City Council candidates hashed out their views over the contentious Point Dume Safe Routes to School Program, as well as spoke on a range of subjects, including Measure U, at Wednesday’s candidate forum at Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School. The Point Dume Community Association hosted the event.
The Safe Routes program is in the design phase and would create a trail along local streets for children to use when walking to school. Critics say the program does not solve all the traffic safety issues in the neighborhood.
“We’ve got to solve the problems one at a time,” Councilmember Sharon Barovsky said. “We can’t look for the perfect plan… let’s solve the safety issue here first.”
Candidate John Mazza criticized the plan for not addressing a 2002 Point Dume traffic study and said the program has been pursued with little public input. He said the local government only became interested in what the public had to say after residents came to a series of council meetings complaining that they had little information about the project.
“This is another example of waiting for a crisis to happen and then reacting to it,” Mazza said.
Measure U, the proposal to increase the limitation on City Council terms from two four-year terms to three that will appear on the ballot next month, is another contentious issue between several candidates.
“It is a self-preservation maneuver,” said candidate Ryan Embree, who said the item should not even be on the ballot and was only placed there because the current council is concerned about two of its members being termed-out in 2008.
Barovksy, who said she was philosophically opposed to all term limits but believed the measure would lose, spoke against Embree’s accusation.
“I’m a little confused by the accusation that we’re trying to hijack democracy by letting people vote on it,” she said.
Mayor Andy Stern refused to say whether he supports the item and candidate Ed Gillespie did not clearly say where he was leaning. Although, Gillespie said city governments become “stale” when the same government officials remain there too long.
Mazza called Measure U “an incumbent protection plan.”
“If two terms is good enough for the president of the United States, it’s good enough for the City Council,” he said.
Another hot item discussed at the forum was the Chili Cook-Off site purchase. Escrow on the property closed Wednesday and was officially recorded in the county record on Thursday.
“People want to criticize that we paid too much, we paid too little; we should have done this, we shouldn’t have done that,” Stern said. “The bottom line is we own [the] Chili Cook-Off [site].
Stern and Barovsky defended the city in how it accumulated the $25 million to buy the property, which was done mostly through the selling of certificates of participation, which are similar to bonds. Malibu had been in conflict with the state over how the city conducted the appraisal on the property, and the state withheld $8 million in grant money. The incumbents said another appraisal could have been done, but city officials declined to go ahead with it once they learned the state was requesting easements on the property. So rather than trying to get the grant money, the city increased the number of certificates of participation it issued.
“I was not going to go back to the community and say, ‘I know you guys gave $2.5 million [toward the purchase], you stepped up to the plate. But guess what, we have nothing to say about what goes on the park or the design in the park,” Barovsky said. “You can call that a spin, but that’s exactly what the conservation easement would have meant.”
Candidate opponents questioned why there was a concern about the state restricting what could be done with the property when the Malibu Bay Co. had already severely restricted what could be done there prior to agreeing to sell the site to the city.
“I think it’s hogwash to try to spin it,” Embree said. “I’ve seen more spin out of this City Council and the incumbents than most washing machines.”
Mazza added, “They blew the grants… this is the way the city is run. I think you need to believe there is a better way.”
Also discussed at the forum was how the city could go about acquiring additional land for ball fields and parks. The incumbents said a field in Trancas that the city received through a settlement would eventually be transformed into a practice field. They added that there have been talks with the new owner of the Crummer property, which is located next to Bluffs Park, about a development deal that would involve a donation of land to the city.
Barovsky added that the city is working with Santa Monica College on finding land for sports fields and a library that would be purchased through Measure S funds. There is $22.5 million left in the Measure S account that is dedicated for Malibu capital projects.
Mazza said the city should speak with the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District about using some of its land. “
“The school district needs the money,” he said. “We can do joint-venture agreements with the schools to use that property to benefit the schools and benefit the students.”
Mazza then received loud applause when he added, “The important thing is we need it now. We don’t need deals with developers that take 10 years and don’t ever come to fruition—usually.”
Additionally, the issue of city staff turnover was discussed at the forum. Malibu has had a high rate of staff turnover, including a large number of department heads in its short history.
Mazza blamed the problem on poor leadership. Although he did not mention her name, he alluded to Katie Lichtig, who left her post as city manager in January, as being a poor leader. He said the city needs to be sure to hire an excellent city manager when it selects a permanent replacement for Lichtig.
Stern and Barovsky said the reason for the high turnover was because people left Malibu for higher pay and to be closer to where they live. With Malibu’s small budget, Stern said it was unlikely wages could be increased. Barovsky said the city hires rising stars on their way up, and unfortunately they are called for bigger jobs in other cities that pay more.
“Maybe we should hire people who can’t get better jobs,” she joked. “Then they would all stay here and be incompetent.”