Despite residents’ requests, director says construction near Carbon Canyon can’t be moved to nighttime due to safety concerns

Construction on PCH has created frustration among residents who commute through Malibu on a daily basis. One parent expressed her concern on the construction near Carbon Canyon and said she even pulled her child out of Malibu High School to a school in Santa Monica because of the traffic and asked the city and Caltrans for their support in making these improvements. 

Last week, the Public Works and Public Safety Commission held a joint meeting to receive a presentation from Caltrans and their proposed PCH master plan. 

“This construction can’t go past August, we really those roads to be open for school transportation — we can’t afford to spend two hours to getting from one end of Malibu to the high school, it’ll devastate our schools,” Commissioner Wade Major said. “We desperately need that consideration and for the current work as well.” 

Some residents have expressed their frustration on NextDoor and asked their neighbors to email the mayor and andmayor pro tem to move the construction to the nighttime.

“Tell them to move the project to the night, tell them how miserable the traffic is!,” Romy Bennett from Rambla Pacifica said in a Nextdoor post. “Email again and again and have your neighbors and friends email. I just emailed again!”

The day after the meeting, at the Cruise Malibu Campaign event at Malibu Bluffs Park, Public Works Director Rob DeBoux provided a statement and said the construction can’t be moved to overnight due to safety concerns.

“If they do it during the night, it would substantially lower production, cost, and make it very dangerous,” DeBoux said.“What they’re doing out there, they need to have good vision, they’re digging in the ground, if they cross a gas line and they don’t see it, it could explode.”

Public Works Chair Jo Drummond and Chair Chris Frost asked if they are able to open up the middle lane to let trafficflow.

“We’re looking into that,” DeBoux said. 

During the meeting, commissioners shared their ideas on what can be done to improve PCH and make it safer for drivers and pedestrians. One idea was to implement trees along the highway. 

“If the community and everyone feels like this is what they want, the trees, don’t let that go,” DeBoux said. 

Executive Liason of Special Projects Ryan Snyder also said they can take in the input and figure out how to implement everyone’s suggestions. 

Frost said vehicles racing on PCH continues to be an issue.

“The more we can do get CHP out here, we’re making a huge difference,” Frost said. 

Snyder said they’re unaware about the racing. 

The next Caltrans’ PCH Master Plan Feasibility Study is on Thursday, July 11, from 6 to 8 p.m., at the Malibu City Hall, Council Chamber. The next virtual meeting is on Thursday, July 18, at 1 p.m. 

The study aims to identify safety and multimodal travel improvements for all users of PCH in Malibu, including multimodal travel options for pedestrians and bicyclists, as well as enhancing transit opportunities on PCH. The PCH Master Plan will include community stakeholder engagement activities and community outreach meetings to gather input on various traffic calming measures and other street improvements, including a “boulevard” roadway. This Master Plan will be used in future PCH safety improvement projects. For background information, review the Fact Sheet at malibucity.org/DocumentCenter/View/34265/PCH-Master-Plan-Factsheet-6-20-24. For further questions, please contact: D7.System.Planning@dot.ca.gov. 

District cites shortage of bus drivers, which has become a problem in districts across the nation 

Dozens of Malibu parents are scrambling to find transportation to Webster Elementary, Malibu Middle School and Malibu High School now that the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District announced it cannot provide bus service for the upcoming school year. The announcement this week came as a shock to parents who rely on the home-to-school service, especially for those who live more than 10 miles from the campuses.

A SMMUSD notice states: “We are considering this to be a temporary situation as we continue to recruit to fill our critical bus driver shortage. Special education students will continue to have bus service as designated in their Individual Education Plan (IEP).

“We understand that this will be challenging for some of our families who rely on these four daily routes … Bus service for California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) athletics and field trips will continue to be supported as they were in the 2023-24 school year.”

During the 2023-24 school year, the district said it averaged only 10 student bus riders to Webster and 58 to Malibu Middle/High School. 

