In the first public election forum, several city council candidates advocated providing more tourist facilities to improve help local businesses.
By Olivia Damavandi / Assistant Editor
With the 2010 Malibu City Council elections a little more than a month away, candidates attended a jam-packed public forum last Thursday to voice their positions on city issues pertaining to business and real estate.
The Malibu Chamber of Commerce and the Malibu Association of Realtors hosted the forum at the HRL building off Malibu Canyon Road. The forum was the first in a series sponsored by various local organizations before the April 13 election.
All but two of the 10 candidates participated in the forum: Kofi via e-mail wrote he was unable to attend because he fractured his ankle, and Jan Swift reportedly had appendicitis but has not returned calls or an e-mail sent last week by this paper.
The other eight candidates-Ed Gillespie, Harold Greene, Matthew Katz, Lou La Monte, John Mazza, Laura Rosenthal, Steven Scheinkman and Michael Sidley-each responded to four questions.
Addressing the recession and rising rent costs that have caused an exodus of local businesses during the last few years, candidates were asked what legislative steps they would take to improve Malibu’s business climate, and to get more tourists to shop at local stores.
All candidates agreed that Malibu has been overrun by non-resident serving amenities like high-end retail stores.
“The only way [to improve the business climate in Malibu] is to give the people what they want. That’s not what’s happening at the moment,” La Monte said. “That hot dog stand [Malibu Mutt’s] is more profitable than any part of the Lumber Yard Mall, and the problem of raising rents [at Malibu Village has created] all of these vacant spaces there that’s making Malibu look like downtown Detroit.”
Some candidates also criticized the current city council’s decision to allow Malibu Lumber Yard mall owners to defer $1.5 million in rent.
“We must make sure there’s a fair playing field and not give a million and a half dollars back to one developer when everyone else is struggling,” Scheinkman said.
Scheinkman, as well as Sidley, La Monte and Mazza, advocated the need for a long-term plan that would securely reinstate future local businesses and attract tourists to shop at them.
“The problem is our current city council makes development decisions on an ad hoc basis. We need a clear plan and vision of where we’re going,” Sidley said, suggesting an increase of visitor-serving amenities throughout the city to collect sales tax.
Mazza also advocated the need to create new reasons for tourists to come to Malibu, as the majority that visits only use the city’s beaches. He suggested creating new businesses such as public horseback riding and a city tram to alleviate traffic, “So tourists can go to shopping locations without having to drive around,” he said. “But, we need to discourage one tourist thing, which is camping in the mountains.”
Greene suggested the city boost tourism by adding more “world class events,” like Chumash Day and the Chili-Cook-Off. He also said Legacy Park should be designed to include an amphitheater, and to serve as a site for a “hot rod show” or “exhibitions of various kinds.” (There are building restrictions and limits on what types of activities can take place at Legacy Park, due to a letter of agreement when the city bought the land from Malibu Bay Company. Restricted activities include: picnic facilities, athletic fields or facilities for sporting activities of any kind. Nothing can be built on the site except a stormwater/wastewater treatment facility.)
Rosenthal suggested allocating certain areas in Malibu to house local small businesses, and also giving them tax abatements. “The most important thing to me is to make sure whatever we have that is visitor-serving is first and foremost resident-serving,” she said, alluding to Trancas Country Market as an example.
Gillespie proposed the possibility of transferring ownership of Zuma Beach from the county to the city and opening a tourist center there to inform visitors where to eat and shop.
Except for suggesting that the city permitting process be expedited, no candidate proposed any other legislative steps that could be taken to improve the city’s local business situation.
Septic ban, governmental agencies
The topics of relationships between the city and various regulatory government agencies, and the candidates’ positions on the septic system ban proposed for the broader Civic Center area by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board were discussed next.
The water board last year approved the ban due to its assessment that septic systems are the major cause of pollution in Malibu’s watershed. The State Water Resources Control Board must still approve the septic ban before it can be enacted.
Most of the candidates supported the city’s alternative plan to the water board’s septic ban, which would build a sewer for the commercial area of the Civic Center and allow surrounding residents to independently upgrade their septic systems instead of requiring them to pay an estimated $500 per month to finance the sewer.
The majority also said the city’s strenuous relationships with government agencies like the California Coastal Commission could be improved if the city was more inclined to compromise on certain issues- excluding public safety-instead of resorting to litigation, and if the city was more proactive in resolving issues like wastewater management.
“It’s important to be proactive, not reactive … so outside agencies don’t impose their will on us,” Rosenthal said.
“Malibu is a city that’s 20 years old and part of problem is that we don’t act like a 20-year-old, we act like a 5-year-old,” Sidley said. “We keep telling [state agencies] we want it our way or the highway. Unfortunately, they have the power to control us. We must sit down and deal with them in a responsible manner.”
But negotiation with the Coastal Commission is not an option for Katz, who said he would ask other cities to partner against the state agency.
“I would do my best to make that long struggle to get rid of the Coastal Commission,” Katz said. “We have to prove that we can govern our own city.”