An activist rebukes a council member for comments he made at the last council meeting. This leads to a fierce war of words.
By Jonathan Friedman / Assistant Editor
City Hall became campaign central during Monday’s council meeting when activist Steve Uhring bashed two candidates supported by the current council and praised two candidates he favored. Several council members struck back with comments about Uhring and his endorsees, along with defenses of their candidates.
Uhring began his remarks as a response to Councilmember Ken Kearsley’s comments from the March 10 council meeting when Kearsley referred to political opponent Ozzie Silna’s supporters as “toadies.” He also alleged Silna had conspired with Mayor Pro Tem Pamela Conley Ulich to move a hearing on the La Paz project to a later date in hope that candidates Silna favored would be in power by then.
Uhring mentioned a list of financial contributions Silna has made in the community, including $500,000 toward the purchase of Legacy Park and another $500,000 for the fight to defeat BHP Billiton’s liquefied natural gas proposal.
“In light of these contributions to Malibu, Ken, your comments demeaning Ozzie and his friends were below unprofessional,” Uhring said.
Kathy Wisnicki and John Sibert, two candidates endorsed by Kearsley, were also targets of Uhring’s comments: “[They] fail at every measure as meaningful candidates for our City Council,” he said.
Uhring praised candidates Susan Tellem and Jefferson “Zuma Jay” Wagner as having “the decision-making skills and the commitment to move our community forward.”
Nothing was mentioned of incumbent candidate Pamela Conley Ulich.
Uhring bashed Sibert for his vote on the Planning Commission in favor of the La Paz project and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy’s parks plan, which included overnight camping. Additionally, he sarcastically referred to School Board member Wisnicki as being “impressive” for not attending the October board meeting when it voted to cut $14 million of Measure BB facilities improvement bond money from Malibu High School.
Councilmember Sharon Barovsky defended Sibert, saying he had no say in whether camping could be approved in the parks plan (the commission actually recommended an audit be done to determine the need of camping, but it did not reject the concept of overnight camping as the City Council later did) and that when he voted in favor of the La Paz project, he was actually favoring a smaller version of two options. Barovksy also defended Wisnicki, saying she was not at the school board meeting because she had injured her nose while out of town, and a doctor had told her not to fly. Barovsky also pointed to the board having earlier this month restored the $14 million to Malibu High as a sign Wisnicki was doing a good job for Malibu.
Barovsky said regarding what she considered Uhring’s incorrect comments, “They’re either at best … inadvertently wrong or, at worst, perhaps wrong by design because we are in an election season.”
Kearsley defended his comments from two weeks ago, saying he had reached a point where he had to say “enough is enough.”
“I apologize to Ozzie,” Kearsley said. “I really didn’t insult him. I didn’t mean to. I insulted the people around him who support him. So Ozzie, I’m sorry. And people around him, hey, that’s life.”
Kearsley’s comments triggered a roar of laughter from associates of Silna in attendance.
Kearsley also read an e-mail he had recently received from Tellem instructing him to “shut up” since he’s almost off the council.
“You know, I’m not going to shut up,” Kearsley said. “And when I’m off this council, I’m not going to shut up.”
Stern took a shot at Wagner for his residency issues at the beginning of the campaign and at Tellem for her support in 2002 of the Coastal Commission-drafted Local Coastal Program, the document that allows overnight camping in Malibu. He added he did not think highly of Uhring’s character because he had written an unfavorable letter about Stern during Stern’s 2004 council campaign, a time when his wife was ill and needing surgery.
The intensity of Monday’s council meeting comes during a campaign that has been mostly quiet. Tellem was the only candidate in attendance during the comments about the campaign (Conley Ulich was not at the meeting, although she did appear via teleconference later in the session). Wagner arrived later.
After the meeting, Tellem said she was “flabbergasted” by the comments from the council members.
“I thought they were totally out of line,” she said. “You don’t use the council meeting as your bully pulpit to insult the people of the city where you serve.”
She also defended her support of the Coastal Commission’s LCP, saying she likes a majority of the document, but “obviously I didn’t agree with everything in it, that’s impossible.” She said the overnight camping issue is one of the elements she does not like.
When contacted on Tuesday, Sibert said he had heard about what happened at the meeting. He declined to comment on it, because he wanted to watch the meeting on the Internet first. Wisnicki did not immediately return a call for comment on Tuesday.
Residents voice troubles with insurance/FEMA
Also at the meeting, the council heard from some people who lost their homes in last year’s fires about the troubles they have had with insurance issues and getting money from FEMA. The city will be sending a letter signed by Jennings to Congressman Henry Waxman inquiring about how residents can get FEMA to pay for building applications (while not making it a cost to the city) when insurance does not cover it. and for the federal agency to pay for debris removal and clean-up costs. The letter will also inquire about how to “cut some red tape” in terms of getting other FEMA benefits.
Some of the people who spoke were not city of Malibu residents, including Realtor Paul Grisanti, who led the discussion with the council. But the unincorporated county residents hope that if the city takes the lead, the county might follow to make a better situation for them.
Additionally, the council recognized three soldiers from the city’s adopted 101st Airborne unit, the Gators, who were killed in Iraq earlier this year. Sgt. David Joseph Hart (Lake View Terrace, Calif.), Specialist Ivan Ernesto Merlo (San Marcos, Calif.) and Specialist Phillip Joseph Pannier (Washburn, Ill.) were killed by small arms fire during a cordon and search in the Salah Ah Din Province in Iraq on Jan. 8. The flag at City Hall is being flown at half-staff this week.
Marissa Coughlin, the Malibu resident who has been in charge of the city’s adoption program, will present a proclamation from the city to the California residents’ families personally, and she said she will also get the proclamation to Pannier’s family in Illinois.