I took my own advice on Saturday the 22nd and went to the voting center at Juan Cabrillo School to cast my ballot. The voting center is large and seemed to be wonderfully equipped with over 50 voting machines and eager and competent volunteers there to assist. They explained that, while the machines were present, the tablet devices containing the registered voter rolls for LA County had not been delivered, despite multiple calls to the registrar-recorder’s office. They had made multiple calls to track the tablets done and were told that the delivery was “on the way.” They gave me a phone number to save me a fruitless return trip later in the day.
On Sunday, Feb. 23, at midday I was told that the tablets had arrived but that the authorization codes they had received were incorrect.
On Monday, Feb. 24, at 9:30 a.m., I was the third person to vote that day at the Juan Cabrillo location. The staffers indicated that, before they closed Sunday at 5 p.m., they were able to get things straightened out and four people voted that day. They have worked out the kinks and are ready to assist you with the new technology.
I have a call into Jeff Klein with the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk office to find out if our experience in Malibu has been unique. As I send this off to The Malibu Times, I have not received a call back.
On a more positive note, the 73rd permit for a fire rebuild was issued as I write, bringing the total of permits granted in the last two weeks to five. That’s a little better than one every two days as we only had nine workdays in the last two weeks.
Get those fire rebuild applications in. We’re currently at 225 applications. That’s less than half of the homes within the city limits lost in Woolsey.
Dave Rydman of LACO Waterworks District 29 was kind enough to add me to the distribution list for the Encinal Canyon Water project. The project will provide adequate fire flow at the hydrants enabling the reconstruction of the 20-or-so fire rebuild homes in the Encinal Canyon area. They began adding waterlines and valves in the affected area on Feb. 3 and have been working five days a week since. In addition, they have just added every other Saturday to the work plan to speed up the process. It is a relief to see the process of replacing those radically undersized water mains begin.