Thousand Oaks City Council

As a keen observer of the Thousand Oaks City Council proceedings, both as an attendee and as a television viewer, I feel compelled to comment about the lack of civility, rude behavior and insufferable arrogance exhibited by some members of the council. A New York City cabdriver is a dreamboat, comparatively speaking. In talking with newly arrived residents, it didn't take them long to sense the bias shown against those who speak up on matters. Invariably, the new resident will posit how strange it is that such a pleasant place to live can generate such disrespectful conduct toward the public.

A former candidate for the Thousand Oaks City Council has been sentenced to six years and four months in prison for threatening to kill six prosecutors in the Ventura County district attorney's office. Danny Avila was sentenced Monday after being convicted last month of six counts of making criminal threats and six counts of threatening public officials for threatening the prosecutors from jail in 2008. Avila ran for City Council in 2004. He was charged with hacking into the Verizon wireless system and sending bogus text messages to thousands of residents between midnight and 4 a.m. in the name of a fellow candidate.

The Thousand Oaks City Council has postponed consideration of a crackdown on street vendors to give staff more time to study different options. Councilwoman Jaime Zukowski urged staff to look into the possibility of restricting hawkers to designated districts. As proposed, the ordinance would merely ban them from intersections and medians and require them to obtain business licenses. While he promised to evaluate Zukowski's idea, City Atty.

The Thousand Oaks City Council has selected Thomas P. Glancy, a dentist and chairman of the city's Planning Commission, to serve out the term of Councilman Ed Masry, who died last week. Masry, 73, resigned from his post a week before his death Dec. 5. He had served one year of his four-year second term, most of it while hospitalized. Council members voted to appoint his successor rather than hold what they said would be a costly special election.

An upcoming attempt to address traffic congestion at the intersection of Moorpark Road and the Ventura Freeway has reopened a thornier subject: the extension of Rolling Oaks Drive. As part of their effort to expand roads around the already overcrowded interchange, Thousand Oaks City Council members may decide today whether the extension will move forward.

The Thousand Oaks City Council will try to streamline the permit process for residents hoping to build additions or make other minor home improvements. The new procedures will allow residents to apply for permits at the Planning Department counter in City Hall, instead of waiting for an administrative hearing. Neighbors would be notified of the permit application and could request a hearing to voice concerns.

Uneasy about creating a Big Brother bureaucracy to regulate home gardening, the Thousand Oaks City Council has voted to shelve a proposed forestry master plan until staff members can rewrite key points. City leaders have long hoped for a comprehensive program to keep Thousand Oaks green, but the 40-page document submitted for council review Tuesday smacked of red tape and taxes, several council members said.

They may differ on development and clash on crime, but the 16 candidates running for Thousand Oaks City Council share one common goal: teaching voters to tell them apart. Matching names to faces and then to ideas can be tough with such a crowded field--as candidate Irving Wasserman found out during Thursday night's forum before a homeowners' coalition, the Westlake Joint Board.

Thousand Oaks City Council candidate Lance Winslow, who has emphasized his small-business experience as an asset in his campaign, has a court record of failing to repay a major loan and says that he once served jail time for bouncing checks. Winslow, owner of The Car Wash Guys, is now on probation for driving without a license. He has a history of traffic violations, including a hit-and-run accident in 1992 to which he pleaded no contest.

The Thousand Oaks City Council has approved a new employment contract for Scott Mitnick, who was named city manager last month. The council voted unanimously Tuesday night to approve the open-ended contract, at an initial base salary of $195,135. Mitnick, 41, had served as interim city manager since May, when Philip Gatch stepped down.

Ed Masry, the flamboyant, crusading environmental lawyer portrayed by actor Albert Finney in the movie "Erin Brockovich," which was based on Masry's landmark $333-million settlement against Pacific Gas & Electric Co. for groundwater contamination in California's high desert, has died. He was 73. Masry died Monday night at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks of complications of diabetes.

He's taken on corporations, deep-pocketed developers and Hollywood with aplomb. But complications from diabetes forced Thousand Oaks' celebrity politician Ed Masry on Wednesday to give up his role as one of the leafy city's most popular leaders. Just a year into his second term, Masry, 73, announced he is retiring from his seat on the Thousand Oaks City Council, effective immediately, to concentrate on his family and regaining his health, said his son, Louis Masry.

A modicum of civility returned to Thousand Oaks City Hall this week as the City Council reviewed a code of conduct designed to limit backbiting among members and curb personal attacks from residents. But though council members were pleasant to one another, they were immediately criticized by residents who feared the code would quash dissent.

After years of bickering, public criticism and a pair of self-imposed investigations by the Ventura County district attorney, Thousand Oaks City Council members have agreed to a code of conduct designed to make them more civil to one another. The "council norms," which passed unanimously Tuesday, are intended to reduce personal attacks -- including by residents -- eliminate public reprimands of city staff and curb smears during election campaigns. Among them: Play nice.

The Ventura County district attorney's office found no evidence that the Thousand Oaks City Council violated the state's open meeting law in its dealings with a former city manager. The investigation, which the district attorney's office considers closed, centered on the circumstances surrounding the promotion, performance and retirement of former City Manager Phil Gatch.

The Thousand Oaks City Council is asking the Ventura County district attorney to look into charges that Councilman Andy Fox broke a state law by trying to force the city manager to resign. At issue is whether the Brown Act, the state's open meeting law, was violated by the councilman who allegedly implied to City Manager Phil Gatch that there were enough votes to terminate his employment if he didn't leave voluntarily.