When the issue of cityhood was first placed on the ballot before the voters of the city of Malibu, we were stampeded into cityhood on the single issue of no sewers ever in Malibu. Keep Malibu rural, and keep Malibu isolated were the twin themes of the election. The man who was most qualified to become a city councilman in Malibu was vilified. He was portrayed by the Keller clique as the henchman for Pepperdine and development in Malibu. He was probably the best candidate on the ballot, and as time has defined his character, he was falsely accused in a typical underhanded Malibu election fraud. His name is Judge John Merrick.
We really miss Judge John Merrick on the Malibu City Council. He would have been the peace keeper on the City Council, and he would have knocked some sense into our petty, myopic and paranoid City Council. Judge Merrick is a pragmatist, and Judge Merrick understands the concept of compromise. Our City Council has never understood either circumspection or compromise.
Our beaches in Malibu are polluted, and they are full of feces and fetid materials. Our local boys and girls are forced to swim and surf in feces, gray water and other septic overflows. Why? Because we have always felt that a dirty ocean filled with septic runoff is better than a clean sewer system in Malibu. Blockheads we are in Malibu.
How many times do we have to learn the lesson of compromise in this city. We have paid dearly for the many battles that Walt Keller and Carolyn Van Horn have waged in futility against individual property owners and the owners of Paradise Cove. Now that Tom Hasse has joined Van Horn and Keller as the governing clique of the City Council, we have once again returned to the politics of micromanagement and character assassination. Walt Keller was defeated once, and he promised that he would change his spots. He has not. The firing of Christi Hogin and the payoff of $227,000 to her as tribute so she would not assume the mantle of obsequiousness to Hasse, Keller and Van Horn is an unending story in the City of Malibu. Disagree with Keller, Van Horn and Hasse, and heads will roll.
There is no democracy on the City Council in Malibu. It is a petty dictatorship that must be abolished. In the next election we must return to sanity in Malibu. The city cannot continue to make gratuitous payouts to developers, mobilehome park owners and employees because they do not genuflect to Keller, Van Horn and Hasse.
I suggest we elect rational and realistic City Council members in the year 2000.
Judge Merrick, where are you? We need your voice of reason more than ever in Malibu. It is never too late to admit a mistake and to rectify the mistake.
J. Patrick Maginnis