Malibu CAN president said the organization is looking for the best three candidates to replace members of the current City Council
By Jonathan Friedman/Staff Writer
Members from each of the major organizations that are generally opposed to the current City Council have pulled papers for a potential City Council run. John Mazza from Malibu Community Action Network (CAN), Efrom Fader and former Mayor Walt Keller from the Malibu Township Council, and Jay Liebig from Tax Payers for Livable Communities all pulled papers this week.
Keller said he is undecided whether he will actually run, saying he was reluctantly forced to contemplate entering the race.
“Something needs to be done about a council that is more dedicated to serving developers than they are the residents of Malibu.”
Keller said he would not run if three people to his liking who he felt could defeat the incumbent councilmembers ran against them.
Liebig and Fader could not be reached for comment and Mazza said his pulling of papers does not mean he definitely is going to run.
“I’m actively working to create a slate [to run with],” said Mazza, who added he might still run even if he runs alone.
Mazza is the president of Malibu Riviera One Homeowner’s Association and is on the board of directors for the Point Dume Community Services District. He is also a member of the Point Dume Homeowner’s Association and the president of the Malibu Surfing Museum. The museum will one day be located on the Malibu Pier.
Mazza said it has been no easy task to get people to run with him. He said at least three people have decided not to run because they feared being targets of nasty attacks by a group most likely consisting
of Mayor Ken Kearsley and Councilmember Jeff Jennings and a third person, opposed to Mazza’s slate. However, Jennings, in a phone interview, said he and Kearsley have not yet talked about the council race.
Jennings said he does not see why anybody would feel that way because in all his previous campaigns he has never resorted to mean-spirited attacks, nor has anybody from his side done that.
Although Mazza is a member of the CAN Board of Directors, he does not necessarily have CAN’s support. CAN President Steve Uhring said in a phone interview the organization, which successfully led the campaign against the Malibu Bay Company Development Agreement in the November election, is still waiting to see who it will endorse in the April election. But he said CAN respects Fader and Mazza. At the time of the interview, he did not know that Keller and Liebig had pulled papers. Uhring said he has considered running himself, but has not made a final decision.
People who pull papers have until Friday to return a list of 20 signatures to City Hall to make their candidacy official. If Councilmember Joan House decides not to run, that deadline is extended to Jan. 21. House said Monday that she does not know what she is going to do.
Uhring said it could be as late as after the extended deadline before CAN selects whom it will support. He said the group wants to select the best three people who can replace Kearsley, Jennings and House, because they have not been good for the city.
“Take a look at what they’ve [the City Council] delivered to the city,” Uhring said. “No ball fields, no long-range plan for a development agreement with the Malibu Bay Company. They’ve gotten themselves into a lawsuit with the Coastal Commission, left the city with no Local Coastal Plan and gotten the city involved in an enormous amount of lawsuits. Is this the way to run a city?”
Jennings said it’s ironic Uhring would complain about the city being involved in lawsuits because, he said, CAN, TLC and the Malibu Township Council have brought most of them upon Malibu.
“It’s sort of like the guy who’s accused of murdering his parents and then asking the court for sympathy because he’s an orphan,” Jennings said.
Jennings added that he suspects CAN will not directly endorse any candidates because of the strict restrictions placed on fundraising for a Malibu election with a candidate only able to receive $100 from each contributor.
“They will run a so-called independent campaign which will allow them to avoid the $100 limit that all the rest of the candidates will need to comply with,” said Jennings, who added it would be an inappropriate way to conduct a campaign. “This will allow them to fund a tremendous amount of money into the campaign, as much as their primary contributor is willing to spend.”
Jennings said the primary contributor he spoke of was Ozzie Silna, whose Action Embroidery Company was the number one contributor to CAN’s campaign in November.
In response to Jenning’s comment, Uhring said, “Jennings keeps talking about this tremendous amount of money we spend. What he should do is take a look at the money the Malibu Bay Company spent to lose the Measure M election, a significantly greater amount than we spent to win it. Money wasn’t the issue in November. Truth was the issue. And that is what will win out in this election also.”