In my opinion, the current City Council and Christie Hogan just scammed the good residents of Malibu. Let’s all get this clear. In 2000, there was a Term Limit law that was voted on to limit the City Council to two terms each.The ballot had a definition of the term limits written by the City Attorney. It said that any term, whether a partial term or an appointment to finish a term, would be considered one term. The re-write defined the terms as two full four-year terms. Sharon Barovsky can potentially have two and three-quarters terms in office. I do not believe this is what democratic Malibu citizens want. 60% of the voters signed on for a term-limit for City Council and that has been frustrated.
Without the lawsuit brought by former Planning Commissioner Richard Carrigan, this violation of the public’s trust would never have come to light until far too late to do anything about it for this election. The convenient change in the city’s term limit definition caused a majority of the Appeals Court to reinstate the Barovsky campaign. The way I see it, the system was gamed. In this issue, the City Council members considered their own personal benefit, not the will of us residents.
As I recently said before the City Council, the USA was partially founded because we Americans rejected the idea of inherited public office like kings of old. This entire farce resulted from the sentimental elevation of Mrs. Barovsky to finish three years of her late husband’s elected term of office. This had nothing to do with her abilities or background. There was exactly zero public input into this very political act. I think this appointment loophole should be eliminated in our city laws so as to stop this clear abuse of the Malibu public trust.
You know what really bugs me? Having a pompous Jeff Jennings talk down to us citizens on our public TV channel, about the fine points of the law that permit this outrageous power grab. Remember that the mere “appearance of impropriety” trumps lawyerly malarkey every time. In case anyone wants to “out” me, I wholeheartedly support John Mazza and Ryan Embree.
Marshall Thompson