Lazar, Fox Targeted in Newest Recall Effort

Saying they are tired of being ignored by a pro-business City Council majority, a group of slow-growth activists Tuesday night served Mayor Judy Lazar and Councilman Andy Fox with preliminary recall papers.

The activists also said they are disgusted by an attempt to recall Councilwoman Elois Zeanah, who--along with Fox and Lazar--is up for reelection in 1998.

The counterattack against two of Zeanah’s foes evens the playing field, say members of the fledgling group, which calls itself Residents to Recall Fox and Lazar.

“If a $100,000 special election on Zeanah--paid for by the taxpayers--is going to happen, then let’s have a total recall,” said Kitty Radler, one of the group’s estimated 75 to 100 members. “Let’s essentially have the ’98 council election in ’97. Let’s make it fair.”

Ironically, the recall papers--signed by 21 people each--were served to Lazar and Fox moments before a goal-setting meeting intended to foster cooperation among council members through the end of the decade.

As he sat down for the meeting, Fox said he had not opened the envelope and didn’t know if a recall notice was enclosed.

“I have a goal-setting session tonight, and that’s what I’m going to do tonight,” he said. “I have not been informed by the city clerk that anything has been filed.”

The recall effort will not become official until copies of both notices of intent to recall the council members have been filed with City Clerk Nancy Dillon.

As she opened her copy of the recall notice, Lazar shook her head.

“It’s a lot of the same old things,” she said. “A lot of half-truths and untruths. Rumor has been around that they would do this as retaliation.”

Zeanah said she knew that some of her supporters were considering a counter-recall campaign, but that she was not behind it. The recall effort against Fox and Lazar is just the response of decent, frustrated citizens, she said.

But the dueling recalls also illustrate the sad state of politics in Thousand Oaks, Zeanah said.

“This community deserves better government,” she said. “I think today, if I were a citizen in Thousand Oaks, I’d almost throw up my hands and say, ‘They all should go.’ ”

Among the numerous accusations against Fox and Lazar, recall backers listed the following:

* Turning Thousand Oaks into the San Fernando Valley, voting for urban sprawl and unchecked growth.

* Voting for a $135,000 audit on the city’s waste-water treatment plant, but refusing to accept the audit’s results.

* Refusing to require developers to pay their fair share for police, parks and sewer service.

* Voting to increase sewer bills by 70% to pay for a bigger and more expensive sewer plant than experts say is needed.

“I’m disappointed that we have a mayor and ex-mayor [Fox] who don’t pay attention to the people,” said Tommi Denney, who is spearheading the latest recall effort.

Denney accused the council majority of approving shoddy developments and violating the city’s General Plan.

The third pro-business council member, Mike Markey, could not be targeted in a recall drive because he was elected in November, Denney said. State law shields council members from recall efforts for six months after they are elected.

*

Denney said the fall elections, in which slow-growth activist Linda Parks was the top vote-getter, showed that the people of Thousand Oaks are wary of development. But the council majority keeps ignoring the city’s concerned voters, she said.

Group members said they are very different from the anti-Zeanah group, which has hired Progressive Campaigns of Santa Monica, a professional signature-gathering firm.

“This group is really grass-roots,” Radler said. “This is the people of the community who will be collecting signatures. No one will be paid, as opposed to the people trying to recall Elois.”

Not known for her fondness of developers, Zeanah has charged that they are bankrolling the recall drive against her, in an attempt to silence her slow-growth views.

Because recall groups--Yes! Recall Elois Zeanah, among them--are only required to file financial statements twice yearly, financial backers of both efforts will not be known until summer.

Ever since a group of residents announced their intention in December to give Zeanah the boot, Thousand Oaks has been in the midst of a veritable recall frenzy.

Recall politicking has oozed into the tree-lined streets and crowded supermarket parking lots, where pro- and anti-Zeanah activists accuse each other of lies and harassment.

Zeanah and her backers contend that Fox is the mastermind of her attempted ouster, noting that two of the councilman’s allies--his former campaign manager Jill Lederer and Planning Commissioner Ronald Polanski--are both involved in the effort.

*

Fox vehemently denies any connection with the anti-Zeanah push.

Fox and Lazar will be given seven days to provide a written response to the recall notices. After that, recall proponents have 10 days to file official recall papers with the city clerk.

If those documents are certified, organizers of the recall effort must collect signatures from 15% of the city’s 69,049 registered voters--10,357 signatures in all--within 160 days to place the recall measure on the ballot.

Businessman Peter Turpel, who is coordinating the anti-Zeanah drive, predicts that his group will likely have enough signatures by week’s end.

After Fox and Lazar received the recall papers, the council sat down to set goals and priorities with the assistance of a professional facilitator.

Council members agreed to carry over seven goals from previous years that have not been completed. Those include:

* Continuing development of recreational sports facilities.

* Developing an 11-acre parcel adjacent to the Civic Arts Plaza.

* Assisting merchants and property owners along Thousand Oaks Boulevard.

* Supporting the local business community.

* Enhancing public safety.

* Improving the city’s golf course and build a new one.

* Acquiring additional open space.

Council members also agreed to enhance communication between city officials and the public, and attempt to resolve the ongoing dispute about how to upgrade the city’s aging sewer plant.

Following a public hearing on the goals, which is scheduled Jan. 28, the council is expected to select the five top objectives it will pursue in 1997.

Helft is a correspondent, and Folmar is a Times staff writer.