Joan House was named the mayor of Malibu for the fourth time last week, more times than anyone has been appointed to the office. Councilman Skylar Peak was named mayor pro tem.
House served three terms on the City Council from 1992-2004, before term limits were put into place, serving as mayor three times since 1995.
“I was always involved in something in Malibu,” she said.
House outlined three major goals for her nine-month term: bringing more recreational space to Malibu, regulating rehabilitation centers and determining safe, legal parking spots on Pacific Coast Highway.
House, a native Californian, moved to Malibu in 1975. She first became engaged in politics on the local level during the 1976 election.
She was also active in environmental issues, like raising awareness for seal clubbing in Canada, and community issues, like advocating for athletics in Malibu.
“Community involvement, I guess the international as well as the national scale, has always been a part of me,” she said.
House said her background as a history teacher has always influenced her political involvement.
After obtaining a history degree from San Diego State University and a teaching credential from Long Beach State University, House taught history and English on a Navajo Indian reservation in Arizona.
It was part of a program she created to help adult students get GEDs in order to advance in the workplace.
“It was very satisfying,” she said. “It’s nice to see people who realize that they needed education to promote themselves in the career they are pursuing.”
Goals as mayor
One of House’s main priorities is securing more recreational space in Malibu. A lack of ballfields has plagued Malibu since it first became a city, House said.
“We have an opportunity to look at some proposals, make sure the Is are dotted and the Ts are crossed, and take the pulse of the community,” House said.
A staff report with information on possible recreational parks and ballfields, including the controversial proposal to swap Charmlee Wilderness Park for the remainder of Bluffs Park, should be ready in August or September, she said.
When the report appears, a deliberation on the facts can then occur, she said.
House’s second goal is to crack down on rehabilitation centers in Malibu.
Residents have shown concern about rehab centers “clustering,” renting or purchasing nearby homes and expanding their businesses while avoiding a state-issued six-beds-per-residence limitation.
It’s a profitable business, House said.
“The drug rehab centers have violated the laws of the state of California as well as the laws of the city, and we are now actively pursuing code enforcement,” she said.
The rehab centers will be brought into compliance with fair housing, she added.
House’s third goal is to conduct a study to determine safe, legal parking spots along Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.
“It’s very important that we have this baseline information in order to talk to all the agencies involved in our city,” she said.
House said that accidents along the highway were a big concern.
“These things are not safe for the people who wish to visit,” she said.
House said that safety is an issue that needs to be brought forward.
“Accidents and safety are not in the forefront as much as I would have liked them to be,” she said.
Another perpetual safety issue is fire, and House wants to stress the importance of brush clearance. She cited fires in Malibu’s past.
“We had a huge fire in 1993,” she said. “We were a new city and we had debts and no money, and we ended up with a huge fire.”
House contrasted that with a fire in 1996 that burned through Malibu, but damage was minimal thanks to brush clearance.
House follows Lou La Monte as mayor of Malibu. La Monte’s tenure began in August 2012.
“I would rate Lou La Monte very high marks,” House said. “He’s a hard act to follow. He was very engaging and dedicated.”
“I don’t think he missed an event, which is incredible,” she added.
House’s husband, Kenneth House, is a practicing psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. They have a son, David, who works as an attorney in Bozeman, Mont., and a daughter, Nicole, who is a pediatrician.