Unhappy with Fox, Irwin, Gillette

As a board member of Save the Conejo (STC), I’ve had to chuckle over the recent spate of nasty letters attempting to vilify our local grassroots organization and its members.

These letter to the editor writers have stuck to the FoxCo “talking points” attacking STC, singling out Debbie Gregory personally for having had the audacity to oppose the firing of Phil Gatch, the T.O. city manager. Their clearly transparent tactic is to blame, then shoot the messenger to draw attention away from Andy Fox’s power-putsch.

It hasn’t worked.

Save the Conejo supports environmental issues that enhance our community, with the mission of helping educate residents on public policy. Our board members are community activists who recognize our civic responsibility to work at making and keeping the Conejo Valley the beautiful place it is, without overdevelopment or poorly designed projects.

A number of us serve or have served on various city and county boards, including the Residents Roundtable, the grand jury, the county Mental Health Board, Conejo Valley Unified School District advisory boards, etc.

Individually, members, including Debbie Gregory, have financially supported and contributed their time to organizations such as the Conejo Valley Little League.

As a group, Save the Conejo has sponsored and worked a Conejo Valley Days booth for four years and hosted other fundraising charity events. So much for the smear letters trying to paint us all as a bunch of malcontents.

Certainly let’s not forget Ed Masry, who has served as a twoterm city council member (the biggest vote-getter in city history) and has donated most generously to many local causes.

Save the Conejo also supports civility, the currently fashionable buzzword used by supporters of Fox, Irwin and Gillette (FIG).

However, the FIG’s actions against Mr. Gatch belie any notion of civility and fair play. With Andy Fox leading the charge, Phil Gatch was summarily forced into retirement after 38 years of dedicated service to our city. Attacks and spin will not change that fact.

Mr. Fox’s actions were meanspirited and a violation of the Thousand Oaks municipal code. Additionally, Fox’s actions were unnecessarily expensive for taxpayers. You see, Mr. Gatch was already planning on retiring within a year and would likely have agreed to retire sooner without being threatened and without taxpayers having to buy out his contract and pay for his acting replacement.

Such is the arrogance and pique of Mr. Fox, just to make the point that he is Thousand Oaks’ new powerbroker. Now he calls the tune that the city manager’s office dances to, something he couldn’t do with Phil Gatch.

There is evidence of ethical malfeasance and city code violations. Will the council majority (FIG) allow an impartial investigation or is Fox above our laws?

So far the FIG majority has blocked a formal motion to have this matter fully investigated.

Why? Gerry Langer, PhD Thousand Oaks