By Haylynn Conrad, Malibu City Council and Columnist
Malibu likes to describe itself as a responsible steward of the land and the sea. It is written into our mission and vision statement. It sounds noble. It feels right. But it also hides a truth that most residents only discover when something goes wrong.
The City of Malibu does not actually control most of Malibu.
Our beaches are run by Los Angeles County Beaches and Harbors. Our trails, canyons and open space are governed by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. Caltrans controls Pacific Coast Highway. The Coastal Commission has appeal authority over projects along our shoreline. Our public schools are run by Santa Monica Malibu Unified. Major water and power systems are governed by county and regional agencies. Even fire and law enforcement answer to larger systems outside City Hall.
What the city governs is a thin slice of what people experience as Malibu. Permits. Zoning. A few parks. Some local services. A small budget compared to the scale of the place we all love.
Yet our mission statement and our politics suggest otherwise. We talk as if Malibu is in charge of everything from beaches to brush to traffic to schools. We are not. And when residents believe we are, they get understandably angry when trash piles up, trails erode, bathrooms stay closed, fire fuel builds, parking becomes dangerous, or access disappears.
That gap between responsibility and control creates a vacuum. Into that vacuum steps appeals culture.
When people feel powerless over the agencies that actually manage Malibu, they turn to the one lever they do have, which is local permits and local projects. They fight housing. They fight parks. They fight infrastructure. They fight small improvements that serve real people. Not always because those projects are bad, but because they are the only place frustration can land.
We see it with youth facilities like Trancas Park. We see it with trailheads. We see it with fire safety projects. We see it with housing that meets state law. People are not really fighting a skatepark or a duplex. They are fighting a system that feels unaccountable and out of reach.
This is not how a healthy city should work.
Malibu was never meant to be a tiny city pretending to run a vast region. It was meant to be a local voice inside a much larger web of agencies. That means our job is not to absorb all blame and pretend we have all power. Our job is to advocate relentlessly for our residents inside those systems and to be honest about what we do and do not control.
That starts with telling the truth.
We should not hide behind lofty mission statements when we do not have the tools to fulfill them. We should not let residents believe City Hall controls beaches, highways, schools, and canyons when it does not. And we should not allow frustration with outside agencies to keep destroying the few things that actually are within our reach.
If we want Malibu to be a responsible steward of the land and sea then we need a government that is honest about where stewardship actually lives and brave enough to push the agencies that hold it.
Otherwise we will keep fighting each other over scraps while the real decisions about Malibu happen somewhere else.
I want to hear your thoughts. Please email me at hconrad@maliubucity.org.