Five Candidates Pull Papers for City Council Race

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Craig Foster speaks during a school board hearing.

In just a few months, on Tuesday, Nov. 6, Californians—including Malibuites—will be going to the polls once more for a general election, and locally to elect new representatives for the city council. July 16 marked the date Malibu residents could pull nomination papers at City Hall to indicate they are ready to run for local office. According to Deputy City Clerk Kelsey Pettijohn, five Malibu residents so far have pulled papers effectively throwing their hats into the ring.

Karen Farrer is a known school advocate and local activist. Olivia Damavandi—formerly of The Malibu Times—once served as the City of Malibu’s media information officer. Jim Palmer is a local vintner and currently serves on the city’s public works commission. Mikke Pierson serves on the City of Malibu’s Planning Commission. And Lance Simmens has worked in government positions, has served on the Adamson House Board and is a political activist.

The Malibu City Council nomination period began July 16 and ends August 10. In that time, candidates must pull papers from the city clerk for circulation and signature gathering. Twenty signatures from qualified registered voters who are also Malibu residents are needed to qualify. 

But city council is not the only race in town. Four seats on the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education are also on the ticket in November, including that of incumbent representative Craig Foster.

Foster, the only Malibu representative on the school board, is running for reelection. Foster has been leading the fight for Malibu’s separation from the district to a stand-alone educational entity. 

“We finally got things moving in a positive direction in both Santa Monica and Malibu,” Foster told The Malibu Times. “I am very eager to help continue to keep moving toward better education, better schools and a better experience for all the kids in the school district.” 

Asked about the frustration and contention on the board over the separation, Foster replied, “I think we’ve all found a way to acknowledge and work with the things that had been so frictional. We’ve largely resolved them or at least come to a shared understanding of what those items are. 

“As of now, I think we’re working well as a board,” he continued. “We’ve done amazing things for Malibu. We’ve done some good stuff for Santa Monica and I hope and intend that by the end of the next four years we will have done parallel and amazing things for Santa Monica to what we’ve already set in motion in Malibu.” 

Foster also said he was “absolutely” planning to continue the fight for district separation. 

“That’s just the right thing for the kids in both cities,” the school board representative said. “I think everybody’s come to agree with that, which is why we have an agreement in principle on separation. The changes that have taken place over the last four or five months have largely addressed the core issues that need to be addressed, but they don’t address the local control which is the ultimate appropriate way to run any entity. So we still need to get that local control, but I’m really happy that we’ve accomplished a lot over the last six months to address the current things that need to be addressed in Malibu.” 

“I’ve been thrilled to serve the community for these last four years. I would love the continued support of the Malibu and the Santa Monica community to keep doing this job that I think is so very important.”