Six City Council candidates discussed matters affecting Malibu residents last week at Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School.

By Homaira Shifa / Special to The Malibu Times

The Point Dume Community Association hosted a council candidate forum last week, where six of the seven council candidates discussed Malibu forming its own school district; if they were in favor of enacting an ordinance to protect local shops; establishing programs to protect Malibu during natural disasters; public safety; view preservation and restoration ordinances; and sustainable development. Council candidate John Sibert missed the forum due to illness.

Candidates had two minutes to introduce themselves, then answered questions put together by the board of the Point Dume Community Association, and ended with two minute closing statements.

Council candidate Hamish Patterson received loud applause and cheers from the audience when he asked residents to take action against the city government.

“Everybody in this community and in this room needs to show up at City Hall and just stare at these people,” Patterson said. “Just stare at them. And they aren’t going to do what they’ve been doing because they will know that we are watching them. We need to go get new blood in our city staff.”

Patterson added that he believes Malibu residents need to get together and act like a community to stop the Malibu Lagoon project.

“Forget the city government on this one,” Patterson said. “We all need to get down to the Malibu lagoon June 1st and stand in front of those bulldozers because that’s how we’re going to be heard. They will not run over us with those bulldozers if we stand up as a community and say split.”

Although Sibert wasn’t present, his wife, Blanca, was allotted time to speak on his behalf.

“Listening to these candidates tonight, my husband has taken a lot of potshots,” Blanca said. “You would think this City Council hasn’t done anything, and I’m here to tell you otherwise. My husband is a very dedicated man. I think his reputation speaks for itself.”

The Malibu City Council recently passed a view preservation ordinance, but almost all council candidates agreed that a view restoration ordinance should have been passed.

Council candidate Hans Laetz said although the view preservation ordinance has been passed, he questioned city attorney Christi Hogin’s efforts. Laetz said that another attorney, Mike Sidley, came up with a legal interpretation that the city could have a view ordinance that would allow homeowners to restore views that existed on the city’s incorporation in 1991, without it becoming a liability and drowning the city in lawsuits.

“Well that’s all good and well,” Laetz said. “Where was Christi Hogin? Why doesn’t our city attorney know this? The city attorney said Mr. Sidley is right, he knows what he’s talking about. We have a real functionality issue with our city attorney.”

Council candidates Missy Zeitsoff and Andy Lyon criticized the council for not making decisions during council meetings and that after four hours “everybody just wants to go home.”

“If you want to be able to get something done maybe we should Skype to the council from bed and keep them there ‘til like two in the morning, and then they’ll be making decisions,” Lyon said.

“This council doesn’t seem to like to make any decisions at all,” Zeitsoff said. “This was not a restoration as the people in 2008 voted to advise the City Council to pass an ordinance for restoration.”

When it comes to protecting Malibu at times of natural disasters, the candidates agreed the community should come together and help each other.

“You need to get to know your neighbor and come up with a neighborly plan,” council candidate Skylar Peak said. “It starts with community outreach.”