Zeanah

Jeff Bengston revealed his own ignorance about Thousand Oaks City Council budget policies in his attack on Councilwoman Elois Zeanah (Letters to the Editor, Feb. 15). The budget has two parts, an operating budget and a capital improvement budget. One depends upon the other and [they] are approved at the same time. City Manager Grant Brimhall made an exception this time and did not submit the capital budget with the operating budget. When pressed as to why, Mr. Brimhall tried to make a joke of the matter.

Time and again Elois Zeanah has been quoted as saying that she is the protector of small business in Thousand Oaks. I've been waiting a long time now to see what practical solutions or ideas she is going to present to back up all that talk. Her standard approach seems to be that we must keep out large retailers in order to save our small businesses. Well, believe me, if we didn't have the big guys bringing in the traffic, many of the little guys would have a tough time surviving. Does she think the Janss Mall would have lasted without Sears, Marshalls or Toys R Us?

As a registered voter of Thousand Oaks, I would like to take issue with the Sept. 17 article by Times staff writer Miguel Bustillo. He starts out saying it took THEM (meaning the City Council of Thousand Oaks) more than two years and $1 million in expert opinions to settle the issue of the Hill Canyon Wastewater Treatment Plant upgrade. Mr. Bustillo, it is not THEM. It is one council member, Elois Zeanah. She has been opposed to the plan from the beginning and has cost the taxpayers of Thousand Oaks over $11 million.

As a longtime Thousand Oaks resident and City Council watcher, I am in disbelief at the outrageous display of arrogance and hostility by Judy Lazar and Andy Fox in passing over Elois Zeanah for mayor pro tem. All of us should ask why. Zeanah is the beacon of our community. She consistently works for and stands up for residents' rights. But Fox and Lazar apparently feel that they must discredit and silence Zeanah to protect their majority control. The November election results showed that the council majority is skating on thin ice that is beginning to break.

Calling recall petitions "clearly deficient" and in violation of the state Election Code, attorneys for City Councilwoman Elois Zeanah demanded Thursday that they be declared invalid. In a letter to City Clerk Nancy Dillon, attorney Raleigh H. Levine said that recall petitions against the slow-growth councilwoman break at least four state regulations. The letter requests and demands that Dillon notify members of the recall group Yes!

Hoping to defend herself from the accusations of a group determined to oust her, City Councilwoman Elois Zeanah has sent a mailer to voters outlining her record and accusing the opposition of deceit. In the three-page mailer--which states it was paid for by Zeanah and not "special interest money"--Zeanah states that Councilman Andy Fox and the people who helped elect him are behind the recall bid because they are frightened by her slow-growth views.

It was interesting to read that Elois Zeanah views the failure of the recall effort as a mandate. I voted against the recall for a number of reasons, the most important ones being that I do not believe that a small group expending an obscene amount of money should be able to overturn what the voters have stated was their choice, and also to ensure a precedent of this sort was not established. I did not, however, vote against the recall as a statement of support for Zeanah. I have watched numerous City Council meetings in which it was clear that Zeanah was arguing solely for the sake of arguing.

City planners will look at a proposal to eliminate an exemption in Thousand Oak's growth-control law for city-owned property. City Council members voted unanimously Tuesday to have city staff look into Councilwoman Elois Zeanah's proposal to close what she sees as a loophole in Measure E, a law approved last year by city voters. The law requires voter approval for any development more concentrated than allowed in the city's General Plan.

Our watchdog group has been monitoring development in Newbury Park for seven years. I am dismayed that the editors of this page printed a letter from Bob Young (Oct. 5) that is full of lies about issues that are a matter of public record. Young's letter regarding Elois Zeanah is a prime example of the tactics used by those who want to remove this popular slow-growth councilwoman. These are the facts: Zeanah has been the taxpayers' friend for seven years, showing the height of fiscal responsibility.

Elois Zeanah will be watching the Miss America pageant this weekend with more than the usual interest. The Thousand Oaks city councilwoman will be cheering for her niece, 24-year-old Nicole Johnson, competing against 50 other women for the crown. Johnson, who lives in Roanoke, Va., became Miss Virginia earlier this year after overcoming considerable difficulty. Suffering from an extremely rare form of diabetes, Johnson must wear a beeper-sized insulin pump.