As of Tuesday, five candidates had either picked up nomination packets from Malibu City Hall or publicly expressed interest in running.
By Homaira Shifa / Special to the Malibu Times
The 2012 Malibu City Council race is off to a flying start, after five candidates either picked up papers or publicly expressed interest in running as of Tuesday evening when The Malibu Times went to press.
Malibu City Councilmember Jefferson Wagner, Planning Commissioner Joan House, Andy Lyon and Hamish Patterson picked up nomination papers on either Monday or Tuesday. Missy Zeitsoff, a member of the first Malibu City Council, told another local media outlet that she was considering running.
The nomination period for the city’s general municipal election began Monday and ends Wed. Jan. 18, 2012. The election is scheduled for April 12.
Candidates interested in running must go to the City Clerk’s office and pick up a nomination packet. They then must fill it out and obtain no less than 20 and no more than 30 signatures from registered Malibu voters and return it to the office by Jan. 18, where they will then be qualified to be a candidate, Malibu City Clerk Lisa Pope said.
Three city council seats are open. Councilmembers Wagner and John Sibert are up for re-election, while Councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich is term-limited and cannot run again.
House currently sits on the planning commission, but she also served from 1992 to 2004 on the city council.
Lyon is a strong opponent of the controversial Malibu Lagoon restoration project, which would use bulldozers to recontour the lagoon slopes and channels, and remove non-native plants. Lyon unleashed a memorable tirade against Sibert at a city council meeting in April when the council decided not to formally oppose the Lagoon project.
Patterson appears to be an avid skateboarder who has posted several videos on Youtube under the names “Malibu Hamish” and “The Illusion.”
Sibert and Wagner were elected to the city council in 2008. That year, Ulich won the most votes and was easily elected to a second term on the council with 2,127 votes. Wagner placed second with 1,695 votes and Sibert placed third with 1,422 votes. Board of Education member Kathy Wisnicki placed a very close fourth place with 1,398 votes. Susan Tellem was fifth place and received 1,167 votes.
Sibert served on the planning commission before running for the council in 2008. He has been involved in local politics since the 1980s, before Malibu became a city.
The city council race will have a major effect on the composition of the planning commission, considered the second most important city commission after the council. Councilmembers appoint members of the city’s committees, boards and commissions, including the planning commission.
Planning commission vice-chair Lisa Toledo, an appointee of Mayor Laura Rosenthal, announced she would be leaving the commission earlier this month. Commissioner Roohi Stack, as an appointee of Ulich, will be leaving the commission unless Ulich’s replacement reappoints her. House is running for the council.
Commissioner John Mazza is an appointee of Wagner, who is running for re-election. Mazza has also run for city council in the past, but said this week he has not decided whether he will run again this year.