The year to come
About this time every year I like to look into my crystal ball and try to glean what’s in Malibu’s future. Probably to no one’s surprise it doesn’t change a heck of a lot from year to year, but 2012 may have a few unique wrinkles.
For one thing, we have a city council election coming up in April. There are three seats on the ballot, which is not in itself particularly unusual, but as I said, there is a wrinkle. Normally, most of the people running are incumbents, but not this time. Pamela Connelly Ulich is termed out, meaning she already served her two terms and cannot run again, and that seat is up for grabs. Secondly, Jefferson Wagner, better known as Zuma Jay, could run for a second term but he has decided to pass, which means a second seat is open. The third seat is held by John Sibert and he is running for another term. The candidates don’t actually run for a particular seat. The way it works is that the three top vote getters get the three seats, so in fact everyone is running against everyone else. If you’ve been watching the Republican presidential primary battle, you understand what’s coming is something between an election contest and a bar fight. I’ve heard that a number of people are reconsidering their decision not to run now that Jefferson Wagner decided to pull out.
The other twist is that Joan House and Missy Zeitsoff, two former city council members, are also running again. They last ran against each other in the first and second city council races more than 20 years ago. Zeitsoff won the first contest and was on the first city council, and was then swept out of office when another slate, which included House, got elected. Term limit rules didn’t come until later, so they’re both able to run again and pick up on the old rivalry.
There are probably going to be some hot button items in this election that could very well split the Malibu electorate in ways they’ve never been split before. In the past it’s always been growth vs. no growth, or the environment vs. development. This time there is an entirely new playing field.
Some parents are fed up with trying to deal with the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School district where Malibu is often treated like a step-child. They want their own school district and the process is now underway to try and get one. The problem is going to be money, or rather the lack of money. I’d speculate that in order to get the green light for an independent school district the City of Malibu is going to have to kick in some substantial funds. Currently, the City of Santa Monica puts $2.5 million per year into the school district and we benefit to the tune of about 20% of that because we have roughly 20% of the students. I suspect that the City of Malibu may, if we succeed in separating, have to come up with that $500,000 or thereabouts each year. If we don’t anticipate generating more revenue, do we have to cut back on something else?
The issue of the view ordinance is also coming up before the council and generally the council seems in favor of it. The big question is whether it will be prospective, keeping the views as they exist today or whether we’re going to roll it back to when we became a city 21 years ago or whenever you bought your house, if it was after we became a city. The council appears split two to two with John Sibert, the man running for his second term, sitting on the hot seat because he’s the councilmember with the deciding vote. No matter which way he goes, lots of people are going to be angry. Up to now the “Restore our Views” lobby has been louder and better organized but once the bulk of voters realize that people living up the hill, who often paid less for their homes, are going to be able to force you-with the assistance of the city-to cut back or cut down your trees, you can begin to understand why some consider this the lawyers full employment act of 2012.
There is the issue of the Malibu Lagoon, tearing out the old lagoon and putting in a new lagoon, that has substantially divided the environmental community and generated great heat and protests on all sides of the issue. Just look at the story in this week’s paper.
Then there is the question of all the mom and pop businesses that are being pushed out by all of the very expensive doggeries. How do you fix it?
We’re becoming a mature city, and there are things we want to do and some that some of us desperately don’t want us to do. A lot of it will require money and some very hard choices, and all of it, I imagine, will play out in the next city council election.