News flash to councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich: The state is broke and the economy is very shaky! Did you not notice all the empty storefronts in every shopping center in Malibu? Well, they are telegraphing you a message: Conserve our money! Please, no more acquisitions of property on the City of Malibu’s dime.
It can honestly be argued that every single land purchase by our string of City Councils has been an unmitigated disaster. Jerry Perenchio played us like a fiddle on the purchase of the lamely named Legacy Park that has such tight use restrictions that we can’t even jog on the darn thing.
And, judging from the mysterious immediate disappearance of high-volume storm waters from December’s deluges, it seems that “Loser Park” also does not act as designed to store and treat storm water.
Trancas Park is suitable for running dogs and little else-the access is so narrow and pinched that I would never go there for an event in case of a fire.
The acquisition of the new City Hall with no competitive bidding means you paid full pop for the hulk, and then you council members gutted the thing, ruining the auditorium and taking out, what, 40 percent of the seats, so that it can never be used successfully as a performance venue. This was a direct turnaround of promises made to keep the seating intact.
Now you want to acquire land at Heathercliff and Pacific Coast Highway? You and your colleagues have proven to be incompetent to do a real estate transition and you cannot be trusted to keep your promises to the public.
At the same time you do absolutely zero to protect Malibu Lagoon from the bulldozers, a shameful dereliction of duty. Your silence about this looming disaster and grotesque inaction regarding the never-ending slaughter on PCH, as we near the first anniversary of Emily Shane’s death, is an indictment of your lack of engagement in serious Malibu issues.
Stop with your obsession with real estate acquisitions with the people’s money and pay attention to real issues in Malibu.
Marshall Thompson