This morning I read an editorial in the Los Angeles Times by the conservative columnist David Gelernter and it reminded me of Mari Stanley’s angry letter in the local papers joining a few other politically motivated agitators against our city council. In her letter, Stanley demanded that Mayor Andy Stern apologize for what she imagined were personal attacks. In his editorial, David Gelernter states that in today’s political world “politicians must apologize on cue like trained seals whenever a noisy enough group orders them to. Yet every 5-year-old knows that a coerced apology has got to be insincere. Otherwise, it wouldn’t need to be coerced.”
It’s ironic that first Stanley attacks Mayor Stern personally, and then has the audacity to demand that Mayor Stern apologize for his perceived personal attacks. Malibu politics never ceases to amaze me.
Regarding the rest of the letters in the papers: The Planning Commission members serve at the absolute pleasure of the City Council members. They can be fired for any reason. There is a lot more than the council members have told to the public about why the planning commissioners were fired. The fact that they don’t say only goes to show how the council is not looking to do anything but their jobs.
The last ruling was “no violation of the Brown Act.” Maybe this judge is wrong. It has happened countless times. Embittered commissioners calling the entire city council to resign is clearly an empty payback ploy. The nastiness coming from obstructionists like Mazza and the previous commissioners is just plain political poison.
Don’t you think they may have an ax to grind? Can you trust anything they say? If you fire someone, will they come up and say, “I deserved that”? No.
Thank you to the entire city council for their dedicated work, basically at no cost to the taxpayers. Thank you to the council also for working so hard to purchase and preserve the cook-off site. I have seen how difficult it has been to raise so much money. Not everyone agrees with it, I know. But, you have to stop and admire these people who put their time, energy and life into serving Malibu with all their hearts.
Shary Nassimi