Malibu Mayor Lou La Monte was elected to his second term as mayor last month, marking his 20th year of civic service in the city of Malibu.
During the new mayor’s swearing-in ceremony he stated what issues he intends to focus on in Malibu in the next nine months — including the drug and alcohol rehab overconcentration bill that got La Monte involved in local politics in the first place.
Before La Monte was known as a city council member, he was president of the Big Rock Mesa Property Owners Association. He found himself drawn to local issues when his neighborhood became overcrowded by rehabilitation facilities that were originally meant to have six to seven patients integrating into the neighborhood. The facilities had become so profitable they expanded their licenses to house significantly more patients.
“[They] wind up with 30 to 40 patients, and that was no longer residential — that’s an integrated hospital zone,” La Monte said. “We took them to court. Essentially, the judge said, ‘You’re absolutely correct, but you don’t have any standing because the laws prevent that.’ So we had to change the laws.”
La Monte’s efforts to change the laws got him paying attention to city politics, which he said “became interesting.” Soon afterward, he was appointed to the Public Works Commission by Council Member John Sibert. A few other public service involvements later and La Monte ran for city council in 2010.
Although La Monte outlined several other issues he planned to focus on during his term as mayor, his fight against rehab overcrowding has continued to this day. Passing legislation is a slow process, but it’s not so different from La Monte’s day job … sort of.
La Monte makes a living directing and producing commercials. The industry is typically thought of as purely creative, but La Monte sees his skills as easily transferable to the needs of governing.
“Your job as a director is to try to take all the visions that are around the table and try to meld them together and make it all happen so that everyone’s happy when they’re done,” La Monte said. “City council is very similar to that, because people come in with all kinds of agendas and you kind of have to put them together to find the best thing that works.”
It was La Monte’s career in film production that brought him to Malibu. Originally from the East Coast, numerous jobs had taken him to the Los Angeles area. During a location scout for a job he was working on Rambla Pacifico, he saw a sight he vividly remembers.
“It was towards the end of the day, the sun was going into the ocean and this couple went by on horseback and they were silhouetted against the sun,” La Monte said. “I thought, ‘I gotta move here,’ and eventually I did.”
La Monte made a permanent move to Malibu by 1990 — he had previously moved to the area in the 1980s, but left for work-related reasons.
Even though he hasn’t been in the area as long as some of the lifetime veterans of Malibu, he said that the neighborhoods have changed since he moved here. The rapid change has affected how citizens feel about the city’s politics.
“There is a lot of apathy in Malibu. I think a lot of it comes from the demographics changing dramatically in the last five to 10 years,” La Monte said. “When I came to Malibu, there were two kids on the street and they were both mine. There’s probably a dozen young kids on the street now.”
According to La Monte, a lot of incoming families with children have higher expectations for the amenities a city offers. Whereas the Malibu of yesteryear might have been content with surfing at the beach or horseback riding, there is now a higher demand for little league teams that require developed fields within city limits.
Any inching toward more development is certain to incite passionate feedback from vocal members of the community, which La Monte is sympathetic toward, but he wants to hear from everyone.
“Generally, people only get involved when it actually affects their own personal concerns. The only way we can address those [concerns] is to be as open as possible,” La Monte said. “We want to get more people active in the governance. One of the things we did was change the election to November.”
Malibu’s local elections will be held on the same day as national and statewide elections. It is anticipated this year’s municipal elections will have a much higher turnout than in previous years.
La Monte will serve as Malibu’s mayor until April 2017. His term as council member will conclude in 2018. After that, he said he hasn’t thought what he’ll do next.
“Right now, I’m busy doing this.”