Zeanah

The committee working to recall Councilwoman Elois Zeanah spent $175,123 during the first six months of this year--nearly three times the highest amount ever spent to elect anyone in this city, campaign finance reports released Thursday show. That brings the total spent in this year's recall battles, which includes a separate campaign against Mayor Judy Lazar and Councilman Andy Fox, to about $192,000. Yes!

The committee working to oust Councilwoman Elois Zeanah and the city must pay more than $53,000 in legal fees stemming from a court fight her attorneys won earlier this year, a Ventura County Superior Court judge ruled Friday. Yes! Remove Elois Zeanah and the city of Thousand Oaks were ordered by Judge Joe D. Hadden to split the legal fees of Strumwasser & Woocher, the high-profile Santa Monica law firm that represents Zeanah and argued the case on behalf of plaintiff Thomas B.

Despite a last-minute plea by Councilwoman Linda Parks to postpone the issue until more is known about the petition-checking process, the City Council on Wednesday formally accepted 10,382 signatures to oust Councilwoman Elois Zeanah and called a recall election for Nov. 4.

Foes of Councilwoman Elois Zeanah have succeeded in their drive to put the emotional issue of her ouster before voters, and she will face a recall election in November, City Clerk Nancy Dillon said Friday. Capping a 7-month-old signature campaign that polarized residents in this politically conscious city, county elections officials have determined that the group Yes! Remove Elois Zeanah has gathered barely enough signatures to force a recall election.

Foes of Councilwoman Elois Zeanah have turned in nearly 14,000 signatures to oust her--and every single one will have to be checked to determine whether a Zeanah recall measure will qualify for the ballot. Yes! Remove Elois Zeanah, which needed to gather valid signatures from 10,169 registered Thousand Oaks voters, submitted 13,978 signatures to the city clerk's office last week, culminating six months of intense, often emotional petitioning in neighborhoods and shopping centers throughout town.

Ripping Councilwoman Elois Zeanah for dragging the city and a reputable housing group into an illegal-immigration debate, the City Council has refused to reconsider the group's plans for a homeless shelter in the city. Council members also voted 4 to 1 to approve a statement saying that Thousand Oaks will continue its policy barring the use of taxpayer money to assist undocumented immigrants.

Rallying to the support of an affordable-housing group, backers of Many Mansions packed the City Council chambers Tuesday saying allegations that the group uses city money to help illegal immigrants are completely groundless. Speaker after speaker criticized what they see as a small group of political extremists unfairly dragging Many Mansions and its planned 11-unit Community House into a local debate on illegal immigration.

Opening the divisive issue of whether government should help undocumented immigrants, Councilwoman Elois Zeanah is calling for a public hearing to discuss whether city money should be used to assist people who are here illegally. Zeanah's request comes after a city code enforcement crackdown this spring on a shantytown--just two blocks from Thousand Oaks Boulevard--where 50 Latino immigrants were living in tool sheds, shacks and small houses.

This city could soon be forced to pay the legal bills--which could total more than $20,000--that Councilwoman Elois Zeanah incurred when her lawyers successfully sued City Clerk Nancy Dillon earlier this year in a recall-related dispute. Attorney Raleigh H. Levine of Strumwasser & Woocher convinced Ventura County Superior Court Judge Joe Hadden in February to freeze more than 15,000 signatures to recall Zeanah on grounds that the petition format violated state election law.

Deeming the entire affair far too petty for prosecution, the Ventura County district attorney's office announced Monday that it would not file charges against Councilwoman Elois Zeanah over a May 3 scuffle in which a recall petitioner claimed Zeanah bruised his wrist.