“We sold nearly 130 bus passes for the 2023-24 school year, well below our historic bus pass sales,” according to the SMMUSD memo. “Many parents have moved to alternative forms of transportation for their students.” 

One such parent who asked to keep her identity private told The Malibu Times that after using the bus for many years it became “increasingly unreliable for pick-up.” The family eventually started driving the kids to school from Big Rock, with a round trip taking “anywhere from 40 minutes to 2 hours with no way to know in advance on what end of that time range the trip will fall.” The parent decided to transfer her children to Santa Monica High School.

Another parent complained to The Malibu Times of chronically late service, saying his child received tardy notes regularly and that after complaining to the district, his complaints were passed off to various employees who never followed up.

Parents this newspaper heard from said they do not want to add to the traffic on Pacific Coast Highway by driving their children individually to school. Another said, “the bus service is vital to Malibu enrollment and attendance, especially at the middle and high school levels. It’s unacceptable that the district has decided to throw their hands in the air and give up on Malibu students.”

The school district claims it “ended this school year short five drivers, and we are aware that two additional will be leaving in the Fall. This is out of 22 drivers to be fully staffed serving all of SMMUSD, in particular our special education students. Santa Monica does not provide any bus service for general education students.”

The bus driver shortage is not limited to Malibu alone. It has actually been called a national crisis. According to CBS News, 51 percent of districts around the country report severe driver shortages. Two years ago, the network profiled the fourth-highest-ranking FBI official, turned company CEO, Mike Mason of Virginia. Mason, who retired at 63, heard his local school district was understaffed by 125 drivers. He took a $30,000 job as a school bus driver, making a fraction of his old income, and donates all the money to charity.

Malibu parents may be wishing for other such angels as Mason willing to step up. SMMUSD says it is recruiting with on-the-job training pay, salary increases, and benefits packages. 

SMMUSD invited interested parents to attend a meeting July 10, at 11 a.m. at Webster Elementary School, 3602 Winter Canyon Road to discuss the bus issue.

Wade Major, president of Advocates for Malibu Public Schools (AMPS), was intending on using the service this year.He said, “Efforts at finding a solution are underway.”

The Malibu Times will cover the meeting. Interested parents may want to come prepared with ideas or to look for carpool families.

Malibu’s Duma Plaza Pharmacy is still open, but struggling

By Barbara Burke 

Special to the Malibu Times 

“Patients are at risk of losing their local pharmacies that they depend on, such as possibly the Dume Plaza Pharmacy, due to unfair pricing practices by Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs),” Congressman Brad Sherman said in response to a Malibu Times request asking him to address the underlying regulatory and economic causes of independent pharmacies closing in Southern California and elsewhere. 

“The prospect of millions of patients being stranded without their pharmacy while PBMs rake in profits is as outrageous as it is imminent,” Sherman said. “High drug prices have long been frustrating for millions of hard-working Americans, and that is why my colleagues and I helped pass the Inflation Reduction Act, which took a substantial step towards lowering drug costs.” 

That legislation did help millions of Americans. However, it does not address PBMs’ role in a multitude of independent pharmacies facing imminent peril. To be clear, other market forces are also contributing to obstacles faced by independent pharmacies, such as customers buying their prescriptions online or receiving home delivery, both of which result in those customers not going into a pharmacy where they might possibly purchase over-the-counter items such as cosmetics and sundries.  

But here’s the thing — to obtain a clear understanding regarding the role of PBMs in the demise of many independent pharmacies, it’s important to realize that there’s a good chance that the mail-order or online pharmacy where one orders their prescription is owned by — you guessed it — a PBM or its affiliated entities. 

Moreover, data analytics establish that the three largest PBMs affect more than 180 million lives or roughly 75 percent of the market, and those PBMs are so profitable that they are now among the Fortune 25 companies. 

Seventy-five percent of the market! Query: Isn’t that anticompetitive?  

