After a long contentious battle, resulting in the flip-flopping of one councilmember, the $15 million open-land bond measure goes down to defeat.
By Sylvie Belmond/Staff Writer
The last minute efforts of Measure K opponents, complete with a phone campaign urging residents to vote no, paid off with the defeat of the $15 million land acquisition bond.
The property tax measure was defeated by a very narrow 4.3 percent margin. If 66 voters had switched their votes from no to yes, the measure would have passed.
Final numbers showed that 38 percent of voters did not favor Measure K, and despite a 61 percent majority, it failed to pass because it required a two-thirds majority vote to win.
Statistically, Measure K drew few voters to the polls on Nov. 6. Of the 9,066 registered voters in Malibu, 29 percent, or 2,653 voted Tuesday.
Last year, more than 5,300 people went to the polls when Proposition O was on the table. Proposition O was the parks improvement advisory bond measure that gave approval to the city to come up with a bond measure to purchase open land for parks, ballfields and other uses.
At that time, 52 percent of voters were in favor of a bond measure versus 41 percent who were against it.
The advisory bond passed because it did not require a two-thirds vote.
“It was the lowest turnout in any Malibu municipal election,” said Councilmember Tom Hasse of the last Tuesdays voting.
Confusion about the measure was also a factor that discouraged residents from going to the polls, he said.
The accompanying chart shows the turnout at the six individual polling places in Malibu. The numbers shown are slightly below the total percentage of votes within the city, because precinct statements do not include provisional and absentee ballots.
Measure K passed in two precincts, but failed to obtain a two-thirds majority in the Point Dume area where many young families live and where polling booths were located in schools.
Absentee ballots, at 918, made up more than a third of the total ballots cast.