3-2 Vote At 12:20 a.m., and the Bluffs Park Expansion Is On Shaky Ground – No Vote On Sanctuary Status – Norovirus Woes May Be Passing – Edison Plans Improvements

0
285

No decision on Sanctuary City status in Malibu.

Plans to build fields at Bluffs park are limping along …. after a 3-2 vote by the city council well after midnight. 

Nonessential school activities are still cancelled in Malibu due to norovirus …. but the stomach bug seems to be receding back to background levels.

This is Malibu’s only local daily news.

It’s the Tuesday edition … from Radio Malibu  …. 97 point 5 K B U.

——

Good morning Malibu!

——

No decision from the City of Malibu on the Sanctuary City issue.

The Bluffs Park matter started at 8:15 …. and went well past midnight. 

That bumped the Malibu Sanctuary City discussions back … for two weeks.

But as for Malibu Bluffs Park .. the council sent the matter back to staff.

The council voted 3 to 2 to change the current rough draft of plans …. to add a swimming center to the northeast corner of the current Bluffs Park.

But the plans are by no means assured …. more about that in a minute.

First the dynamics of a city council meeting that put development … and the real and legitimate needs of the community … against the heartfelt desire to preserve malibu’s heart … the 83 acres of vacant land South of Pepperdine and west of the existing Bluffs Park ball fields.

The city council chambers was filled to overflowing with school kids in uniforms … and with signs.

They lined up to explain why they need athletics facilities in this city.

SOUNDBITES FROM YOUNG RESIDENTS:

Hi. My name is Garren. And I’m 13.

And I was going to say that we need more baseball fields. 

We have like about 13 teams in we have two fields to play on ….

And that’s just bot enough because …..

Hi my name is Taia Petrelli. (phonetic)

I played Airwaves and soccer and I’ve played it since I was able to.

I’ve played now it was a soccer since I was able to and I recentlyI played soccer since I was able to and we didn’t didn’t have one game in Malibu.

We don’t have any tournaments here because our fields cannot accommodate them….

Hi I’m Everest Brady (phonetic) and I work as a lifeguard at the Malibu High School pool.

Its’ a mess … dealing with boys waterpolo … girls waterpolo …high school sports you can get until 530 the pool graphically closes at 7:30 745.

[[SOUNDBITE FADES AT :40 – TALKOVER AT 7:30 ]]]

After the kids went home …. out came the adults opposed to fields at Bluffs park..

The Malibu Township Council. 

Pat Healy’s coalition for slow growth.

Poison Free Malibu’s Kian Shullman.

SOUNDBITE FROM KIAN SHULLMAN:

“We are Poison Free malibu and we strongly support promoting wildlife in the Santa Monica Mountains by leaving wild space open.”

And former coastal commissioner …. Sara Wan.

SOUNDBITE FROM SARA WAN 

“I urge you to find other locations.  It’s not that we oppose ball fields, but you need to find other locations for the ball fields, the community pool, the amphitheater. “

About six adults … all saying that the Bluffs park was environmentally sensitive …. and this dead on arrival at coastal Commission.

But then one resident asked the city council ….  if not Bluffs park where … and if not now … when??

The council started thrashing that out at 10:45.

Center stage … new city council member Rick Mullen.

He said he heard the public voice -desire- for new athletic facilities … but wasn’t sure there is -demand- for them.

Mullen also angered the sports advocates still in the room when he intimated that Malibu should not provide full service athletic facilities.

SOUNDBITE FROM RICK MULLEN 

“Sometimes those people are saying I have to drive a half hourto my kids’ game in Thousand Oaks … that’s the price that you pay to preserve the wonderful beautiful place that we have. “

He said it would be cheaper …. faster … and far less controversial to avoid a fight with the Coastal Commission and environmentalists … and put fields on a vacant lot next to City Hall.

The city is in negotiations to buy the so-called Yamaguchi plot … but does not have a deal yet.

That did not sit well with Mayor Lou LaMonte … who’s been working for years on a complicated land swap with the state … to obtain the parkland at Bluffs. 

That led this testy exchange between LaMonte and Mullen … flexing his power with his fellow slate members. 

SOINDBITE FROM LOU LAMONTE:

“I think that we need ball fields in a park where there are ball fields. Not somewhere else where we might be able to get it, or not be able to get it, or not be able to afford it. 

“We haven’t got any other land at the moment. 

“And we don’t have an unlimited checkbook to get other land. 

“The reason to do the swap in the first place was to get ballfields.

“That;s why we decided to do it in the first place.

“If we’re not going to get ballfields there, then perhaps we should consider redoing the while deal. “

TAPE ROLLS – INTO SOUNDBITE REPLY FROM RICK MULLEN:

“Well. I would say, that was then, and this is now.”

Jefferson Wagner also opposed the Bluffs Park fields … for legal … political reasons …. and for the fact that there are landslides below the bluffs.

SOUNDBITE FROIM JEFFERSON WAGNER

“We’re going to be millions of dollars into it … and years into it … and we haven’t given these kids a field.”

But the slate was not united.  

