David Visher! Visualize yourself as a housecat and the Coastal Commission as a pack of coyotes. That is the terrible position you have put yourself in at this moment. Who is your attorney that would allow you to want to go forward with this September 13, 2002 LCP? There are many people in Malibu that are in your same position of wanting a permit but prefer to stay in limbo and wait it out rather than to go to hell for sure. We have to admire those people for their patience and citizenship.
Now that you have sided with the Coastal Commission and have tried to rush the city into a very unwise legal position, you have made yourself a target with Coastal. The worst thing that can happen to you is that you will get your way. The rules of this LCP are so unfair and expensive you will end up with less of a home and they will extort something from you that you will be very unhappy with, because they know you are a self-serving capitulator.
The city of Malibu is going to get a better deal after the lawsuit. You said in your letter that we are appealing the Referendum based on people’s “visceral dislike of the Coastal Commission.” This is only half right. One thing I know for sure, you will try to join our ranks of visceral dislkers after they have dealt with you. But we won’t let you in our club. You will be a man without a country. No one will defend you. If you get in bed with snakes, expect to get bitten.
The thing you don’t realize is that Coastal is waiting for you because they know you will do anything for a permit. They will wait until the City gives you a permit and then they will appeal your permit. That is something in this LCP that is unacceptable to us but obviously acceptable to you. Once their appeal process starts and they have you in their sights, you will wish you had never gone down this one-way path. These people are the equivalent of the Sopranos and they will know that you are a pigeon and will shake you down, as they have done to so many others in the past.
You asked in your letter, if the state raised taxes on cigarettes, should smokers have the right to referend it? The answer is “yes” if cigarette taxes were only raised in Malibu. This is the only LCP that has ever been written like this and is overtly illegal. There are two names I am sure you would not like your name associated with-Neville Chamberlain and Benedict Arnold. Think very hard before you ask our young sovereign city to roll over for these tyrants. I urge the Malibu City Council and City Attorney Christi Hogin to appeal this decision on the Referendum.
Lloyd Ahern