Doug O’Brien in favor of Measure U! Pooh! The Malibu Times and Jonathan Friedman, assistant editor. must have misread the signature on the petition to extend the epoch of time members of the Malibu City Council have to bungle the affairs of the citizens of Malibu, as reported in your Jan. 26 edition. The Malibu Times is obliged to say “sorry” to the readers of your tabloid for this grievous error in reporting. Mr. O’Brien is the icon of Malibu Curmudgeons and coffee shop men and women and would not critically wish, I’m sure, to be governed in his claimed support of Measure U by his aspiration to remain as a Malibu City Commissioner Chair for another four years.
If Doug is concerned about the retirement income of the local bureaucrats who would be displaced by term limits, Doug should keep in mind the astonishingly expen$ive retirement plan fashioned for outgoing councilpersons by previous Malibu Council members.
Reports of the upcoming death of local double term limit under Measure U-limited are greatly exaggerated. Malibu voters will not vote for increased term limits. Seventeen thousand local politicians in 2,900 cities, counties, and towns throughout 40 states are now subject to term limits of two terms. The Malibu voter in voting in term limits sought a more trustworthy competitive political system and wanted to return accountability to a local political system not dominated by career politicians and expensive lobbyists. Mostly, Malibuites sought an end to the huge double-digit city spending increases that had become “The Malibu Way of Life.”
Term limits reward real-world experience over back-room familiarity. They are starting to reform Malibu government by replacing professional politicians with citizen legislators who participate in local government out of a sense of civic duty, a principle on which this city was founded according to Ex-Mayor Walter Keller. Proponents of Measure U-limited are wrong. Local term limits are changing our community’s political traditions and paving the way to authentic Malibu political reform.
And that is all I have to say.
Tom Fakehany