Meet the City Council candidates

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Andy Lyon

The Malibu Times sent a questionnaire to all seven Malibu City Council candidates. One profile will be printed each week until March 29. Election day is April 10.

Name: Andy Lyon

Birth date: 11/13/1962

How long have you lived in Malibu?

In the ‘Bu since ‘62

What is your education and employment history?

Webster Elementary, Malibu Park Junior High, Santa Monica High and some Santa Monica College and Santa Barbara City College.

Had the Evening Outlook paper route in The Colony when I was 10. Bagged groceries at the colony market, washed dishes at Cardi’s, delivered prescriptions at the Malibu Pharmacy next to The Colony coffee shop, waited tables at I Love Sushi/Zooma Sushi, bartender at Alice’s and Beaurivage, and for the past 15 years, real estate agent here in Malibu. Oh, and an actor, sometimes.

Why are you running for city council?

To stand up for Malibu. It seems that all the reasons for becoming a city in the first place have been thrown out the window. Malibu is at such a critical crossroads right now and if the direction the current council is steering it is allowed to continue, Malibu as we know it will be lost forever. I grew up here and can’t sit back and watch as it gets exploited and sold out.

What makes you qualified to be on the city council?

I am a lifelong Malibu resident who is willing to be of service to the “town” I grew up in. That said, I have a pretty good idea of why the people that live here love Malibu, and will strive to protect that from those that just want to exploit it. I’m not afraid to say what I think and stand up for what is right.

What, in your opinion, are the most important issues facing the city at this time?

The future proposed development in the Civic Center area that can only be accomplished with the sewer project, and how that will affect us all. This is, in my opinion the most pressing issue. We need to stop this now, for if we don’t, Malibu will never be the same. So many other issues are tied into an overdeveloped center of town that 75 words can’t cover them all.

What is your opinion of the Malibu Lagoon Restoration Project? Do you think it is a good idea or a bad idea?

I am completely 100% opposed to the lagoon project. It is a flawed plan and a waste of tax payers’ Proposition 50 bond money. As confusing as they have made this to understand, the fact is this is a huge project set at the busiest intersection in Malibu during the busiest time of the year. Right there is enough for our mayor to oppose it yet she still hasn’t. Why? Cleaning the lagoon can be accomplished by maintaining the breach point. Again, 75 words isn’t enough to explain over 40 years of personal experience that I have there.

What is your opinion of the city’s agreement with the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Board to build a centralized wastewater treatment facility (i.e., sewage treatment) for Civic Center businesses by 2015, and another one for central Malibu homes by 2019?

What a joke! Who are they looking out for there? They give an assessment district to the commercial developers to vote on this first phase, of course they are going to vote for it. Why aren’t they fighting this? Existing Malibu residents are blamed for poor water quality (which is now disproved by the USGS study), but instead the commercial development is first to sewer. How does sewering raw land that will be developed address what is supposedly an existing problem?

Are you in favor of a city ordinance that would require shopping centers to preserve a certain amount of space for local “mom and pop” businesses or for services such as cleaners that are geared toward residents rather than visitors? Or do you think that government involvement in business is counterproductive and that a “shop local” campaign or some other measure would be more effective?

I have looked at the diversification plan that “preserve Malibu” has drafted and I think it is fair and support what they are trying to do. I also support shop local movement. I’m in favor of anything that will help put an emergency brake in place on the “malling of Malibu” including fighting to have all the properties go on individual AOWTS instead of a central sewer, which will allow for insane amounts of development that just a city ordinance won’t help.