Skylar Peake said he disagreed with Mullen … and said park development was much more urgent than what Mullen was supporting.

In the end …. the council voted to proceed with the Bluffs parkland project .… but not yet spend any money on it. 

By a 3 to 2 vote … they asked city staff to provide a rough estimate of what the geologic study would cost …and what EIR would cost ….

And they proposed three ballfields and an aquatic center. 

Wagner and councilwoman Laura Rosenthal voted against the proposal … but apparently for opposite reasons.

La Monte … Mullen and Peake voted for it. 

With doubts about the project hanging over it … and with efforts continuing to buy the six acres next to City Hall for ballfields … there is no answer yet to the pressing question .… when will Malibu build its first sports field in 30 years?

——

Last night … the small Northern California city of Petaluma became the latest California jurisdiction to become an sanctuary city. 

The Petaluma City Council unanimously passed a resolution affirming the city’s commitment to shield undocumented residents from the deportation policies of the federal government.

No decision yet from the Malibu City Council …. it’s been put off two weeks.

There are 80 school children in Malibu … whose parents or who themselves may get deported … they’ll have to wait to see if this city supports them …. like Petaluma.

——

You are listening to the latest news from Radio Malibu … 97.5 K B U.  ((( time  ))))

——

The Norovirus virus has been bedeviling schools in Malibu for week now.

But it may be going away … back to background levels.

A decision to resume nonessential activities … like field trips …. may be coming today.

A district spokeswoman says the level of ill children … with apparent stomach virus symptoms … hit 10 in one week at Malibu High.

The normal number is 3 to 4.

She called that abnormal … but not alarming.

County health workers have been monitoring the number of norovirus cases at the three elementary schools … and the junior-senior high school here in Malibu.

This was after a large outbreak of Norovirus in Santa Monica.

The school district janitors have been doing additional cleaning on surfaces at the school … as the Norovirus is highly contagious and lives on surfaces for a week or two.

A community meeting is planned in Santa Monica …. tonight from 6 to 7:30 … with health department and school officials. 

This is at the Santa Monica Public Library … at Sixth Street and Santa Monica Boulevard …. at 6 tonight. 

Malibu parents are invited. 

A later meeting may be set up in Malibu … a district official said. … depending on if Norovirus continues out here.

——

Southern California Edison announced last night it is advancing plans to reconstruct part of its 

creaky … failure-prone Malibu electrical distribution system. 

At last night’s city council meeting … the company’s spokeswoman said four of the nine circuits serving Malibu will be reconstructed. 

But … a new tie line …. linking Thousand Oaks to the western part of the city … is being put off. 

The Edison spokeswoman also said samples of troublesome insulators … some of which exploded and caught fire last fall … have been shipped to the manufacturer to find out what went wrong.

Edison suffered more than 14 outages on one night … an episode that the company called extreme weather …. in the form of heavy fog.

The Edison spokeswoman … Diane Fortin …. says the company has finsihed washing off contamination from all of its poles in Malibu.

The company had stopped doing that last year … which possibly led to the rash of outages last fall.

And it says it will continue washing it poles … to prevent fires. 

The state Public Utilities Commission is currently considering a formal complaint …. filed by a Malibu resident … alleging that the company has violated numerous state laws by negligently operating its system … which has caused dozens of power outages in the past few years. 

——

Traffic … in 65 seconds … first …

——

Weather for the Malibu ….

It will be ((((   sunny, with a high near 59  )))) degrees today on the beach … ((((    60  )))) inland. 

Winds will be gentle. 

Downcoast winds will be   (((  15  )))) miles per hour this afternoon.

Sunset tonight is at   ((((    5:48   )))).

After that … expect it to be (((  clear … cold and windy   )))) tonight … a low of  ((((   43  )))) on the beach … down to  (((( 37   )))) in the canyons.

A cold Santa Ana will blow tonight … with wind gusts up to 35 miles an hour

Tomorrow should be   ((((   sunny and 10 degrees warmer  )))).

Right now … it’s ((((     55     )))) at Trancas.

((((   47    )))) in upper Malibu Canyon.

And it’s ((((    57  ))) at Civic center Los Angeles. 

In the ocean … it’s ((((    53   )))) degrees in the water at Zuma Beach.

The lifeguards say the waves today are   ((((  2 to 3  )))) feet high …. 

((((  The WNW swell holds.  )))) 

Those are ((((  fair )))) surfing conditions …. according to the lifeguards.

(((((    There’s a five foot high tide at 10:14 this morning.

Low tide ebbs at 4:39 PM.

Another high tide … almost 5 feet … at just before 11 tonight.

 ))))

——

Our KBU Newswire is posted at midmorning at the Malibu Times dot com.

Remember… you can always get breaking news ….follow us on Twitter @975KBU.

We post breaking stories … on Facebook … search for Radio Malibu.

And we always cover breaking news … on the radio … at 97-5 FM in western Malibu.

Our web player is simple …. you can hear Radio Malibu in your phone or stream it to your car.

Navigate to k-b-u dot f-m. … press two buttons …. and we’re in your ear anywhere in the world.