Lynette Brody, the Malibu sector superintendent for California State Parks, retired at the end of September after a career spent overseeing State Parks properties in the Malibu area — and there are a lot of them: Malibu Creek, Leo Carrillo, Malibu Lagoon, the pocket beaches El Matador, El Pescador and La Piedra, Sepulveda Adobe, the Malibu Adamson House, 22,000 acres of parkland, Point Dume Preserve and Nicholas Flat.
Brody and local State Parks employees have offices in an old beach house north of Leo Carrillo State Beach with an unmarked entrance off PCH.
“This was the MTV beach house in ’96,” Brody said. “State Parks has owned it since the ‘60s. We own all the land from Malibu Bay Club down to Nicholas Canyon Beach, and make sure the native bluff scrub is preserved.”
Brody began her career with State Parks in 1981 as a “seasonal park aide” at Point Mugu and Leo Carrillo, registering campers and day users. She later attended Ranger Academy in Monterrey and was assigned to Hearst Castle for two years.
Brody’s job as Malibu sector superintendent included administering a $4 million budget, plus project agreements for the Malibu Pier and Adamson House repairs. She was also responsible for six campgrounds and a staff of about 15 rangers and lifeguards. She oversaw all special events, including a “very successful wedding program” at the Adamson House; volunteer programs at Malibu Creek, Point Mugu, Leo Carrillo, and Adamson House; volunteer mountain bike and horseback patrols, interpretive programs, Malibu Adamson House Foundation and Santa Monica Mountains Natural History Association.
“We’re short staffed, there’s no funding to fill vacant position, and every core area is suffering — law enforcement, public safety, interpretation, maintenance and administration have all been very difficult,” Brady said. “The Malibu sector supplies 70 percent of the income from the Angeles District — primarily from camping, day use, filming and special events.”
One of her favorite projects was in 2003: painting a mural at Leo Carrillo in the pedestrian underpass beneath PCH.
“It was just a dark tunnel with graffiti all over it,” she said.
“The cool thing about it was that there was so much community participation. David Legaspie III, a mural artist, did the artwork, which depicts the mountains to the sea, and the fire team cleaned the underpass. All of Malibu’s graduating fifth-graders of that year — 300 kids — painted the mural. Sponsors held a two-day festival afterward with an auction. A teacher even wrote a song, ‘Happy Birthday, Leo Carrillo.’”
“Those kids and families still come back to see it and take ownership of it. They’ll tell their friends, ‘That’s the fish I painted.’ It was memorable for a lot of people,” Brody said.
“The thing I loved doing the most has to be the filming — this sector has over 500 events and filmings a year. And I like working with the film industry — they get things done and respect our rules on preserving vegetation, etc., and I like that the public can watch, and the public loves that. In the ‘Baywatch days,’ David Hasselhoff was always signing autographs,” Brody recalled. She got to meet actors like Clint Eastwood, Tom Hanks and Reese Witherspoon.
The animals used in filming were a big fascination to Brody, including elephants, a black panther, orangutans and grizzly bears.
“I work with their wranglers,” she said. “I have a picture of me with a little black bear that did tricks with Fig Newtons.”
State Fish & Wildlife is also sometimes on hand. When someone is fishing in a film, fish must be caught without a barb, and there’s a limit as to how many times the same fish can be caught before it has to go back in the tank.
On a more serious note, Brody said, “We’ve had a lot of injuries and deaths on PCH, and we’re the first responders in many areas. It seems we have accidents every weekend where we helicopter people out.” Brody served as an emergency medical technician (EMT) when needed during her first 14 years in the field.
There have also been major fires over the years, during which she’s part of the command post and also has to evacuate campgrounds.
Brody is ready for retirement — she and her husband have five acres in Bend, Oregon where they plan to fish, golf, kayak and ski.
“I can’t wait to get up there,” she said.
Angeles District Superintendent Craig Sap said, “She’s done a magnificent job in one of the most difficult sectors in the state.” He hopes to have a replacement in “a month or two.”