Point Dume and Malibu Township Council forums highlight divisions over Civic Center development, overnight camping and water quality.
By Vicky Shere / Special to the Malibu Times
In contrast to the first debate on March 1, sponsored by mobile home park residents, Malibu City Council candidate forums last Wednesday and Saturday, sponsored by the Point Dume Community Association and Malibu Township Council, respectively, began to show opposing stances by council hopefuls John Sibert, Susan Tellem, Pamela Conley Ulich, Jefferson Wagner and Kathy Wisnicki.
Wagner and Tellem, both major critics of the current council, have been running a joint campaign in mailers and advertisements. Although they are supported by many of the same people, Sibert and Wisnicki have not made any formal alliance. Conley Ulich bills herself and is seen by many as an independent.
The candidates were asked a variety of questions, which boiled down to three issues: development in the Civic Center, overnight camping and water quality.
Civic Center development
Like audience members in all three debates, Sibert sees the demise of Malibu Lumberyard as the template for the conflict between small, community-serving businesses being squeezed out in favor of high-end retail, visitor-serving stores. He wants a formula retail ordinance, along with negotiation with developers, to say what the city needs.
“As a city council member, I will work to change the inconsistencies in our local coastal plan imposed by the Coastal Commission,” Sibert said.
The candidate said he believes the city needs a Sheriff’s substation in Malibu but is not sure that the shuttered station in the Civic Center, now being negotiated as a site for a satellite campus of Santa Monica College, is the best place.
On Civic Center development, Tellem said the specific plan for that area was tabled because developers threatened to sue [unlike Wisnicki’s comment that plan was rejected because it was assumed it would lead to more development.] Tellem pledged to work for a new plan.
“It’s time for the city to tell developers we want small business,” Tellem said.
Tellem said she opposes development (including the SMC campus and Sheriff’s substation) without enough water to fight fires and more emphasis on evacuation and traffic concerns.
Like Sibert, Conley Ulich touts a formula retail ordinance she drafted because developers are only interested in their bottom line. She recommends a “shop Malibu” education campaign to show how local businesses give back to community. Ulich and Councilmember Sharon Barovsky have been talking to developers and will present findings shortly.
As a local small business owner of Zuma Jay’s Surf Shop, Jefferson Wagner supports Ulich’s formula retail ordinance. Wagner said he believes in Malibu’s General Plan, which called for maintaining the city’s rural character and avoiding suburbanization and commercialization. Providing enough water should be a requirement of any future development, he said, and it’s important to get the Sheriff’s substation reopened.
Wisnicki said it is important to create a vision of what Malibu wants and to convince developers it “behooves them” to work with the city. She also wants to develop a formula retail ordinance and to explore having a Sheriff’s substation on the proposed SMC campus.
Overnight camping
All candidates voiced their support for restrictions on overnight camping, with accusations of reversal of opinion on the matter.
Wisnicki took a barb at Tellem, saying, “We have to accept that overnight camping has been permitted under the Local Coastal Program, which Susan approved.”
Tellem claims that she led the charge to pressure the City Council in December to support a ban on overnight camping, reversing the council’s [November] vote by everyone but Conley Ulich.
“This [issue] is my baby,” Tellem said.
Wisnicki said the city should fight the Coastal Commission with the “same energy as we mustered against the LNG terminal. We need more patrols and [referring to the cause of November’s Corral Canyon fire in a cave] safe and appropriate places for young people to congregate.”
Sibert recommended going a wider route, suggesting that Malibu work with other cities and the county to put restrictions on the overnight camping in parks and recreation areas.
Conley Ulich was the lone councilperson who voted against overnight camping in November. She suggested, in addition to restrictions on camping, placing signs promoting safer places to camp when the Santa Ana winds blow.
Wagner, who is a pyrotechnic expert for the film industry and consultant to state and county firefighters, and a former reserve deputy sheriff, said he is the candidate most familiar with risks of fire and evacuation plans.
“I’ll be the physical guy who will get the ordinance passed,” he said.
Water quality
The candidates were asked about the recent lawsuit filed by Santa Monica Baykeeper and the Natural Resources Defense Council against the city and county for pollution of the Malibu watershed.
Sibert, an environmental scientist, said the city “has been moving forward, but we still don’t have the information we need in order to learn where [the water pollution] is coming from.”
The lawsuit came because “we have done too little too late,” Tellem said. “The City Council and Planning Commission have been sitting on their hands. And it’s really not the way it should be.”
Conley Ulich said the city has been supporting clean water initiatives and that bacteria count has fallen because of the stormwater treatment plant at Cross Creek. She also mentioned the wastewater treatment at Paradise Cove and that there is a point of sale ordinance on septic systems.
Wagner said, “Our present council, some of the [Planning] Commission, have not moved forward fast enough to resolve these issues. They’ve been given time.”
Wisnicki agreed: “We did not take an active role earlier. We should do all we can to work with other agencies who pollute our water.”
The last day to register to vote is Monday; Election Day is April 8.