According to the California Pharmacists Association, PBMs have a disproportionate market influence. News reports establish that when Cigna posts billions in profits, it attributes a lot of those profits to pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts. The combined revenues of the largest California health insurers and their PBMs consistently outpace the combined revenue of the FAANG companies: Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, and Google. 

The association posits that with that kind of market influence, employers, government entities, and other health-care purchasers need to have transparency into PBM practices, many of which add hidden costs that lead to higher health-care prices for consumers.

The role of PBMs in setting pharmaceutical pricing  

The prices that customers pay for prescriptions and the payments pharmacies receive from insurers are largely determined by PBMs, the entities that negotiate reimbursement rates from drug manufacturers to insurers.

PBMs determine which pharmacies they mandate or steer patients to use. They determine which pharmacies are in their network and the amount that the pharmacies will be reimbursed for a prescription. Further, they have been cutting reimbursement rates to boost their own profits, many experts allege. Hence, Sherman’s focusing on pursuing Congressional action. 

A white paper issued by the National Community of Pharmacists Association is well worth a read. The title explains the gist of the article: “The Truth about Pharmacy Benefit Managers — They Increase Costs And Restrict Patient Choice And Access.”

Delving further, the article provides some astounding facts, including that “PBMs raise drug costs by almost 30 percent due to the rebates they charge manufacturers to be on their formularies. PBM rebates, which amounted to $143 billion in 2019, add nearly 30 cents per dollar to the price consumers pay for prescriptions.” 

Wow! 

When exploring why PBMs prohibit patients from visiting the pharmacy of their choice, one discovers that PBMs are owned by or own the pharmacies they direct patients to use. Query: Isn’t that anticompetitive? 

Whether Point Dume Pharmacy will ultimately close is unclear — its owner did not respond to Malibu Times’ calls, and Kathryn Natalia, the managing director who runs the daily operations of Point Dume Village, which is owned by Marquis Property Company, said she had not received notice that the pharmacy was closing.

However, for several months, residents have noticed that the shelves in the pharmacy are bare, and some have expressed extreme frustration because the pharmacy could not fill their prescriptions and did not return calls. When Malibu Times stops by, sometimes the pharmacy is open. However, recently, it has often been closed.

So what’s a citizen to do? Call your congressman!

“I remain committed to working with my colleagues to lower prescription drug costs by expanding upon the success of the Inflation Reduction Act, and support local independent pharmacies by passing new legislation that would employ measures for more transparency in drug pricing, better regulating PBM pricing practices and more.” Sherman said. 

States can also take a role in regulating PBMs — they could prohibit them or limit their involvement to only having an administrative role in Medicaid and other state-funded programs, as well as in state employees’ health benefit plans. The U.S. Supreme Court’s opinion in Rutledge v. Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, issued in 2020, instructs that ERISA does not preclude a state’s ability to regulate the relationships between independent pharmacies and PBMs. The SCOTUS decision held that a state could require PBMs to reimburse pharmacies at a fair and reasonable rate and at a rate that is no less than the rate paid to the large retail pharmacy chains affiliated with the PBMs.

Unlike other states, California failed to pass proposed legislation addressing PBMs business practices

AB 913, Pharmacy Benefit Managers failed to pass in the California Legislature’s last session. 

The bill’s summary informs that existing law, the Pharmacy Law, establishes the California State Board of Pharmacy within the Department of Consumer Affairs to license and regulate pharmacists. Further, existing law provides for the licensure and regulation of health care service plans by the Department of Managed Health Care, and for regulation of health insurers by the Department of Insurance.

Further, existing law — known as the Knox-Keene Health Care Service Plan Act of 1975, requires a pharmacy benefit manager under contract with a health care service plan to, among other things, register with the Department of Managed Care.

The proposed — but failed — bill would require the California Board of Pharmacy to license and regulate pharmacy benefit managers that manage prescription drug coverage provided by a health-care service plan or health insurer. 

