The Malibu Coastal Land Conservancy says it’s keeping its pledge to donate matching funds, even though its president says he doesn’t believe the city raised enough funds during a stated time frame.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
The Malibu Coastal Land Conservancy this week agreed to donate $500,000 to the city for the Chili Cook-Off acquisition as part of the conservancy’s matching fund pledge, although the MCLC president said he does not believe the city met its end of the bargain.
MCLC promised last month to match all private funds raised by the city from Nov. 15 to Nov. 30. Malibu officials said during this period the city raised almost $900,000. Councilmember Sharon Barovsky sent The Malibu Times a spreadsheet listing all the donors (some were anonymous), the amounts they gave and when they gave them. Barovsky said a reporter could also go to City Hall to look at photocopies of all the checks, if there were any doubts about the donations.
MCLC President Steve Uhring said he was suspicious about whether the city actually raised more than $500,000 during the matching fund period because City Manager Katie Lichtig sent him an e-mail on Dec. 1 stating Malibu had raised just under $570,000. And, according to Barovsky’s spreadsheet, $100,000 worth of donations came from people who attended a fundraiser in early November.
Lichtig said on Tuesday that she was mistaken in her e-mail because she did not know at the time about an additional $300,000, including $250,000 from real estate investor Michael Koss, which was received late in the day on Nov. 30.
“Anybody who is being honest with oneself and with the public could not possibly come to the conclusion that the city did not meet the match,” Lichtig said.
As for the $100,000 worth of donations that came from people who attended an early November fundraiser, Barovsky said those people did attend the fundraiser at that time, but they did not make their donations until after Nov. 15.
Uhring is still not convinced.
“It doesn’t appear that the city got all the money, but I’m not going to spend any more time chasing that down,” Uhring said. “We’ll [MCLC] do the benevolent thing and give the money [$500,000 matching donation].”
Barovsky said as of Tuesday afternoon the city had raised about $1,570,000 in private donations, including money raised before Nov. 15. MCLC plans to officially give the city its money at a special City Council meeting on Monday morning. That would bring the city’s private donations total to approximately $2,070,000, if it were to raise no other money before Monday. But Barovsky said she hopes that the city will reach $2.5 million by Monday morning.
Also at the Monday morning meeting, the City Council will officially sign off on the issuance of certificates of participation, which are similar to bonds, to raise remaining monies. How much the city needs to issue will depend on the amount of money the city has collected through grants and donations. Malibu needs $25 million before the end of the year to purchase the Chili Cook-Off site, the 20-acre property that stretches along Pacific Coast Highway from Webb Way to Cross Creek Road, from the Malibu Bay Co.
Malibu has received $2.5 million in Measure S bond money from Santa Monica College. This week, the county officially approved a $700,000 donation to Malibu. That donation requires the city to put up $1 million of its own money. Also, the State Water Resources Control Board says it will give the city $2.5 million. That money most likely will not come in before Dec. 22, when the city wants to close escrow on the property. So Malibu will have to make up for that with the issuance of interim COPs, which will be paid back once the city gets the grant.
The rest of the money Malibu needs for the acquisition will come from the regular COPs. The amount of COPs the city needs to sell will be higher than the amount that will bring its total to $25 million, because there are some other costs associated with the selling of COPs that need to be covered.
City Attorney Christi Hogin said on Tuesday that she gave Malibu Bay what she hopes is the final copy of the contract to sell the Chili Cook-Off site. If the company approves it, the contract will be put on the city’s Web site at www.ci.malibu.ca.us in the City Council agendas section under the Dec. 12 agenda.
Hogin added that although only money donated to the city prior to Monday at 9 a.m. will help to reduce the amount of COPs the city must sell, money would still be collected after that from private donors. That money could be used to offset the cost of the acquisition to the city’s General Fund.