God bless Walt Keller! He always says exactly what we think he’s going to say. While in office, Walt governed with a bunker mentality, refusing to talk to anyone but his friends. That’s why state and county agencies gave up on Malibu. We never got grants and we were always in a fight. I remember when Walt wouldn’t negotiate with the owners of the Mobil home parks. They sued. They won. And it cost Malibu taxpayers more than $2 million. When Kanan Road failed, Walt stonewalled the County and Kanan stayed closed for months, causing gridlock and inconvenience.
When a landowner claimed he was entitled to 32 condos on Lunita, Walt said, “No way, forget it.” The owner said, “Let’s talk and I’ll settle for six houses.” Walt refused. The owner sued. Today we have 32 condos on Lunita.
Now Walt criticizes the council for talking (just talking, mind you) to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (SMMC) and its director, Joe Edmiston. Joe claims he has the legal right to create a Public Works Plan that would permit camping on SMMC’s trails, smack in the middle of residential areas like Winding Way, Ramirez and Escondido. The city said, “Hey, wait a minute, you can’t do that.” Joe said, “Yes, I can.” The city said, “I’ll sue.” Joe said, “I’ll sue you back.” This dialogue would have been music to Walt’s ears. Letting a judge decide unpopular decisions gave Walt the ability to duck tough decisions and still look like a hero to his friends. The only problem was we kept losing and then had to live with what a downtown judge thought was best for the public.
In his letter to the editor, Walt accused members of the city of supporting “overnight camping.” That’s not even close to what the council said. They just said, “Let’s talk.” Let’s go through the city’s process of holding public hearings through workshops, the Planning Commission and, eventually the City Council. And, in the end, if we still can’t agree, then let a judge decide. Sounds reasonable to me.
Lloyd Ahern