This article is the second in a four-part series on Malibu City Council elections from 1990 to 2000. This week’s focus is on the 1992 election, Malibu’s first after becoming a city. Three city council members had to defend their seats against 17 challengers after a little more than a year in power. Only one would get to remain on the council.
By Jonathan Friedman / Special to The Malibu Times
Malibu was going through extreme growing pains when the electorate went to the polls in 1992 to vote in the first post-cityhood election. (Although voters approved cityhood in June of 1990, Los Angeles County stalled the actual enactment until March of 1991.) The council meetings were brutal affairs during which even the smallest issues turned into lengthy disputes, often concluding with the same 3-2 vote. On the majority side were Larry Wan, Mike Caggiano and Missy Zeitsoff. The opposition consisted of Walt Keller and Carolyn Van Horn.
“The council became extremely nasty,” said Joan House, who was one of the two challengers who dethroned Caggiano and Zeitsoff in the 1992 election. “You could sit in the audience, and on every motion the people would yell ‘yes’ or ‘no’ after each council member’s name was called to vote. Because you knew how everybody would vote. It was always 3-2.”
Caggiano wrote in an e-mail to The Malibu Times that, because by 1991 the county had withdrawn its sewer plan and there was no longer a common enemy, the council turned inward.
“Personality conflicts split the council; a council that in reality had few major policy differences became dysfunctional,” he wrote. “This led to a bitter campaign. Although false, the opposition successfully painted my side as pro-development. But the true problems related to the individual characteristics of council members.”
Tom Hasse, who was elected to the council in 1998, said the 1992 campaign was as bad as it ever got in Malibu. That year, he managed the campaign for the Malibu Grassroots Movement, or MGM, which consisted of incumbent Van Horn, along with challengers House and Jeff Kramer.
“That campaign, it started out nasty and it got nastier.” Hasse said. “It was not a friendly campaign.”
Hasse said MGM was formed as a response to the direction the council majority was taking the new city. “You had an incredible amount of disappointment turned into outright anger over the direction that first city council took,” Hasse said.
MGM was a strong force in the 1992 election. It had financial assistance from movie studio executives concerned about Pacific Coast Highway traffic and supporters willing to throw anything that stuck at their opponents. But House, who said she did not take part in the mudslinging, said few were innocent in the 1992 race.
“There were things coming from both sides that made you say, ‘Why go there?’” House said.
The MGM trio easily defeated the other 17 candidates in the race. Van Horn topped the list with 2,150 votes. She was followed by Kramer (2,125) and House (1,996). The closest challenger was political newcomer Jeffrey Jennings, who collected 1,509 votes. His time would come two years later when he won the first of three non-consecutive terms on the council.
Caggiano placed fifth with 1,026 votes and Zeitsoff was further down the list in eighth place with 443 votes. The defeated incumbents’ poor showing might have been based on a populace’s disagreement with their vision for Malibu. The vicious campaign was a factor as well. And it did not help that MGM’s main opponent, The Citizens United group, declined to endorse them. Instead, it supported Jennings, Realtor Paul Grisanti and longtime political activist Frank Basso. When the endorsement was announced, two of Citizens United’s six steering committee members, including the co-chair, quit.
Regarding his loss, Caggiano wrote that MGM’s campaign was difficult to defeat. “The day before the election, MGM mailed Malibu voters a flyer claiming that I had deceived voters about being a RAND consultant for cities,” he wrote. “They called me a liar. There was no time to respond to their false claim. Their action, although immoral and spineless, was effective.”
But Van Horn sees the MGM victory differently. She said, “The voters were saying they would rather go along with our vision of cityhood, and that we have to walk the walk.”
At the council meeting that followed when the two challengers took their seats on the dais, Caggiano concluded his term with one final shot. “You [MGM] were the ultimate campaigners,” he said. “Of course, I think Bonnie and Clyde were the ultimate bankers.”
Zeitsoff did not attend the meeting. She told The Times earlier that day, “As far as going and basking in the warmth of their [MGM’s] dishonest victory, no, I have better things to do tonight.”
The highlight of the meeting came when Mayor Wan announced he was quitting. He read a speech, stating that Malibu’s “paradise” had been “blighted by Chicago-style politics.”
In an interview for this story, Wan said the fact that he would have been at the short end of a 4-1 vote on most issues was not the reason for his resignation. He said he did not like being on what he considered an “amateurish” council.
“When you feel the political environment has reached a point where you can’t be productive, you’ve got to move onto what you feel are more productive avenues,” said Wan, who has remained active in state and regional politics, but never again was involved in municipal activities.
Wan’s wife, Sara, who now sits on the California Coastal Commission, just two months earlier had resigned from the committee assigned to draft Malibu’s land use vision, the General Plan Task Force. She said she was frustrated with the “increasing politicization” in Malibu.
Wan told The Times in an interview one month later that this marked the end of her Malibu political involvement. “My interests primarily have almost always been environmental and there are 1,072 miles of California coast, and I will just take out 26 and deal with the rest,” Wan had said.
Although the Wans are still Malibu residents and have kept away from direct involvement in Malibu politics, some would argue Sara Wan has remained very involved through her position on the Coastal Commission as many Malibu issues go before that body, and she is often vocal when it comes to those items.
House said she was disappointed when Larry Wan resigned from the council, despite not being in sync with him politically. She said it would have been good to have another viewpoint, especially during closed sessions when only council members and necessary city staff were in the room.
“We needed point and counterpoint,” House said. “By his resigning, we just had one point of view. We didn’t have the benefit of Larry Wan. Even though he was very unhappy with the results of the election, and some of the personal antagonism that exists between the Kellers and the Wans, it would have better had he stayed on the council.”
Wan said he disagreed that having his voice on the council would have made any difference. “My voice wasn’t being heard anyway,” he said.
Shortly after Wan’s resignation, John Harlow was named as his replacement. Harlow’s wife, Emily, had run in 1992, finishing 12th with 170 votes. Harlow was a strong political ally of Keller from the days of the cityhood fight. And, for a short time, the five-member council voted as one on most issues. But soon political differences became apparent, leading to the 1994 election, in which Malibu’s founding father had to fight of his life to try to keep his seat on the council. More on that next week.
1992 City Council Election Results
Registered Voters: 8,320
Voter Turnout: 55.7%
City Council Election (Top 3 elected)
Carolyn Van Horn: 2,265
Jeff Kramer: 2,244
Joan House: 2,076
Jeffrey Jennings: 1,594
Paul Grisanti: 1,179
Mike Caggiano: 1,088
Dennis Sinclair: 726
Frank Basso: 575
Missy Zeitsoff: 457
Chip Post: 272
Jefferson “Zuma Jay” Wagner: 252
Emily Harlow: 180
Jack Corrodi: 153
Edward J. Roberts: 107
Greg Ball: 97
Sam Birenbaum: 94
Paula Login: 69
Kim Devane: 42
Charles Stern: 40
C.J. Kraft: 37