The “Malibu Team” (Wagner, Peak, and Mullen) are indulging in the usual political blame game by hauling out their nefarious charges against what was the most important political history in the city of Malibu. As in the past when their leader, John Mazza, blamed the “Barovsky Machine” for everything from mopery on the high seas to white slavery in the Civic Center, they are constructing a strawman with the same falsehoods. I would like to disabuse them by lighting their strawman afire with a small history lesson:
When Harry Barovsky took office in 1998, Malibu was roundly despised by every agency from the garbage collectors to the governor’s office. He ran on a campaign of “The Malibu we CAN BE,” and changed the course of our fledgling city. The city mended fences, obtained grants and, after Harry’s untimely passing, the voters of Malibu overwhelmingly voted in people like Andy Stern, Jeff Jennings, Joan House, Pamela Ulich, John Sibert, Lou La Monte, Laura Rosenthal and Harry’s widow, Sharon, to become the leaders of this city. And with them came land acquisitions that provided Trancas Park, Las Flores Park, ten acres of Bluffs Park and Legacy Park (which stopped the construction of a 120,000 square foot shopping center). That so-called “machine” also purchased its own city hall and, most recently, is negotiating to buy Trancas Field, which could have been developed into houses and condos. All of that was managed without raising our debt. In fact, we now have the largest surplus in the history of Malibu. That sounds like a machine that works to me.
Ken Kearsley
Former Malibu mayor and council member