• The Malibu real estate market weakened just a touch in 2019, according to Malibu Times real estate columnist Rick Wallace, and virtually ground to a halt in the two months after the Woolsey Fire, but that didn’t stop some major, big dollar transactions both before and after the fire.
• Things were brewing in the LA County Sheriff’s Department, and the new Sheriff Alex Villanueva was shuffling personnel—some charge it was for political reasons. Malibu Sheriff’s Lieutenant Jim Royal, a longtime fixture as Malibu liaison and highly regarded by the community, was abruptly transferred out of Malibu by the new sheriff. Subsequently, Royal filed a lawsuit against the sheriff’s department charging that he was being retaliated against for pressing the department to go public with information about possible shootings and danger in and around Malibu Creek State Park. It was charged the Beaudette murder did not occur until after Royal’s warnings to the department went unheeded—this is important in connection with the wrongful death lawsuit by the Beaudette family.
• In a major meeting held at Malibu City Hall in the auditorium filled to overflow capacity, LA County Fire Chief Daryl Osby told his story of the Woolsey Fire and then took a barrage of questions from many angry residents who felt they had been left without any protection of their homes.
• Although Osby did his best to try and explain that the firefighting resources were overwhelmed by the fire, which they were fighting on a 14-mile front, some critical information didn’t come out until months later when a report and analysis of the fire done by an independent group was released. The independent report charged that the fire crews were ordered on that Friday (the day the fire got to Malibu) to abandon structure protection and standby to protect life. Unfortunately, the communications or the command failed and a number of fire trucks were simply standing idle, awaiting orders while homes in the community burned.