A large Malibu home is up for sale less than two years after the owner told city officials he only wanted to build his “dream home.” A council member is listed as one of the Realtors.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
More than two years after dozens of Malibu Park residents attempted to prevent the construction of a beachfront mansion on Sea View Drive, the couple that headed the unsuccessful campaign is calling foul because the nearly completed estate is being advertised for sale with Councilmember Andy Stern as one of the Realtors, despite the property owner having once said he was building his “dream home.”
Susan Tellem, wife of Malibu Park Homeowners Association President Marshall Thompson, saw an advertisement in Saturday’s Los Angeles Times for the nearly 11,000-square-foot, two-story home with a 6,600-square-foot basement. The outraged Tellem sent an e-mail to neighbors and all the members of the City Council, writing that property owner Shary Nassimi had told “a pack of lies” in 2005 when he pleaded with the Planning Commission that he was building the house for his family.
“This lying goes on all the time with people who are actually building a spec house in Malibu,” Tellem wrote. “But now I see Andy Stern has the listing. How does that look? I am opposed to Realtors or developers on the City Council-it is a conflict of interest.”
Stern said in an interview on Monday that there was no conflict because the permit for the home never went before the City Council. The development was proposed several years ago, and received the city planning staff’s approval for a municipal permit in 2003. The homeowners association, which claimed the project was too large and cut off horse trails, filed an appeal that was rejected by the Planning Commission. The planning staff approved a coastal development permit two years later, and another appeal was filed and rejected. A further appeal was never made, Tellem said this week, because the association did not have the money to file one.
The Malibu Times attempted to contact Nassimi, who lives with his wife and children in another Malibu home. His wife, Esther, said she and her husband did not want to comment on the matter. Stern on Monday defended Nassimi’s decision to sell the house.
“It was his dream house,” Stern said. “But thanks to Marshall and the others, it was stalled for so long that his kids are going to college soon. It is asinine to say he was lying at the time [in 2005].”
Thompson and Tellem said in interviews this week that it was inappropriate for Stern to be selling the controversial home while sitting on the council. Thompson said one of the most bothersome issues to him was that Stern’s Web site boasts about how the house ” is larger than can be built under the current Malibu city code.” (A law was enacted since the municipal permit was approved that would not have allowed a basement as large as the one in Nassimi’s home for sale, which extends partially above ground.)
“I just think it stinks that people who are in government also have major investments in making money in the community,” Thompson said.
Stern said he has had no ethical issue with listing the home. He further stated that the property with a $14.5 million price tag has been on the market for nearly a year. Stern said Thompson and Tellem know this, and in the past few months he has received several “nasty” e-mails from Thompson about the home. (Thompson said he only sent one e-mail “a few weeks ago” after receiving a mailer about the home.) And Stern alleges the anger coming from Thompson has little to do with Nassimi’s house, but rather it is because he recently exposed that Thompson worked for a public relations firm representing BHP Billiton, the energy and mining giant that attempted to build the liquefied natural gas terminal, Cabrillo Port, off the Malibu coast. The proposal, which was killed this spring when two state agencies and the governor rejected it, was opposed by scores of Malibu activists and politicians.
“He made money off it, and when I questioned him about it, he got all mad,” Stern said. “He can sing any tune he wants, but it has nothing to do with the house. They [Thompson and Tellem] are just mad at me. That’s what this is all about.”
Thompson filmed LNG hearings and took pictures for the public relations firm, People Media. Stern said when he once brought that up in front of a group of people, Thompson became enraged. Stern said Thompson has had a problem with him since then, and did not have a problem with him before that.
Thompson said no incident like the one Stern mentioned ever happened. And he has made no secret that he worked for People Media.
“I don’t want to have a pissing contest with Andy Stern, but he’s totally wrong with me and Billiton,” Thompson said. “During that whole period, I was working for all kinds of clients, a lot of stuff that had nothing to do with BHP Billiton.”