We are now in the middle of a political twilight zone.
On Friday, Jan. 20, 2017, Donald Trump will raise his hand and be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. If I had predicted that at the beginning of the primary season, I would have been laughed out of the news business, but sometimes lightning actually does strike. But between Nov. 8 when we went to the polls and when the actual swearing in happens, the new president sets up his team and he has been enigmatic and unfathomable about his selections. In the beginning, he picks Reince Priebus — a relative moderate — to be chief of staff and then swings hard right and selects Stephen Bannon as chief strategist, Michael Flynn for his national security aide, Jeff Sessions as attorney general nominee and nominates Mike Pompeo to head the CIA. Just when it’s looking like this is going to be a total right-wing government, he holds a series auditions for the other big jobs in the administration in what appears to be an open casting call complete with photo ops at the front door and we’re all waiting to see who gets the callbacks. I must admit, he really knows how to work an audience.
Then he meets with the New York Times off and on the record and basically says he’s not interested in going after Hillary Clinton; denounces the neo-Nazi movement and disavows their support; sees no conflict of interest with his business interests (mouthing the old Nixon statement that if the president does it, it can’t be illegal); and on climate, he’s taking a second look at the Paris Accords and admits there might be some connectivity between human activity and the weather changes. By now, some of the hard-line conservatives are probably bouncing off the walls. But once he’s sworn in, the fun is over and with each choice he makes allies and friends, but also opponents and enemies. Does he gut Obamacare or try and fix it? Does he go for a major infrastructure plan and risk the total wrath of the budget hawks and probably the Freedom Caucus? Does he control his military guys whom he admires but who appear to be chafing at the bit for some action against some Muslims? There are lots of unknowns with this president because he comes to the job with a relatively unformed political and military philosophy. He’s never had to deal with these kinds of issues before, so it’s difficult to know where he’s going.
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On the local front, we’re kind of in an analogous situation. After Jefferson Wagner, Skylar Peak and Rick Mullen are sworn in on Dec. 12, we’ll soon find out if they intend to operate and vote like a slate or if they all go their separate ways on the council. Working as a slate would be difficult because the three constitute a quorum of the council and they can’t meet and discuss things privately without violating the Brown Act, so it’s going to be out in the open.
There are a number of difficult issues this council is going to have to grapple with.
On personnel matters, are they planning on making any changes? If they turn policy too sharply, many city employees who have been here a while may decide to turn in their papers and retire or move on to greener pastures.
There has been an under current in the campaign about dumping the Malibu Bluffs Park/Charmlee land swap and killing the deal to develop additional ball fields, perhaps a community center and a pool, a skate park, and other amenities. It’s been several years in the development process and if the deal is killed there are going to be a lot of very unhappy people.
The Airbnb/VRBO upcoming battle to try to end or regulate short-term rentals in Malibu is going to split this community down the middle and hit many people in their pocketbooks.
It appears that the Malibu Playhouse venue is closing because the property is being sold. Probably, if we want to keep legitimate theater in the city, someone — meaning the council — is going to have to take the lead and help find new space or arrange some subsidies, as other high end communities have. There is the old county-owned Malibu Courthouse space that’s empty. Maybe that’s an opportunity we should explore?
This council is going to have to go beyond just saying, “No,” and start coming with some serious doable plans for the future of our town. It’s easy to be anti-growth. It’s difficult not to be anti-living at the same time.