• Guilty! More than three years after committing a brutal murder at a South African resort/hotel, the killer of Gabriela Kabrins Alban, the 39-year-old daughter of Malibu restaurateur Howdy Kabrins, was brought to justice and found “guilty of murder” in a Cape Town courtroom. Kabrins and his wife, Linda, and Gabriela’s mother and her husband were in the courtroom almost daily for a period of several years and finally saw justice done.
• A meeting to examine the proposed plans by Joe Edmiston and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (and its satellite, the MRCA) to build a large campground just outside Malibu city limits brought out many angry Malibu citizens in opposition. The proposed project is just outside of the city boundary but accessed through Puerco Canyon Road. It is situated in a box canyon, which is almost all ESHA and a major fire hazard to the adjacent city homes.
• The city council indicated they were against a complete ban of short term rentals—as had been advocated by the planning commission previously in a 3-1 vote—and sent the matter back for further study by the staff. They did indicate they felt stronger code enforcement was needed because of the short rental abuses they had seen. Although they couldn’t foresee it at the time, the November fires have now complicated the issue.
• The California Public Utilities Commission, which has say over all public utilities—like Southern California Edison (SCE)—granted SCE the authority to shut off power in certain fire conditions, presenting the problem of shutting off communications and water supply flexibility when it was needed the most: in a major fire. The decision, which appeared to be directed to protect the utilities from legal liability, exploded all over the state and in the legislature. Malibu local Hans Laetz, with local radio station licensee Zuma Beach FM Emergency and Community Broadcasters, filed a petition to reverse the decision and, after the recent major statewide fires, the CPUC reversed their position. The commission is now going to go through the legal process of required hearings, notices and public comments before granting any utility the right to just close down the power.