Malibu CAN president says the lawsuit was an attempt by the City Council to silence opposition in council race.
By Jonathan Friedman/Staff Writer
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge refused to grant a request by Malibu resident Wade Major on Tuesday for a temporary restraining order against Malibu Community Action Network activist Ozzie Silna that would have prevented him from making independent expenditures in the 2004 City Council campaign. Major alleged that Silna was an agent for Jay Liebig and Bill Winokur’s council campaigns, and therefore was limited to spending no more than the $100 allowed by city law. But Superior Court Judge Terry Friedman said Major had not provided enough evidence that Silna was an agent of the candidates’ campaigns, and that even if it were true, the city code provided an opportunity for Major to bring his complaint to a city prosecutor. On Tuesday afternoon, Major sent a letter to City Attorney Christi Hogin requesting that she investigate the matter.
Silna wrote in a statement released Tuesday, “I am pleased by the judge’s ruling this morning … I am further heartened by the fact that the judge confirmed that there is no evidence to support Major’s claims, that his allegations are baseless, that the ‘supposed facts’ he put forth are legally meaningless.”
Silna’s attorney, Abraham M. Rudy, said in regard to Major bringing his complaint to Hogin, “His letter is about as legally sound as his lawsuit was.” Hogin said, in a voice mail to The Malibu Times, she had not yet seen Major’s letter, and therefore could not comment on it.
Major said he did not believe his case was a total loss.
“A lot of ethical questions, at the very least, have been raised,” he said. “Even if nothing happens to Ozzie, I think the next City Council will take up this issue by amending the city code.”
The issues involved in the suit stem from a letter sent by Silna last month encouraging residents to vote for Liebig, Winokur and Walt Keller. Silna said the letter was funded through an independent expenditure, and was not directly connected to any of the candidates’ campaigns. But several people, including Councilmember Jeff Jenning’s campaign consultant, Mike Osborn, accused Silna of being part of Liebig and Winokur’s campaign, therefore making the independent expenditure illegal. Silna said he was not associated with the candidates’ campaigns, and only picked up documents for them, something he said he would have done for Mayor Ken Kearsley.
The city’s campaign ethics consultant, Xandra Kayden, wrote in a recent statement that it appeared Silna was an agent of Liebig and Winokur’s campaigns. Silna responded that her statement was unethical, and wrote about it in his statement on the lawsuit.
“The most disappointing part of this is that Major’s lawsuit was based on the findings of Xandra Kayden, a self-described ethics consultant paid for by the City Council, including the two incumbent candidates to ‘watchdog’ the upcoming election,” Silna wrote. “In her published findings, Kayden asserted that I was acting as an agent for Winokur and Liebig, and based these assertions on allegations made by Mike Osborn, incumbent candidate Jeff Jennings’ paid political consultant. At no point in the process did Ms. Kayden contact me or my campaign finance attorney, with whom she had prior contact, to attempt to verify whether or not these allegations had any merit.”
Kayden said she never asserted anything, but merely wrote the statements of others involved. She said her statement was never intended to be a legal opinion.
Malibu CAN President Steve Uhring said Major’s suit was another example of the current City Council trying to silence the opposition. He said it was interesting to note that those who filed declarations in support of Major’s suit against Silna were Osborn, Carol Randall and Paul Hoffman. “If I were to put those four people together and play six degrees of separation, I wouldn’t have to get very far before I reached the City Council,” Uhring said.
Jennings said the council had nothing to do with the suit, but he said the allegations made in it were accurate. He said it is clear that Silna is an agent of both campaigns, and all he wants Silna to do is follow the law. “They [Malibu CAN] know what the law is,” Jennings said. “They have no intention of abiding by it.”