Twice before, some of the citizens of Malibu had tried to become a city. Both times, the voters of Malibu had voted it down.
The first time, in 1964, it lost overwhelmingly, but the proponents of cityhood tried again in 1976. This time, it again lost, but barely — by 100 votes or so. The cityhood proponents were disappointed but not discouraged. The county was growing, traffic was worsening and many were fearful that the county had development plans that would turn Malibu into another Newport Beach or Laguna Hills, chockablock with oceanfront condos. Before, Malibu had been sort of a backwater in the county — somewhere that everyone considered far out, kind of rural and off in the country. Land was still relatively cheap, and teachers, engineers, civil service workers and firemen could still afford to buy some and build a house.
Malibu was always a retreat for movie stars in the Colony, but was not yet really on the world’s radar, nor was it the iconic brand it later became. Most of its residents were perfectly happy with the way it was and perfectly willing to keep it as a small, rural backwater. Then the county made a mistake: They proposed to build a sewer in Malibu.
The county said its push for the sewer was to get rid of the septic systems, which were thought to be unhealthy and, in many places, old and failing, spilling sewage into the surf zone. Those of a more skeptical nature saw the county’s move as developer driven — a way to build an infrastructure at public expense, so that developers could build larger, multi-unit developments you saw in other California coastal regions. The Malibu population declared war, and in 1988, the sewer wars began.
The opposition to the sewer came principally from two groups. The first group was the Malibu Township Council, a voluntary, local government around since the 1940s, which served as an advisory group to the county supervisor who had the Malibu area. They had no legal power as such but county supervisors usually listened to them, as they were the closest thing we had to a local government. That group included Larry Wan, Mike Caggiano and Missy Zeitsoff, and they claimed to have 1,000 members and supporters.
The other anti-sewer group was the Malibu Committee for Incorporation, led by Walt Keller and Carolyn Van Horn. They claimed 2,000 supporters. The two groups joined forces, though a bit uneasily, to work together for cityhood, as there were many hurdles to jump before we could become a city.
One of the largest of those hurdles was the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), a county agency that had to do a study and have their officials declare us financially capable of being able to support ourselves. Malibu citizens worked with LAFCO and finally, we got what was essentially the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for cityhood.
But the biggest hurdle was the Board of Supervisors, who clearly didn’t want to go along with Malibu cityhood until after the sewer was approved. So the county stalled and stalled, and the cityhood proponents eventually filed a lawsuit to force the county to call an election on the issue of cityhood for Malibu.
Finally, after two years and some necessary special legislation in Sacramento that passed both the Assembly and the Senate unanimously, the bill went to Governor George Deukmejian, who signed it. Thereafter, a Los Angeles Superior Court ordered the county to set the election date.
The issue went to polls, and Malibu, in very large voter turnout, overwhelmingly voted for cityhood and, at the same time, picked their first city council. The voter turnout saw 67 percent of the registered voters in Malibu going to the polls and 84 percent of those voters were in favor of cityhood, an absolutely astounding electoral success.
The first city council consisted of Keller and Van Horne from one faction, and Wan, Caggiano and Zeitsoff from the other faction. The race for the fifth seat on the council was so close that Zeitsoff finally edged out former Judge John Merrick by only five votes. Malibu’s time had come, and now that the citizens of Malibu no longer had the county to battle, they immediately started battling each other, and that goes on to this day.