City staff made troop’s visit fun and informative
Last week, Malibu city staff were delighted to get a visit from the Malibu Cub Scouts 224 as they took a tour of each department of the Malibu City Hall. The fun and informative tour gave the scouts an opportunity to learn about what each department and staff member does for the Malibu community.
The scouts met officials from each department: public safety, public works, planning department, and the community services department. The kids also met Community Services Director Kristin Riesgo, Public Safety Director Susan Dueñas, Mayor Steve Uhring, Mayor Pro Tem Doug Stewart, City Councilmembers Paul Grisanti and Marianne Riggins, and City Manager Steve McClary.
The Malibu Scouts Committee Chair Ann Gorby said the visit to Malibu City Hall was a great success and was enjoyed by both kids and adults.
“This was a very informative session — questions kept on coming from both kids and adults,” Gorby said. “They learned that the public safety helps keep everyone safe by coordinating fire and sheriff departments and helping them focus on Malibu.”
City staff also provided the scouts with gifts from each department. Building department representatives also showed the scouts books full of codes that they have to go through before issuing a building permit such as the Malibu Municpal Code book.
“After the Woolsey Fire, the Malibu City Hall created a new position for firemen with the city to help prevent future disasters,” Gorby said. “Community service department was the most familiar to the kids who spend a lot of time in the Malibu parks playing in playgrounds, baseball, softball, soccer, and just rolling in the grass. It was a relief to find out that since 2019 they implemented earth-friendly policy and no pesticides are used in the parks so the environment is safe for kids and animals.”
Kids learned that the City Council proposes and makes rules for everyone to follow and that we vote to elect all the officials in the City Council. Gorby said Uhring was very gracious explaining what the City Council does. He also let the children sit on the dais and hold the gavel.
While meeting the City Council members, Uhring invited the Cub Scouts to walk up on stage and view the council chambers from the council members point of view. While they were getting their photos taken by their parents, they proposed new rules for the city of Malibu such as, “Eat your vegetables, speed limit should be 45 miles per hour (so many people died on PCH), inflation is bad and we need to lower the prices, everyone should get a million dollars, everyone should get what they dream of, freedom, no plastic, and make your parents do your homework.”
Gorby said they are planning to make the Malibu City Hall trip an annual tradition.Â
Malibu staff members Cecilia Raspe and Cynthia Alba gave the Cubs the tour around and made sure they were able to ask questions about each department.
After the tour, Alba said the purpose of the tour was to make City Hall accessible for everyone of all ages.
“If we make City Hall accessible from a really young age as they grow up they will be more involved and engaged,” she said. “Everyone was really excited, every single department lit up it was really nice to have a spark of life coming from City Hall and a reminder of why we do what we do for the community at the end of the day.”