This week, members of the City Council did an unbelievably stupid thing. By dismissing Planning Commission chair Robert Adler and Commissioner Deirdre Roney in an act of political retribution, City Council members Stern and Barovsky demonstrated that power, self-interest and vindictiveness are more important to them than the best interests of the citizens of Malibu.
Just a few weeks after the election, the members of both sides came together and signed a letter to the Malibu Bay Company. This act showed great promise toward moving Malibu forward in a bipartisan way, and in the process resolving the very future of our community. I for one had high hopes (and still do) that we can finally get beyond the political games and address a reasonable solution to the commercial over-development of Malibu. Let’s hope the gutting of the Planning Commission does not destroy this effort.
Malibu has a history of “smash-ball” politics and this act was nothing less than that. There was no Brown Act violation since whatever errors were made were easily corrected at the commissioners’ request. There is a question about the competency of our city attorney, but not a question about the integrity and competency of Mr. Adler or Ms. Roney. I have presented public comment on various projects before the Planning Commission over the years and have won some points, but lost many others. The one thing that was different with the Adler/ Roney/Carrigan/Silbert/Fox commission was that its members were well informed, listened and made reasonable decisions based solely on the facts.
Ex-chairman Adler and ex-commissioner Roney worked very hard and studied all the projects presented to them, from the smallest case right up to the Malibu Bay Company Development Agreement. Their efforts and diligence, as well as those of the other commissioners, uncovered the faults in Measure M and they had the courage to question those flaws. They are the types of citizens that make Malibu great. They sacrificed their time and energy without compensation, to improve our community. We all owe them a debt of gratitude.
John Mazza