It comes as no surprise that when Ozzie Silna discovers in a push poll that Malibuites overwhelmingly favor local control and homeowners rights, he sends out huge brochures telling us his candidates are doing a 180 in the last week of the campaign and suddenly want to “allow” residents of Malibu to have property rights. As the president of a homeowners’ rights non-profit organization, it is my duty to inform the public that candidates Keller, Liebig and Mazza have advanced an agenda designed to systematically disassemble the bundle of rights that have long been the foundation of single family homeownership.
While the majority of Malibuites have a sincere desire to be good stewards of the land, and want to preserve Malibu’s traditional agricultural pursuits of farming, horses, orchards and gardens if done in an environmentally sensitive way, these candidates, either by their complacency or, in many cases, overt advocacy, have been foot soldiers of the “No Use” movement of extremist ecologists.
Thanks to the tireless efforts of Jeff Jennings and Ken Kearsley to protect us from the tyranny of the Coastal Commission, we can still have horses, yards and seawalls and residents still have the right to remodel our homes, without preposterous fees, forced donations of land, and intrusive government monitoring of our plants. In contrast, Walt Keller has acquiesced to all of the Coastal Commission’s demands during the past three years. And candidate Liebig sued to stop the city from issuing permits under the City’s ordinances for homeowners in the pipeline, even going so far as to sue to stop voters from exercising their right to referend the Commission’s plan. Vote for Jennings, Kearsley and Ulich if you value your privacy, your home and your right to decide what Malibu will look like in the future.
Anne Hoffman