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Lazar, Zeanah Clash Again on Sewer Plant

TIMES STAFF WRITER

A war of words between Mayor Judy Lazar and Councilwoman Elois Zeanah over a $75-million plan to upgrade the city’s sewer plant has escalated, with Lazar accusing Zeanah of ignorance or of misstating facts to mislead residents.

Lazar’s remarks were a response to statements by Zeanah last week that accused Lazar of essentially the same thing--spinning the truth to provide a deceptive portrait of a long-standing sewer-plant stalemate.

The dueling accusations, contained in letters to the City Council, came after Lazar wrote state water regulators saying Thousand Oaks politicians had been unable to resolve how to pay for a sewer upgrade. The letter blamed Zeanah in part for the impasse, and Zeanah demanded a redraft.

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In the latest volley, presented to the City Council just before Tuesday’s meeting, Lazar outlined a series of what she called inaccuracies and misrepresentations in Zeanah’s letter. Each is titled “Error” in boldface type and listed by number, with a specific quotation from Zeanah’s letter. Lazar’s rebuttals are titled “Correction.”

“Based on the context of [her] letter, council member Zeanah is either totally unfamiliar with past council actions, state law, and associated financial issues, or is deliberately misrepresenting the facts and misleading the public in an attempt to legitimize her past actions,” Lazar wrote.

Zeanah, who said Wednesday that she had not bothered to examine Lazar’s accusations, reiterated her opposition to the hike in sewer fees that city officials and the majority of the council regard as the only way to pay for the upgrade, needed to comply with state law.

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“I read it quickly, but I saw that it was gibberish and yet another twisting of facts,” Zeanah said of the letter. “It’s an attempt to cloud the truth, which is what city management and the council majority want.”

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She said Lazar was unfairly trying to blame her for the stalemate. And she argued that she had tried to broker a compromise with former Councilwoman Jaime Zukowski as well as new Councilwoman Linda Parks, but that Lazar and Councilmen Andy Fox and Mike Markey refused to move.

“Two council members have been trying to find consensus for one year, asking for alternatives . . . and the rest of the council has been unwilling to do that,” Zeanah said.

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Both Zeanah and Lazar criticized what they saw as grandstanding by the other.

Expansion and upgrade of the Hill Canyon Sewage Treatment Plant--needed to meet health and safety requirements and to avoid multimillion-dollar fines--have been the subject of an 18-month council impasse.

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At the heart of the issue is a state law, AB 1600, that requires costs for sewer upgrades to be distributed fairly between developers and residents.

Lazar, Fox and Markey, as well as city public works officials, point out that as a result of the law, every other city in California that has upgraded its sewer plant this decade has had to split the costs between existing and future residents. Existing residents pay in the form of higher sewer fees, while future residents pay in the form of sewer connection fees that developers tack on to the price of new homes.

Zeanah and Parks, meanwhile, argue that AB 1600 does not specifically state how much existing residents need to pay for a sewer upgrade. They believe that residents may not need to pay more than they are already paying to comply with the law.

Last year, the State Water Resources Control Board warned Thousand Oaks that it was in violation of numerous state sewer requirements and that the city may have to repay $12.5 million in old water quality grants if it does not get its act together. The agency gave Thousand Oaks a Dec. 31 deadline to provide a funding plan and timetable for the state-mandated expansion and upgrade--a deadline that city leaders were unable to meet.

Lazar’s letter to the Water Resources Control Board officially notified the agency that Thousand Oaks leaders had not been able to resolve their stalemate--and blamed Zeanah.

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Zeanah took exception to that, saying the council majority was equally responsible for the stalemate. She also said that the letter failed to communicate what she saw as progress in the council discussion and that it appeared to be an attempt by Lazar to actually invite sanctions against the city.

Lazar countered in her letter by saying that she could see no progress whatsoever in the council discussions and that any attempts by Zeanah to say otherwise were misrepresentations of fact, if not outright lies.

Her first letter, she said, was not an attempt to court sanctions, but a simple telling of the unpleasant truth about the stalemate.

“I take full responsibility for that,” Lazar said.

In her rebuttal, Zeanah accused Lazar of twisting facts to suit her argument. That offended Lazar, who said Zeanah was the one taking “literary license” with the facts, and led her to write the latest letter pointing to inaccuracies and misstatements in Zeanah’s own argument.

Zeanah did take some liberties in her letter.

For example, Zeanah wrote that a Price Waterhouse audit of the sewer plant last year found that “approximately $30 million could potentially be shaved off the $75 million project.”

Although the audit concluded that the $75-million plan may be larger and more expensive than necessary, it in no way stated that $30 million--or any other specific amount--could be saved.

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Zeanah said Wednesday that she had reached the figure herself by tallying a list of potential savings outlined in the audit.

“My concern was that some people are starting to believe Mrs. Zeanah’s statements to be the truth, and they are not,” Lazar said. “I think it is important to set the record straight.”

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