2012 in review: January-June

By The Malibu Times · Wed Dec 26 2012

January

• The year opened with the closing of the Beachcomber Restaurant on a Malibu landmark, the state-owned Malibu Pier in which the state had already put $6.2 million to refurbish. The Beachcomber restaurant, owned by the Ruby’s restaurant chain, had earlier closed the Ruby’s restaurant at the ocean end of the pier, and the state and the pier lessees were once again having problems making the Pier pay for itself. 

• As of Jan. 1, new fishing restrictions began off Point Dume as California Dept. of Fish and Game began enforcement of a new marine protected area stretching from PT to El Matador State Beach. 

• Malibu Little League season is about to open and the coaches are lining up to scout the local talent. 

• Real estate sales remained sluggish in 2011 with a total of 156 sales made, well below the 10 year average of 212 homes sold each year. This year, 2012 was an entirely different story and the local housing industry showed robust signs of recovery with the number of sales rising quickly. 

• Councilmember Jefferson Wagner, better known as Zuma Jay, bowed out after one term on the City Council stating that, “It takes a lot of time to be a council member” and “I won’t have that kind time over the next year or two.” However he didn’t rule out coming back and making another run at the council in 2014.

February

• The Superior Court criminal jury trial of Sina Khankhanian, 28, whose car struck and killed 13-year-old Malibu local Emily Shane in 2010, ended in a hung jury when the jury couldn’t decide if he was guilty of murder or gross vehicular homicide and the case was put over for retrial later this year. 

• The decision by Jefferson ‘Zuma Jay’ Wagner not to run for reelection meant that there were three open seats on the City Council and left John Sibert as the only incumbent running. With that kind of an opportunity six other candidates decided to make the run: Joan House, Hans Laetz, Andy Lyon, Hamish Patterson, Skylar Peak and Missy Zeitsoff.

• The Malibu Times announced the winners of the 2012 Malibu Times Citizens of the Year Dolphin Awards: 

          - Kathy Cook, Director of St. Aidan’s pre-school and volunteer work 

          - Ani Dermenjian, realtor, former Chamber of Commerce President and       Veterans Day event sparkplug 

          - Georgia King, horsewoman, horse whisperer and child whisperer 

          - Benjamin Krasner, Youth Dolphin, piano virtuoso and charitable work 

          - Kurt Lampson, teacher, coach, mentor to several generations of young ocean and karate enthusiasts 

           - Bob and Jackie Sutton, 50-year Malibu residents, lifetime of community service and charitable participation, particularly Keep Christ in Christmas 

           - Lisa Szilagyi, teacher, runs special education class at Malibu, co-founder of the Hand in Hand program 

           - Pamela Conley Ulich and Jefferson “Zuma Jay” Wagner for their public service as mayor and as members of the Malibu City Council and the endless hours they contributed 

March

• There was a shakeup at the Malibu Chamber of Commerce and Rebecca Evans, the CEO, resigned her six-year tenure at the helm of the Chamber after a meeting with the Executive Committee of the Board. Although neither Evans nor Don Schmitz, chairman of the Chamber Executive Committee, would comment as to whether she left voluntarily or was pushed, Chris Evans, husband of Rebecca Evans, indicated to the Malibu Times that she did not leave voluntarily. Mark Persson took over as Interim Chamber CEO. 

• The City of Malibu approved $250,000 worth of equipment including computers, monitors, printers, etc. for the new library in the Civic Center, and an additional $530,000 for additional library services which will be paid for out of County funds. 

• The state, in a major cash crunch itself, changed the rules of the game and eliminated the local redevelopment agencies, whose share of the property tax had served as a bit of a cash cow in many municipalities, including Santa Monica. The elimination of Santa Monica’s Redevelopment Agency means less dollars for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, and it’s beginning to look like the change will cause the school district to be in a $10 million dollar hole. 

• The privately financed, $20 million project to widen Broad Beach, which has been seriously eroded in recent years, passed overwhelmingly with 83% of the property owners agreeing to move ahead with the project and the assessments. 

• In the freakiest of occurrences, a 32-year-old dishwasher employee of Guido’s restaurant went to take out the garbage and shortly thereafter stumbled back to the front door of the restaurant, covered in blood, collapsed and died. Initially the Sheriff’s Department erroneously thought he had been shot, but a later autopsy disclosed he had died of natural causes and the extensive blood came from a rupturing of lung tissue. 

• The City Council, under growing community pressure over the changes in Malibu’s business climate, and the fear by many that the small Mom and Pops were being squeezed out, voted to develop a new ordinance that could require local shopping centers to preserve part of their tenant space for residents rather then visitors. 

May

• Pacific Coast Highway almost claimed two fatalities when a car swerved across the center divider and collided violently with another car head-on. Fortunately, general contractor John Johannessen, on his way to a Malibu Chamber of Commerce board meeting, was close by and pulled the occupants out of the auto before it burst into flames. One occupant lived but the other didn’t make it and was pronounced dead at UCLA hospital.  

• The “Get Malibu its own school district” movement seemed to get a bit of a boost from the Santa Monica-Malibu School Board, which voted to take a closer look at the possibility of having Malibu break away into its own school district. Rumor had it that some board members were beginning to think they may be better off without Malibu in the district.

• The retrial of the Sina Khankhanian, the man who drove the car that killed 13-year-old Emily Shane in 2010, led to a jury verdict of guilty of 2^nd-degree murder this time. Khankhanian, age 28, with a long history of mental problems, will be looking at a sentence of 16 years to life in state prison. 

• The state lagoon project to tear out the old lagoon in Malibu Creek and replace it with a new improved lagoon cleared its final hurdle and with the Governor’s blessing, work and major protests were due to begin. 

June

• Only a few days after the escrow had closed on the sale by Daniel and Luciana Forge of the venerable BeauRivage Restaurant, the new owners had a fire in the ceiling above the kitchen, causing an estimated $400,000 worth of damage and closed the restaurant for an undetermined time while repairs were being made. 

• Among the many confrontations around the lagoon, strangest was the sudden death of a lagoon activist, Stephenie Glas, age 37, a City of Los Angeles firefighter and local community activist. The death was initially treated by the coroner as a potential suicide/homicide, although a coroner’s investigation later ruled it a suicide. 

• Quick action by Malibu resident Michael Miller, while at the Arco gas station, in recognizing and alerting the Malibu sheriffs to a possible kidnapping in progress, may have saved the life of a 19-year-old young woman. The car was stopped by sheriff ’s deputies on Kanan Dume Road, the girl rescued and the alleged kidnapper arrested.  

• The issue of lights on the Malibu High School playing field, adjacent to the campus, finally came to a decision before the City Council, which then approved the 70-foot lights for 61 nights per year. 

• The California Attorney General Kamala Harris came to speak in Malibu and said that the federal and state authorities, and California voters, have a very different view of the medicinal marijuana shops. Recently both legal California pot shops in Malibu closed down, after the federal government rather heavy-handedly sent out warning letters threatening asset forfeitures. Owners of properties housing pot dispensaries were threatened with lawsuits unless they complied.