The more I think about that meeting last night, the more clear it becomes that the Malibu City Council failed us and failed to serve the best interests of the City of Malibu, the environment and all the ecosystems of Southern California! In that painful three hours, they circled around and around and around on how the “Lagoon Restoration” is very clearly a questionable (at best) project. Even Mayor Sibert and his sidekick both at specific times agreed that BayKeeper was engaged in a dangerous and ill-thought-out and potentially monumentally harmful excavation event. Almost all the council members agreed that the U.S. Geology survey guy who spoke said the lagoon pollution is natural and will return no matter what … it’s a natural cycle!
At three or four distinct moments that all circled around and back to a unanimous (it seemed) conclusion that we cannot allow something like this to happen. I heard three or four times we need to write a letter opposing this plan the way it is…it has flaws…they are turning the lagoon into a water park…etc, etc. They came so close to doing what is right and called for-which is to come out against this silly, destructive and ill thought out plan-and yet, they remained so utterly (finally) fickle and weak that they could not actually say it.
When Jeff Wagner told me at the end of the night when I said you guys could have done much better, “I know, Alden, but there are so many politics involved,” I knew we were going to be up against the politics and the money of it all, not the justice. How many times did we hear last night the project is wrong and flawed, but we don’t want to lose the money? That fact, in and of itself, is somewhat horrific-that the City Council is swayed by the money ($7 or $10 million, versus ruining a fragile ecosystem!). That alone tells you the dire state of the world, Political Man’s utter enamorment of money, and most tellingly, how the Malibu city council does not serve Malibu responsibly, justly, truly or fairly-nor the animals and wildlife of the coast and city of Malibu. We saw rip off and bamboozlement up close and personal last night, folks, and it’s time we ask for this to be heard again by Malibu City Council.
These public servants of Malibu have been swayed and hypnotized by money, money, money and specious green washed development. We almost got them to do the right thing, but it was stillborn. They failed us and I hope they’re waking up scratching their heads saying did we blow it last night and forsake Malibu and the coast? Yes, I hope they are saying that. The final thought I had, after seeing the pallid, smarmy and inarticulate Mark Gold in action, was this: if somehow, circumstances have allowed a man as pathetic as Gold to be in charge of Heal the Bay, then we’re in more trouble than we think. A singularly tone dimensional, unimpressive spokesman, “scientist” and public servant. How did this happen? We must fight on in every way.
Alden Marin