The bond that would have allowed the city and the college to jointly purchase Malibu land for sports and educational facilities failed by one vote at the College Board of Trustees. Opponents said it was too soon to ask for a bond two years after the last one.
By Susan Reines/Special to The Malibu Times
A college bond that was to be used for joint projects between public agencies was halted Monday night when the Community College Board of Trustees came up one vote short of sending it to the ballot.
The city of Malibu had been preparing to draft a legal agreement with Santa Monica College so some of the bond money could have been used to purchase land in Malibu for educational facilities and playing fields to be shared by the college and the community. College and city officials had hinted that one of those pieces of land might have been the Civic Center Chili Cook-Off property, which the city has long lusted after.
Before the vote, Mayor Sharon Barovsky told the College Board of Trustees that she was “looking forward to a really exciting potential partnership” and Mayor Pro Tem Andy Stern called the bond “an opportunity to enrich the lives of many people in Santa Monica and Malibu.”
But the process screeched to a stop when only four members of the College Board of Trustees voted in favor of the bond, one vote shy of the two-thirds required to send a measure to the voters.
Opponents said it was too soon to ask for another bond after voters granted the college $160 million in bonds only two years ago, and expressed concern that there had not been time to finalize legal partnerships with the cities of Santa Monica and Malibu before the ballot submission deadline, which is Friday.
“It’s too soon,” Board Member Annette Shamey said. “The timing is not right, and there will be other opportunities for this college to go out and get what it needs. But you don’t change a 50-year institution overnight, and that’s what you’re asking the voters to do.”
Shamey said she had talked to voters and felt they were coming down with “bond-itis.” “They’re just tired of bonds,” she said.
Board Member Graham Pope said, “We made certain representations at the time we made Measure U, and I just am very troubled that we can go back two years later and ask for more and not have that be a major concern.”
Pope also voiced concern that the partnership projects would actually benefit the cities more than the college. “I’m troubled by the fact that, while there are educational components attached to all of these [projects], that some are city projects,” he said, adding that the college might be “assisting in an attempt to meet community expectations on the back of an educational bond.”
Proponents of the bond noted that both the college and the cities would have benefited from sharing the costs of land, construction and maintenance, and praised the college administration’s unprecedented offer to form large-scale partnerships with other public agencies.
“Of all the years that I’ve sat in public office I’ve never seen the city of Malibu and the City of Santa Monica sitting in the same room, even at the school district,” said Chair Margaret Quinones, thanking the mayor and mayor pro tem of Malibu and the city managers of both Santa Monica and Malibu for attending the meeting. “So that’s what gets me past my fiscal conservative side.”
Students of Santa Monica College’s Emeritus College urged the board to approve the bond, which would have been used in part to build classrooms in Malibu for the emeritus courses.
“In Malibu we really are elated that you’re thinking of giving us a place,” said Malibu resident Chuck Green, a retired Santa Monica College teacher and dean who is active in the Emeritus College. “With the classes that we’re teaching now, we’ve been able to make do because the city has been so generous, but we obviously do not have the facilities.”
Members of Santa Monica College’s faculty also asked the board to approve the bond, saying the physical education and child development facilities were outdated and inadequate.
In the end, with concerns of the size and scope of the bond lingering, Pope and Shamey voted against the bond and Vice Chair Carole Currey abstained, leaving the supporters with only four votes rather than the required five.
Mayor Barovsky said in a telephone interview after the vote, “I was very disappointed that it won’t be on the ballot because it offered a great potential for a partnership that would have benefited the college district and Malibu by helping us buy land for ball fields and open space. However, our intention with the Chili Cook-Off was to build both a park and to clean up the pollution in the Civic Center, and we continue to seeking funds for that purpose.”
Stern said, “I regret the vote of the college Board of Trustees, but that has no effect on my optimism and hope that we will be able to reach a deal with the Bay Company.”