The citizens of Malibu should be outraged by Monday night’s meeting of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy at Webster School.
During the public comment on the proposed Malibu Public Works Plan, a number of speakers who stated they were from various locations in Los Angeles sharply criticized Malibu’s residents for trying to “exclude the public” from Malibu’s parks. Some of the speakers went further, saying that the people of Malibu are trying to keep “those people” from using Malibu’s recreational and park facilities. There was no doubt that the speakers were referring to ethnic and racial minorities.
This baseless accusation of racial prejudice generated predictable anger and outrage among the Malibu residents in the audience. One after another, they emphasized that they do not object to the public using local parks, beaches and trails. They pointed out that visitors to Malibu have always been welcome to hike up Escondido Canyon to the falls, or into Corral Canyon to link up to existing cross mountain trails. They made it clear that the Public Works Plan’s major flaw is allowing overnight camping in the Malibu foothills near residential neighborhoods, since camping creates an unacceptably high fire danger with unauthorized campfires and cigarette smoking.
Here is where the story becomes truly interesting. After the meeting adjourned, I had a personal conversation with two of the speakers from Los Angeles. Both told me that they had been asked to attend the hearing by someone who said Malibu was trying to close its parks to the public. And, they both said they had been paid to attend the hearing.
Neither one would agree to go on the record nor give me their names. But, both were clearly distressed that they had been lied to by the people who invited and paid them to attend the hearing.
If any Conservancy staff were involved in “packing the hall” with paid speakers, brought there under false pretenses, they should be fired. At the very least, the Conservancy owes it to the City of Malibu to conduct a swift, thorough and public investigation of this sorry incident.
Steven A. Amerikaner
Counsel for the Ramirez Canyon Preservation Fund