Democracy is dead

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    The City Council’s decision, on July 6, to abolish all Malibu City study groups in favor of commissions is another example of how far certain members of the council have gone to sanitize and depersonalize the “community” of Malibu in favor of the sterilized, institutionalized city they’d promised we’d never become, but which they now favor.

    That night, the pleas from study group members to the council fell on the deaf, obdurate, unbending ears of council Siamese triplets (who think alike, act alike and vote alike), Van Horn, Keller and Hasse. Those of us who spoke before them wasted our time, energy and emotions, considering the fact that their minds had been made up long before the meeting began. And though Mayor House and Councilmember Barovsky tried to introduce fair and reasonable modifications to Councilmember Hasse’s motions, they were repeatedly met with an unyielding tunnel through which equity saw no light.

    The genesis of the problem developed when the Transportation Study Group was invaded by Point Dume, pro-speed hump advocates who immobilized us by their sheer numbers (the group grew from nine members to 32). This made obtaining a quorum unachievable. But the council majority, instead of looking at the situation as an opportunity to establish effective and enforceable study group bylaws, instead used it as an opportunity to establish commissions.

    In so doing, the council Siamese triplets, Van Horn, Keller and Hasse, can now have even more control at micro-managing the city of Malibu since they’ll have their own three puppets on each of the five-member commissions. Faithful, devoted and forthright community volunteer representation via study groups is dead, thanks to former volunteerism gurus Van Horn and Keller, whose actions have devastated the very heart of our community. This is not a democracy we live in. It’s a dictatorship!

    Marlene Matlow