A press secretary for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office confirmed this week that it is looking into allegations regarding the Malibu Planning Commission. She said the office received a complaint from a citizen, and the matter is under review. The secretary declined to discuss any more details.
At its Dec. 1 meeting, the commission voted to hear an appeal at a future date by music producer Lou Adler on a permit granted two years ago for a home owned by Bill Chadwick. Allegations were later made that the commission had violated the Brown Act by voting to hear the appeal, although the request for it was not on the agenda.
Two weeks later, Mayor Pro Tem Sharon Barovsky and Councilmember Andy Stern fired their respective appointed commissioners, Deirdre Roney and Robert Adler, because they said the commissioners had violated the Brown Act by discussing and taking action on an item not on the agenda and for allegedly discussing the item prior to the Dec. 1 meeting. Also, Barovsky and Stern said the commission had put the city at a serious financial risk by agreeing to hear an appeal long after the permit had been granted.
In response to the firings, Planning Commissioner Richard Carrigan, who did not attend the Dec. 1 meeting, resigned. He said the firings had nothing to do with the Brown Act, but rather were a response to the commissioners’ publicly neutral stance on Measure M and because of a fear Roney and Adler would run for City Council. Stern and Barovsky denied the allegations.
Following the meeting at which the two commissioners were fired, the remaining commissioners (Carrigan did not resign until the end of the meeting) voted to overturn the decision to hear the appeal. It then voted to hear the request for the appeal at a future meeting.
On Friday, Adler filed a lawsuit with the city to get Chadwick’s building permit revoked. He alleged Chadwick’s home does not follow the old string line requirement, which prevents the building-out of beachfront homes beyond the line of adjacent homes. That law has since been altered, but would still apply to Chadwick’s home, because the permit was granted when the old string line rule was in effect. Chadwick’s attorney, Alan Block, and the city have said Chadwick’s home does meet the standards of the rule.