Mayor Takes Office for Her Final Term

Fran Pavley, the city’s first mayor, this week again took the oath of office for that post, launching her fourth, and what she said will be her final, term.

The mayor is chosen among council members, and Pavley said she will not again run for the council.

The ceremony took place at a City Council meeting Monday night. Councilman Denis Weber was named mayor pro tem.

Pavley, a history teacher at Chaparral Middle School in Moorpark, said one of her goals as mayor in the coming year was to work with surrounding cities to establish a large, regional library.

But her sights were also set on two more immediate projects--the landscaping of both sides of the Ventura Freeway between Chesebro and Kanan roads, and the groundbreaking of a regional community center in partnership with the city of Calabasas.

Not one to shy away from controversy, Pavley has survived two recall efforts during her time on the board, in 1989 and in 1995. Both efforts were led by groups of residents unhappy with a council action.

Pavley said she tried to keep the recall efforts from affecting her service to the city, adding that they merely succeeded in the “city spending too much time and effort toward them instead of directing our energies in a positive manner.”

She said the attempts did not play a part in her decision to leave the council after next year. “It’s time to give someone else a chance to serve the city.”

Pavley was named to the California Coastal Commission by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in 1995. She will serve on that board until the end of her term next year.