recall targets say having elections so close together would be a waste of city funds.

The four have formed their own committee, called Fight Against Irresponsible Recall, or FAIR, which sent a mailer charging that the recall group is a front for developers who disagree with the council’s slow-growth policies.

Rishoff went further, filing a $1.1-million libel suit Thursday in Van Nuys Superior Court against David Chagall and Carole Dynda, whose names appear as sponsors of the recall petitions. Chagall and Dynda are members of United Neighbors of Agoura Hills, a citizens group that has persistently criticized the councilwomen.

The suit accuses the recall leaders of falsely claiming that Rishoff conspired to violate the Brown Act, a state law governing meetings and actions of public agencies. The petition was not more specific about the claim.

“I’m not going to hand my reputation over to those people to destroy,” Rishoff said Friday at a news conference in Reyes Adobe Park.

Chagall and Dynda would not disclose specifics of their allegations, which were also leveled against McBane, Leary and Pavley.

In another development Friday, Agoura Hills officials released a financial disclosure statement filed by Recall--For Responsible Leadership, which raised $5,270 between July 1 and Dec. 31. The group accepted $2,000 in contributions from two Westlake Village firms, TED Development and LASK Enterprises, the statement said. It also shows contributions from two Agoura Hills firms: $290 from Interscience Computer Corp., run by recall proponent Frank J. LaChapelle, and $980 from Stevenson Ranch Cable.

The statement does not cover funds raised or spent this month, when the mailer was sent out. Representatives of Recall--For Responsible Leadership did not return telephone messages left on the group’s answering machine this week.

FAIR has not filed a financial statement.