There is no question the citizens of Malibu have been misled by Barovsky and Stern. They had been telling us all along that they had $10 million in grants from the State for the purchase of the Chili Cook-Off site. At a council meeting in November they notified us that as a result of misinformation given to them by the State, they had lost those grants. By the end of that meeting, the story was spun declaring that the State had placed too many constraints on the use of those funds, and that Malibu would be better off by maintaining “local control.”
In truth, many months earlier, the State informed the City as to all conditions required in order to qualify for the grants. There were no greater constraints placed subsequent thereto. The loss of most of those grant funds resulted from sheer incompetence. As a result, they are putting the City $10 million further into debt by issuing Certificate of Participation bonds in the amount of $17,495,000 in order to buy the Chili Cook-Off site. If this had occurred in a private company, heads would be rolling.
The only way to get to the truth is by replacing both Barovsky and Stern. It is time that we all said no more Barovsky and Stern on April 11.
Lawrence Weisdorn