Earnest LeGault City Council candidate Ernest LeGault hopes Thousand Oaks residents won’t vote for incumbents who are willing to spend close to $100,000 each to win a council seat that pays about $80,000 over its entire four-year term.

“What kind of money management is that? Ridiculous.” LeGault said.

LeGault, a self-employed businessman, also ran for City Council in 2008. After the votes were tallied, he did some of his own calculations and found he spent 50 cents a vote, while incumbents Jacqui Irwin and Tom Glancy spent $5 or more per vote to win.

It’s normal for rivals to have to outspend incumbents to take away a seat, LeGault said, but it would be good for voters to ask the question, “Why would incumbents, with the honorary titles of mayor and mayor pro tem, have to outspend challengers?”

LeGault runs his own software company that provides business solutions such as accounting or inventory control. He’s lived in Thousand Oaks for 11 years. During that time, he’s kept an eye on local government and doesn’t always like what he sees.

He said the city spent $24 million above what the city was taking in, according to the 2007- 08 budgets.

“They spent $12 million a year more than they made. When I warned them against doing that, I was told there was plenty of money. Now there’s cutbacks,” he said.

Councilmembers Andy Fox, Dennis Gillette, Tom Glancy and Jacqui Irwin usually vote the same. This irks LeGault. He calls them the “Fox Four.”

“Jacqui Irwin was appointed to the planning commission by Andy Fox. She appointed Tom Glancy to the planning commission,” LeGault said.

Councilmember Claudia Bill-de la Peña is usually the odd one out with council votes usually going 5-0 or 4-1, with her dissenting, he said.

“I’m not saying I agree with Claudia every time she votes, but she doesn’t have a chance against the four,” he said.

He can’t believe some of the decisions the four council members have supported, such as the day laborer site, restructuring at The Lakes or the exorbitant salaries of the city manager and city attorney, he said.

“The day laborer site is unbelievable. Somebody is going to go over there and pick up someone and bring them to their home and get hurt. Then the city is going to get sued.”

The city spends $100,000 a year at that site, mostly for someone to manage a strip of grass and some portable toilets, he said.

LeGault noticed, by reading the newspaper, that the city manager and city attorney didn’t take pay raises this year like they usually do. He also read that other city employees were asked to take a 10 percent pay cut.

“That’s the type of stuff City Council should pay attention to,” he said.

He also doesn’t like how the city pays for consultants with taxpayer money and “gets nothing in return.”

“I am a financially prudent, fiscal conservative who’s honest, decent and intelligent.

“If that’s what people want, they should vote for me,” he said.