The bill proposes that PBMs would have to file a report to the board. Further, they would be prohibited from contracting to prohibit or restrict a pharmacy or pharmacists from disclosing to an enrolled patient or insured health care information that the pharmacy or pharmacist deems appropriate. Finally, the bill would require the board to promulgate necessary regulations and prepare annual reports to the Legislature, with aggregate data received by PBMs.

A majority of states have passed bipartisan legislation regulating PBMs. Twenty-five states require licensure, 15 require registration, and two require certification.

What’s up, California?  

The association advocates legislation that would require PBMs to be licensed by a regulatory body that has authority to enforce laws and it would require PBMs to file an annual transparency report with the regulatory body, informing about its aggregate costs, fees, rebates, and other financial reports. Ideally, the association maintains, California law should limit PBMs’ abilities to steer patients to their preferred pharmacies and prohibit the use of untrue, deceptive, or misleading advertisements.

While lobbyists lobby and legislators dawdle, like many independent pharmacies, Point Dume Pharmacy is barely hanging on and those in Malibu who used to count on it are stuck in traffic as they travel — often in congested beach traffic — all the way to central Malibu just to get their prescriptions.

Group recognizes newspapers’ roles in fulfilling First Amendment functions, and honors the American Creed

By Barbara Burke

Special to the Malibu Times

“As we gather today, let’s of course say the Pledge of Allegiance, but let’s also recite the American Creed, a document that I so admire,” said Regent Beth Grimes of the Malibu Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution on June 1. The occasion: the chapter’s yearly installation of new officers and its conferring of an important honor — the Excellence In Historic Preservation Award.

Not often read by many — let alone recited by an assembly of citizens outside of DAR and similar organizations — as Flag Day approaches on June 14, it is, as Grimes posited, indeed fitting to reflect on what a fascinating document The American Creed is.  

The Creed was written in response to a contest approved by President Woodrow Wilson to secure, “the best summary of the political faith of America,” and it succinctly summarizes the fundamental secular concepts that served as the foundation of the United States Constitution. Simply stated, the Creed embodies the intent and vision of the framers of this country’s constitution and its core democratic principles.

Those include the principles of egalitarianism, laissez-faire policies, individualism, populism, and traditionalism. Written by William Tyler Page in 1917 during World War I, The American Creed was accepted by the U.S. House of Representatives in 1918. Page drew on a variety of historical documents and speeches, including the Declaration of Independence, the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution, President Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, a Daniel Webster speech and text from “The Man Without a Country,” Edward Everett Hale’s 1863 story of a military officer condemned to death.

The declaration brilliantly and incisively states, “I believe in the United States of America as a government of the people, by the people, for the people, whose just powers are derived from the consent of the governed, a democracy in a republic, a sovereign Nation of many sovereign States; a perfect union, one and inseparable; established upon those principles of freedom, equality, justice and humanity for which American patriots sacrificed their lives and fortunes.

I therefore believe it is my duty to my country to love it, to support its Constitution, to obey its laws, to respect its flag, and to defend it against all enemies.”

Speaking about Malibu’s DAR chapter’s decision to award this year’s Excellence In Historic Preservation Award to The Malibu Times, its owners Nic and Hayley Mattson, and journalists Judy Abel, Samantha Bravo, and Barbara Burke, Grimes stated, “The Malibu Times was founded in 1946 by Reeves Templeman and William Macfadyen.” Grimes also noted that The Malibu Times publishes DBAs, name changes, Los Angeles County notices, probates, trustee sales, summons, and also serves as the official newspaper for all City of Malibu legal notices. 

Abel, who has lived in Malibu for 30 years, was once a broadcaster and thoroughly enjoys serving as a Malibu Timesreporter. In accepting her award, she noted that receiving information and ideas from members of the Malibu community is key to her succeeding as a local journalist. “I get my ideas for many of my articles from people just like you folks attending this event,” Abel said. 

