As County Election Certification Moves Closer, Gillette Gets a Handful More Votes

Way back on Nov. 2, before our days became much shorter and cooler, there was an election in Thousand Oaks between 13 candidates who wanted 3 City Council seats. If one was to try to recall that day so long ago, one might remember there were 3 long-term incumbents battling against 10 determined challengers. Council member Claudia Bill-de la Pena easily won her third term with the most votes. Though the election has yet to be certified, she is by far the lead vote getter with over 20,000 votes counted.  It looks certain that Mayor Pro-Tem Andy Fox secured his 5th term by winning second place with almost 17,000 votes. What is yet to be determined is that third seat with Mayor Dennis Gillette seeking his 4th term and challenger Al Adam trying to get in the door for the first time. Right now Dennis has pulled slightly more ahead in the close race with a 129 vote lead. It feels sorta like watching two men arm wrestle. One fist almost goes down on the table, no wait, he's gritting his teeth, there's perspiration on his brow, the arm is coming up again...

Gillette Has Razor Thin Lead Against Adam in City Council Race Yet to be Decided

After about 1,000 more votes across Ventura County were counted today, the Ventura County Clerk and Recorder's Office posted the results at 5 p.m. showing Mayor Dennis Gillette is still holding on to his seat with an 87 vote lead against challenger and Planning Commissioner Al Adam.

Earlier in the day Gillette had a 76 vote lead. Every vote seems to matter as Gillette increased his lead from .07 percent ahead to .08 percent with 14,700 votes against Adam's 14,613.

The Nov. 2 election had 10 challengers fighting 3 incumbents for the 3 available seats on the 5 member City Council. County Clerk and Recorder Mark Lunn said he hopes to certify the election by Friday, but noted there are "still lots of votes out there to be counted."

Thousand Oaks City Council Reorganization Meeting is Tuesday, December 7th

Each December, at the Thousand City Council Reorganization, City Councilmembers choose a new Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem for the coming year.  Scheduled for December 7, 2010, residents are welcome to attend the meeting and short reception that follows.

Not So Fast! Al Adam and Dennis Gillette Are 57 Votes Apart as Counting Continues

The next time the Ventura County election Web site will be updated will be today at 5 p.m. CVG will keep you updated.

Thousand Oaks City Council election results have not been certified and two of the candidates running for one of the three available seats are currently only about 50 votes apart.  That leaves Mayor Dennis Gillette and challenger Al Adam both wondering which one of them will be serving on the council for the next four years. Council member Claudia Bill-de la Pena got the most votes with Mayor Pro-Tem Andy Fox, who is usually at the top, coming in second. It's her third term and his fifth. Dennis is hoping for his fourth term. There were 13 candidates for City Council on the Nov. 2 ballot.

No one will know who wins for at least another week, Ventura County Clerk and Recorder Mark Lunn said. "It's far from over," he said.

His permanent staff of 15 along with 45 temporary workers still have about 14,000 ballots countywide left to count. These include some 4,100 of which they must either verify the signatures or correct mistakes such as those with lines that were not drawn so the computer would count them. Absentee ballots on which people wrote notes must also be cleaned up so the machines will scan them. Workers are making sure people did not vote more than once. They'll check this by looking at the precinct rosters and comparing them to absentee ballots cast. There are 10,557 provisional ballots that will also be checked carefully to make sure everything is in order such as everyone who voted were registered voters.

"It's too early to know who won. It is what it is. God Bless America," Lunn said.

Thousand Oaks City Council Incumbents Keep Their Seats

Thousand Oaks voters decided to go with experience. Claudia Bill-de la Pena, Andy Fox and Dennis Gillette will continue to serve Thousand Oaks for four more years. With all precincts reporting, Claudia won the most votes with 16,537 votes. Andy took in 13,760 votes. He was followed by Dennis with 12,210 votes. Throughout the night Claudia's running mate Al Adam was a few votes ahead of Dennis making it appear as if the challenger might have a chance of winning. But in the end Al ended up less than 200 votes behind Dennis. With only 48.01 percent of the 88,548 votes cast for the City Council going to the incumbents, it seems as if having 10 challengers splitting the majority of the vote might have worked in the incumbents' favor to help them get reelected. Al has not conceded at this time. He said he is waiting for all of the ballots to be counted. According to an official at the county clerk and recording office, there are still some voting by mail ballots that were dropped off at the precincts and provisional ballots to be counted.

CRPD Board Member John Short Strikes Out

Joe Gibson, Susan Holt and Ed Jones will fill the three Conejo Recreation and Park District board member seats. That leaves John Short, president of Thousand Oaks Little League, out. Short was appointed on the board in 2009 to fill a vacant seat left by Michael Berger. This was his first election. Controversy over baseball fields proposed at a future Lang Ranch park site may have contributed to the election's outcome. Some residents nearby the proposed park site have protested its plans.