Arnold G. York
The Malibu Times Election Endorsements
Malibu City Council
Pamela Conley Ulich, Attorney/ Adjunct Professor
Ulich has completed one term on the Malibu City Council and is now the mayor pro tem. Ulich has distinguished herself with her high level of energy, willingness to try new things, coupled now with four years of experience to give her a more balanced judgment and understanding of the complexities of serving on the council. She led the charge to get Malibu a larger share of the county library budget to upgrade the city’s library.
John Sibert, technology business consultant
Sibert served as chair and member of the Malibu Planning Commission for the last five years. He has been long involved in coastal environmental matters as a founding board member of Save Our Coast, a director of the Malibu Township Council and as an environmental consultant for the federal government. He has a Ph.D. in Chemistry and is formerly a professor and administrator at Yale, Caltech and California State universities.
Kathy Wisnicki, school board member
Wisnicki served as president and member of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board and as the sole Malibu representative. She holds a Ph.D. in Education and Applied Statistics and has extensive background in budgeting, managerial matters and the financial skills to deal with the Malibu budget. She has also been long involved in environmental matters and in working with other public and private agencies to achieve results.
We are very fortunate in that the five people running for the Malibu City Council all bring a broad expanse of different kinds of personal experience to the table. But, this year, council incumbents Jeff Jennings and Ken Kearsley are both termed out so the council will be losing a great deal of practical experience and seasoned judgment when they leave. That experience has served this city well in the years past.
In making our recommendations this time, we were particularly concerned that we have council members with government experience because serving on the Malibu council means constant negotiation with the state, the County of Los Angeles, the California Coastal Commission, the Regional Water Quality Control Board, Caltrans, the National Parks Service, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and a multitude of other federal, state, regional and local agencies and departments. It took us years to reestablish working relationships with all those agencies, which impact our daily life. Unfortunately, Malibu is not an island and we need people on the council who can negotiate between the shoals. We believe the three candidates we have endorsed bring that kind of ability and experience to the job, and will serve our city well.
Measure D (reduction in phone tax)
This measure is a bit of puzzlement. Although none of us could be against a reduction on the current telephone utility tax, it’s not at all clear what additional communication services will be taxed. It boils down to the question-do you trust your local government? We don’t see this as a big buck item so we’re willing to give the council the benefit of the doubt and recommend a yes vote on Measure D.
Measure E (advisory vote)
The council is asking us if we want them to proceed on developing a viewshed ordinance. The reason they are asking us is because viewshed ordinances are always a hot potato, frequently a very expensive hot potato. There are whitewater people and there are tree people, and they seldom get along. Viewshed ordinances frequently start local neighborhood wars and the city gets caught in the middle. On the other side of the question, trees have a way of keeping on growing and some people refuse to trim or top their trees, all the while their neighbors see their views disappearing.
We would recommend a yes vote on this advisory principally because we believe the issue should be put on the table for discussion. With viewshed ordinances the devil is definitely in the details, and before you can really decide if Measure E is good or bad you have to see the ordinance. So without committing ourselves on the issue, we say let’s craft an ordinance and then discuss it.