Attempts fiscal belt tightening on sheriff’s budget.
By Jonathan Friedman/Special to The Malibu Times
The Malibu City Council has begun the process of trying to develop a detailed alternative to the California Coastal Commission’s recently passed highly controversial Local Coastal Program for Malibu.
If Monday night’s meeting, where the council spent three hours on the item, is any indication, the process will be long and arduous.
The revision process involves not only redoing the Local Coastal Program (LCP) to meet the city’s needs, but also the city’s General Plan, which must be amended to conform to the Malibu LCP. City staff has divided the task into six segments, with the council examining a new portion of the documents at each meeting, through Feb. 24.
One of the major problems facing the council is trying to fix a moving target. There is enormous uncertainty about the future of the Coastal Commission LCP because of several factors. First, there is a pending citizen’s referendum, which challenges the entire Malibu LCP and demands it be put before Malibu voters. The Coastal Commission responded by saying there is no legal justification for this. The matter is already in litigation and headed to court for a decision.
There are also a number of other lawsuits recently filed, two by the city, several by individuals or groups challenging the Malibu LCP and some by those attempting to uphold the Malibu LCP. Any court decision could impact the political process.
In another item, the council unanimously supported the creation of a committee designated to writing another bond measure to fund parks and recreation, trail and public works capital projects. There will be 10 people on the committee, five coming from the Parks and Recreation Department, and the council will select the other five.
An earlier bond ballot measure was defeated in November 2001 that would have raised $15,000,000 to acquire land for parks, playgrounds, trails and other recreational areas. The measure received support from 62 percent of the voters, but fell short of the required two-thirds approval.
The council recommended to staff that the item be prepared for a special election in June. That would require the committee to be ready with a measure by March 7.
In another major item the council voted for the elimination of a Sheriff’s Department position in Malibu. In April, the city had hired a consultant, Jeffrey Templeman & Associates, to do a study of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s budget for the city, to determine if some of the monies spent in Malibu could be cut back. Templeman presented his findings and recommended the city could eliminate the position of traffic team leader. Deputy Doug Duval currently holds the job. His duty is to respond to serious traffic accidents, conduct follow-up investigations and to supervise traffic in the summer. Duval also deals with overseeing traffic situations affected by special events and film shootings. Most of his work is conducted in an office, and Templeman recommended his duties could be distributed among the other deputies and save $165,000 annually.
Templeman’s recommendation was approved 3-2, with Mayor Jeff Jennings and Councilmember Joan House casting the dissenting votes.
“We didn’t have a complete report tonight, because we don’t have a detail of what we’re taking out,” said House, who made a motion to table a vote on the item so that the Sheriff’s Department could come back with more information. She said distributing Duval’s duties among other officers would lessen the amount of time they would have available to do patrolling.
As of now, the funds for the eliminated position will be returned to the city’s General Fund.
Templeman recommended the money could be used for a peer-counseling program for middle school children, and for a drinking and driving awareness program for high school juniors and seniors.
The City Council meets again on Dec. 9. That is the last meeting scheduled for 2003.