A Nov. 10 meeting launched community-wide brainstorming for a day-long celebration on March 27.
By Michael Aushenker / Special to The Malibu Times
Last week, a community-wide meeting convened to plan the City of Malibu’s 20th anniversary celebration to take place at Legacy Park and the new City Hall on March 27. A smaller celebration will be scheduled for the following day on March 28, which is the actual anniversary date. Malibu was officially designated a city on March 28, 1991.
City Councilmembers Laura Rosenthal and Pamela Conley Ulich led the Nov. 10 meeting at the Michael Landon Center.
The drive for cityhood went before the voters in 1964 (with a landslide loss) and a near victory in 1976 when just 108 votes separated the noes from the yeses. That loss was blamed on the controversial inclusion of Sunset Mesa in the proposed city boundary since the residents of that area overwhelmingly rejected incorporation.
During the next cityhood effort, begun in 1987, the county government was threatening to install a sewer system that many said would pave the way for unlimited development, turning rural Malibu into Miami Beach. The threat of a sewer was nothing new, but this time it looked like the county was going to get it done, against the wishes of a vast majority of the local residents who felt powerless without a local government.
“That really galvanized the community because they felt the only way they could prevent the sewer was to have local control,” Larry Wan, who became one of the 32 candidates seeking a seat on the first Malibu City Council, told the Times in a series of stories done on the early history of the city’s councils. “I think that sold cityhood.”
A petition for incorporation was filed in early 1988 containing nearly 3,300 signatures, several hundred more than the amount needed to start the process. Later that year, the Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO, voted 6-1 before a packed house of 500 passionate people to approve the petition. The lone dissenting vote came from Los Angeles County Supervisor Peter Schabarum. The county would continue its attempt to prevent Malibu cityhood from going before the voters for another two years as the issue went through a series of court hearings. Finally, in early 1990, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs forced the county to call an election.
The citizens of Malibu approved cityhood on June 5, 1990 with 84 percent of the vote in an election that had nearly 67 percent of the electorate going to the polls.
The first council elected included longtime cityhood activist, Walt Keller, as well as Wan, Carolyn Van Horn, who cochaired the Malibu Committee for Incorporation with Keller, and longtime activists Mike Caggiano and Missy Zeitsoff.
At last Wednesday’s meeting to plan the 20th celebration, attendees formed subcommittees, with volunteers to lead the charge in organizing the anniversary event’s food, entertainment, decorations, fundraising, general event planning, memorabilia, and a commemorative magazine.
A specific theme has not yet been chosen, but Rosenthal outlined a few details of what was decided such as music, dance and a picnic at Legacy Park, followed with a parade that will end at the new city hall. More food and festivities will follow there, and the history of the city will be shown in some manner.
The new city hall building is expected to be ready in time for the March 27 celebration.
The anniversary committee must come up with a budget and funds to accomplish its goals.
“We’ve got to figure out how much money we can raise,” Rosenthal said. “We also want to keep it simple. We want to get the subcommittees rolling. The fewer meetings, the better, because we only have four months.”
A follow-up planning meeting, open to the public, will be scheduled for early December. Anyone with suggestions for the celebration can e-mail Rosenthal at lrosenthal@ci.malibu.ca.us.