Resident voices concern on ‘out-of-line’ parking enforcement citations at surfing competition
At its Sept. 9 regular meeting, the Malibu City Council fielded a complaint about parking tickets issued at Surfrider Beach this past weekend during a surf competition.
“People flew in from all over the world to this contest, and that’s how they were treated by this parking enforcement that has been hired,” Malibu resident Andy Lyon said about the Malibu Surfing Association competition that happened over the weekend.
Lyon said visitors who attended the competition were receiving parking tickets overnight and hoped the city would void tickets given to visitors that weekend.
“This is a long-standing tradition of camping out over the weekend, and your new parking enforcement contractor went out and gave everyone $73 tickets that were here for this event,” Lyon said. “The permit was paid for, this has gone on for years, and your parking attendant came in the middle of the night and gave everyone tickets. So I would love to see you, Mayor (Doug Stewart), do something that about.”
Lyon said he also saw the contractor who was giving tickets make an illegal U-turn on PCH to give someone else a ticket.
“This company that you hired is just going around and harassing the visitors here, giving them the front license plates and all this other stuff — I would love to hear from you tonight, how we can get a message to the people who got a $73 tickets, that were just here for a great event, how we can get those tickets taken care of by the city,” Lyon said.
The council presented the 2024 Jake Kuredjian Citizenship Award to lifeguard and educator Shari Latta and environmental nonprofit Poison Free Malibu. The two recipients were honored at the meeting.
Latta has spent over 35 years as a junior lifeguard instructor and lifeguard in Malibu. She has also worked with Malibu schools for over 45 years, and will serve as the director of Our Lady of Malibu Preschool in 2024-25.
Poison Free Malibu is a Malibu-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to educate the public about pesticide problems and offer viable alternatives.
Poison Free Malibu led by Joel and Kian Schulman, helped the city draft the Earth Friendly Management Policy, which was implemented in 2019. Due to their diligence and hard work, poisons have been kept out of city parks for over six years.
Councilmember Steve Uhring also thanked Latta for her dedication to the community.
“I’ve been in Malibu for 30 years and I’ve heard your name many, many times, and I’m just very glad to finally meet you,” Uhring said.
After City Manager Updates, Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Sgt. Chris Soderlund provided a traffic and enforcement report for the Labor Day weekend and the Malibu Chili Cook-Off and said there were no significant incidents.
Soderlund also said they have arrested multiple vehicles on reckless driving.
“We still see drivers here driving excessively fast, so we’re still out there and enforcing it and CHP is cracking down,” he said.
Councilmember Paul Grisanti asked if the drivers were Malibu residents. Soderlund was not able to provide that information.
After the council comments, Lyon spoke again and was disappointed that the council had not responded to his previous comment.
“You didn’t even respond to your out-of-line parking enforcement,” Lyon said. “I was expected to at least be responded to in your comments Doug — there was not word back about that, and this is what Malibu is all about, that’s the tradition of this city is Surfrider Beach and all these people come here, that’s what this whole town is about.”
“Maybe you could have been like, ‘OK, maybe we shouldn’t have given these visitors to Malibu that are coming here in a traditional way, that you could take of that,’” he said. “So build a hotel, build a mall, put up speed cameras, you don’t want to listen to anyone who’s coming here, but you had a lot of people who were just trying to enjoy the beach for the weekend.”
After speaker comments, the council addressed the denial of the Malibu Inn Motel Project. While Councilmember Bruce Silverstein was giving his comments, the applicant for the project was interrupting. The applicant was given a warning by the mayor and city attorney. The council motioned to bring back a proposal that complies with their code.
After the break, the council addressed the Malibu Municipal Code Chapter 17.68 (Temporary Use Permits).
City Manager Steve McClary said they had received a notice from Southern California Edison about a potential power outage during the meeting in case viewers at home might lose connection.
Speakers included Trancas Country Market shopping center vendors and organizers. The shopping center is known for the Summer Concerts but also provide free events such as lawn games, and season- or holiday-related activities for families and children.
Speakers included residents and school organizers who also host events and fundraisers.
After an hourlong discussion on what requires permits, city staff said they will update their report from this meeting and provide an updated report in an upcoming meeting.
The council did not address Item 3B4, which pertains to the Professional Services Agreement with California Skateparks, during the meeting.
A Special Meeting Agenda was set for Wednesday, Sept. 11, at 3:30 p.m. This session will focus on the City’s petition to form the Malibu Unified School District from the territory within the Santa Monica-Malibu USD and will be held in a closed session.
Additionally, a second special City Council meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 18. The next regular City Council meeting will occur on Monday, Sept. 23, at 6:30 p.m.