In reference to the recent council discussion and future decision regarding the $4,000/month retainer paid to city lobbyist Jim Dantona, I would like to voice my opposition to this expense.
I feel confident that I am one of the few Malibu taxpayers who have had contact with Mr. Dantona. Due to my personal experience with him and his representation of the issues affecting the City of Malibu in Sacramento, I vehemently oppose the taxpayers’ money being spent on him under his current arrangement. His record speaks for itself. He was very ineffective representing the Malibu needs during the year 2000. This may be deemed my opinion, but it is substantiated by evidence. Malibu lost on two major bills last year.
The California Association of Realtors has full-time lobbyists in Sacramento lobbying for property-rights issues on behalf of its members and the clients we serve. We budget large dollars for this political action and we generally obtain positive results. I worked closely with our real estate lobbyist last year opposing AB885. Our lobbyist worked very hard and in the end, the only entity that was actively opposing this issue was CAR. Although they contacted Dantona, he made little effort to work in partnership with CAR in opposing this issue.
Without going into extensive detail, I must tell you that our lobbyist deemed Jim Dantona highly ineffective in bringing the Malibu message in regards to AB885 to the legislators. In fact, I was advised that he was rarely present at the important meetings and he was not present at the Senate hearing on AB885. There was no voice from Malibu on record as opposing this bill to the senators.
Perhaps Dantona was not managed properly by our former city manager, Harry Peacock. However, I don’t remember hearing reports or updates on his activities at the council meetings last year.
After all, business persons are results-oriented. Why shouldn’t the city be results-oriented as well? If you are allocating $60,000 per year, the taxpayers should know that there are results for this type of budgetary line item. If a list of positive results cannot be generated, the expense should be reduced in the budget. His expenses should definitely be in direct correlation to the results he achieves for the City of Malibu and the citizens it serves.
Beverly Taki