Markey Will Run Again for Council

He’s said it before and it hardly comes as a surprise, but Councilman Mike Markey formally announced Friday that he will run for reelection this fall.

Markey, a Newbury Park resident who works in Compton as a homicide detective, filed election papers with the city clerk’s office earlier this month, and he officially qualified this week.

He joins council critics Ekbal “Nick� Quidwai and David Siegal as the only formally declared candidates.

Ramaul Rush, who has run for council before and is active in social service causes, was also certified as a candidate by the city clerk after returning necessary forms.

Councilwoman Jaime Zukowski has announced that she will not seek reelection, and has stepped down early to move to Colorado to join her husband, Mark, who was transferred by his employer, Amgen. Her official last day is Aug. 13.

But because the City Council does not meet next month, her last meeting was July 23.

Markey is part of the council’s business-friendly majority, which also includes Mayor Andy Fox and Councilwoman Judy Lazar.

He ran for the council unsuccessfully in 1990 and 1994 before beating out Trudi Loh in a hotly contested special election last year.

Markey said Friday that he is proud of what he has accomplished during his brief council tenure, and wants to do more. Already, he has helped bolster Thousand Oaks’ police force by hiring more officers, one of the issues on which he campaigned, he said.

But he says he still wants the city to hire an economic development manager, and wants to oversee such critical projects as the privately owned entertainment complex at Civic Arts Plaza.

Markey, who signed a fair-campaign pledge at the city clerk’s office, vowed to stay on the high road while campaigning--even if some critics are already trying to sully his image.

Some Newbury Park residents have been passing out flyers slamming Markey for what they see as a conflict of interest: They do not think he should have voted on the Dos Vientos Ranch housing project because he accepted campaign contributions from one of its developers, Operating Engineers Fund.

“I’m sure people are going to take potshots--they already have,� Markey said. “But I’m not going to get into that. That’s not what people want.