Commenting on the award’s significance, Burke noted, “The right to a free press is grounded in our First Amendment, and it is imperative that we protect that right. We can only do so when, as Judy said, there is communication between journalists and community members.” 

At first blush, some readers may incredulously inquire, “Why view weekly journalism — which is grounded in reporting current events — as historic preservation?”

The rationale: a local newspaper is the repository, as Grimes noted, for official notices that must be published in a local publication.

That’s true. However, even more fundamentally, the voices and viewpoints afforded to a community in a local publication and the collective narrative such articles engender ultimately preserve current events, that over time,become our local history. Thus, in that sense, newspapers preserve history.  Oh that we do so in the spirit of The American Creed!

Are you prepared?

If you don’t own a fire extinguisher, what are you waiting for? It’s an effective tool to stop a small fire before it grows into a disaster. And if you already own a fire extinguisher, do you know how to use it? Has it expired? Yes, they do stop working after years of sitting untouched — the units can depressurize over time causing inoperability.

The City of Malibu held two classes last week on fire extinguisher training with hands-on practice for those in attendance. Taught by Malibu Fire Liaison Gabriel Etcheverry, the informative classes stressed fire safety awareness too.

First, get a fire extinguisher today. They are typically under $100, a small investment in saving your home or even lives. If you live in a multi-story home, get one for every floor. 

Seconds count when putting out a small fire, and as mentioned earlier, periodically check to determine if your extinguisher is still in working condition. There’s a gauge that should read green meaning the unit is properly charged to expel its contents. The gauge measures the pressure of what’s inside, non-toxic powder chemicals that can douse flames. If the gauge is in the red the unit is unlikely to work. It may have been used previously or its contents may have settled and clumped together. On your periodic checks, rotate the unit upside down and back to stir up what’s inside to prevent settling. 

“If the gauge is in the red, forget about it. It’s done,” Etcheverry stated. And he mentioned not to bother trying to get the unit repaired. It’s probably less expensive to buy a new fire extinguisher rather than getting an old one serviced.

“Fire extinguishers are designed for incipient fires,” explained Etcheverry, “fires that have just started.”

These fires are generally in homes or offices. Remain calm. Try to use a lid to contain a kitchen fire. If possible, unplug an appliance causing an electrical fire. 

“An extinguisher on the side tells us what types of fires it can fight. When you buy your new ones make sure it is A-, B-, and C-rated,” Etcheverry stated. Class A fires include wood-based, cloth, paper, rubber, and certain plastics. Class B fires are from flammable liquids, gases, greases, and petroleum products. Class C involves energized electrical equipment, conductors, or appliances.

If you see a fire and go to grab your extinguisher, ask someone else to call 911. If available, have another person retrieve the next closest fire extinguisher as a backup. Select a safe evacuation path before approaching a fire. Do not allow heat, smoke, or the fire to come between you and the evacuation path. Once you’re ready to pull the trigger and use your fire extinguisher use the P.A.S.S. technique. 

• P stands for pull. You must pull the safety pin from the attached wire on top of the mechanism. This also breaks the tamper seal. 
• A stands for aim. Aim low pointing the nozzle at the base of the fire. 
• S if for squeeze the trigger and it’s a good idea to squeeze one short blast as a test. 
• S stands for sweep. Use a sweeping motion to douse flames.

Remember when you’re ready to use your extinguisher, try to have the wind at your back so its contents don’t blow back onto you. Expellant reaches roughly 8 feet and a canister can empty in about 15 seconds.

Once you’ve expelled the contents always back away from a fire. Don’t turn your back on it in case it flares up. Evacuate immediately and warn others. Close doors if possible on your way out to help contain the fire to the room of origin

Can you recycle your fire extinguisher? No, but it’s imperative you expel its pressurized contents before tossing it in the garbage. It can be messy. Make sure you empty the cannister outdoors. “It could tickle your nose or burn your eyes,” according to Etcheverry. So, you may want to wear googles and gloves. And it doesn’t hurt repeating, it can be messy.

