FEBRUARY
• The Malibu retail scene underwent a transition. Bank of Books, a bookstore that had been located in the Point Dume shopping center since July 2012, closed its doors after struggling financially for several years from stagnant sales. The closure left Malibu without a bookstore.
• The Banana Republic in the Malibu Village Center in the Civic Center also closed its doors, although rumor has it the East Coast foodie store, Dean & Deluca, will be moving into the space once it is all built out.
• Jim Thorsen, Malibu’s highly regarded city manager for these past 10 years — making him Malibu’s longest serving city manager — retired, and his assistant city manager, Reva Feldman, was chosen to replace him.
• LA County Sheriff Lee Baca pled guilty to “lying to federal officers” charges in Federal Court, in a plea deal that would limit his jail time to no more than six months. Later, the deal fell apart and Baca opted to go to trial instead.
• In an explosive Coastal Commission hearing in Morro Bay, the California Coastal Commission decided in a 7-5 vote to dismiss its executive director Charles Lester. Lester ,the former No. 2 person under previous executive director Peter Douglas, had been elevated by the commission to the top spot. But he either didn’t have the political skills in handling the commissioners that Douglas had or was somewhat unable to make decisions quickly, as a number of the commissioners charged. Either way, he was out. Lester was a favorite of the environmental community who pulled out all of their chits to try to save Lester’s job, but without success.
