John Sibert is re-elected to the City Council, Joan House returns after an 8-year absence and Skylar Peak wins his first City Council race at age 27.
By Homaira Shifa / Special to The Malibu Times
John Sibert, Joan House and Skylar Peak won seats on the Malibu City Council Tuesday night, garnering far more votes than the four other candidates in the field.
Peak led all candidates with 1,466 votes, followed by Sibert with 1,156 and House with 1,037.
Hans Laetz came in fourth with 701, followed by Hamish Patterson with 649, Andy Lyon with 629 and Missy Zeitsoff with 557.
In total, 2,398 ballots were cast out of 8,672 eligible voters for a voter turnout of 27.65 percent.
Perhaps not coincidentally, the trio of winners also raised and spent the most money of any of the seven candidates in this year’s City Council race.
Peak led all candidates in campaign fundraising and spending as of March 24 with $29,905 raised and $15,837 spent. Sibert and House came in second and third, respectively, both raising and spending more than $10,000.
Sibert was the only incumbent running and won re-election to his seat. Peak and House replace Pamela Conley Ulich and Jefferson Wagner on the council. Ulich was term-limited and Wagner decided not to run for re-election.
Peak is a current member of the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission, is on the City of Malibu Wastewater Advisory Committee and part of the Skate Park ad hoc committee. He owns and operates Peak Power Electric, a small family-run electrical construction business. He is also a boardmember of the Boys and Girls Club of Malibu Teen Center and TeraSurf and has worked as a lifeguard for the Los Angeles County Fire Department at Zuma Beach for years. He is a graduate of Malibu schools from St. Aiden’s to Juan Cabrillo, Malibu High School and Pepperdine University.
“I am going to emphasize community involvement in the decisions that affect our future,” Peak said. “Some of the important decisions will focus on wastewater solutions, public safety, education, a skate park at Bluffs, property rights and managed slow growth.”
In June 2008, Peak and another Malibu resident were charged with misdemeanor battery when they tried to stop paparazzi photographers from taking photos of actor Matthew McConaughey on a local beach. It started with verbal insults against each other, which then turned to physical confrontation at Little Dume Beach. Charges were eventually dropped.
Peak said he has learned a lot from the incident and is happy no one was injured. He said he wishes things hadn’t gotten physical, but that those who were there that day “know what happened.”
“I felt in the moment I was doing something to protect the privacy of our community,” Peak said. “I think we can all agree that paparazzi are an ongoing problem that needs to be monitored for the safety of the public. Residents need to report illegal paparazzi activity.”
Sibert was the only incumbent running. In 2008 he won with 1422 votes, garnering 48.82 percent support of the 2913 ballots cast.
Sibert served on the Planning Commission for five years prior to being elected to the Council in 2008. He received his B.S. and M.S. in Chemistry from the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology and his Ph.D. from the University of California San Diego.
“What’s really important is that as a council we’ve maintained civil discourse even when we disagree,” Sibert said. “And we’ve always listened respectfully to every single individual that’s wanted to speak with us.”
House served on the Malibu City Council for 12 years from 1992-2004 and was mayor three times. She left the Malibu government in 2004 when she declined to run for a fourth term on the City Council.
City law limits a council member to two terms, but House could have run for a fourth term because the term-limits law was approved in 2000, and only council elections since that year count as terms served under the law.
Under the city’s term limits, House can only serve one four-year term this time around.
House has been on the Planning Commission since 2006, when she was appointed by Councilmember Andy Stern.
House was also vice chair of the General Plan Task Force, which created the city’s General Plan. She received her degree from San Diego State College, and a California teaching credential from California State University, Long Beach.
“I pledge to demand that large landowners consider the community’s needs, not just their balance sheets,” House said. “To limit the ‘build-out’ in the Civic Center and Trancas areas; expand our recreational facilities to meet the needs of our adults and youth; create a citywide shuttle service which will reduce traffic and pollution; and implement a fire-safety program.”