As a Malibu resident since 1972 I am really angry at the lies being perpetrated by CAN candidates Jay Liebig, Walt Keller, and John Mazza. The accusations in their mailers, ads, and phony phone “surveys” attacking current council members as pro development are an outrageous deception. Everyone would like to freeze development at current levels-or those of 1970-(at least once they’ve bought their own mini-mansion), but that’s living in the same fantasy world that the CAN gentlemen seem to occupy.
Unless we return to the chaotic first days of Malibu cityhood when Mr. Keller was mayor and no one could build so much as a doghouse, there is no legal or moral way to stop a family from building a house on their own property if they follow our very strict regulations. While Mr. Jennings and Mr. Kearsley have, in my opinion, done an excellent job of limiting and controlling growth, especially commercial development, all the CAN challengers have is a well financed campaign of attack ads but no comprehensive, specific, detailed, realistic or any other plan of how they would handle the immense pressures for development facing our city. We must not forget consequences of past council decisions wherein the council rejected a growth-limiting settlement and we ended up with huge court ordered condo projects. Missteps by a council with a radical agenda may lead to disaster in terms of more court mandated development or a takeover by State Parks and the Coastal Commission of every detail of land use policy in our community.
Further, Mr. Liebig and his associates went to court to prevent Malibu citizens from participating in a referendum to determine our own Local Coastal Plan (LCP)-meaning that the Coastal Commission appointees of Gray Davis and John Burton would decide Malibu’s fate. We’ll vote for proven leadership, local control and limited growth so we will vote for Ken Kearsley and Jeff Jennings.
Scott and Sharon Dittrich