Provisions include no more hidden fees, easier processes to rent properties, and an increased minimum wage

By Barbara Burke

Special to The Malibu Times

Rental properties and landlords can no longer charge a potential tenant more than one month’s rent as a deposit effective July 1. Previously, landlords could require renters to pay as security deposits amounts equivalent to two months’ rent for unfurnished units, or three months’ rent for furnished units and those amounts did not include the first month of rent.

Fear not — if you are a landlord who previously collected more than one month’s rent for a deposit from a tenant, you are grandfathered in and you need not refund any funds to your current occupants. 

Speaking of fees, SB 478 also goes into effect July 1, and it specifically prohibits the tacking on of “junk fees,” like service fees and surcharges, which many establishments have resorted to charging in recent years as supply costs have skyrocketed. The provision specifically targets short-term lodging such as Airbnb’s and it also applies to a variety ofbusinesses, including restaurants, bars, and, much to the delight of many Calfornians, delivery apps. Businesses are now required to fully include extra fees in their prices, rather than tacking them on after services or goods have been delivered. 

As the old adage says, it’s wise to read between the lines. The practical effect of this new law is that restaurants will need to factor surcharge fees into menu prices, as opposed to simply advertising them at the end of a bill.

Therefore, economists predict that restaurants’ prices will increase, especially because the minimum wage for restaurant workers employed by companies having more than 60 establishments nationally increased to $20 an hour effective April 1.

A proviso: Restaurants have launched an effort to alter that new law such that it does not apply to them. Time will tell.

New Malibu ordinance increases the minimum wage

The City of Malibu’s minimum wage will rise to $17.27 on July 1. The provision applies to all employees within Malibu’s city limits. That includes a 2.2 percent cost-of-living increase, an amount based on the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price (CPI) increase. All employees within the city limits are required to post a poster that provides details of the minimum wage requirement, worker rights and protections, how to file a complaint, and other information in a conspicuous location, along with other federal and state labor postings. 

The printable poster and relevant information is available at www.malibucity.org/minimumwageposter.

AB 28 — Gun Tax 

Starting in July, there will be a new 11 percent state tax on firearms and ammunition, making California the only state in the nation to have such a tax. Revenue from the new tax is estimated to be approximately $160 million a year, which will be used to fund violence prevention programs in an effort to improve school security. The new state gun tax is in addition to federal taxes which vary between 10 and 11 percent.

SB 244 — Right to Repair

Manufacturers of electronics costing $50 or more must now provide documentation and spare parts or tools available for repair. For products costing $100 or more, manufacturers must provide parts and documentation for seven years after the product was last manufactured. This law covers electronics and appliance products, including cellphones, laptops, tablets, and home appliances that were manufactured and sold or used for the first time in California on or after July 1, 2021. 

SB 553 — Workplace violence prevention

Employers must develop and implement a workplace violence plan in accordance with newly enacted Labor Code section 6401.9, which explains the requirements for the plan.  Under this law, the majority of California employers must establish, implement and maintain a “Workplace Violence Prevention Plan,” that prohibits employee retaliation, accepting and responding to reports of workplace violence, and emergency response.

SB 616 — Paid Sick Leave

Employees must now be eligible to earn at least five days or 40 hours of sick leave or paid time off within six months of employment under a new law that applies to all employees who work in California for 30 days or more in a year.  Moreover, this provision changes the alternate sick leave accrual to also require that employees have no less than 40 hours of accrued sick leave or paid time off by the 200th calendar day or their employment or in each calendar year.

Spoiler alert! It’s no longer called ‘Slipping a Mickey’!

Mickey Finn has lost his position in libations parlance, which of course, was always a very dubious honor. The term“Slipping a Mickey” dates back to the 1890s when there was a bartender named Mickey Finn in Chicago who used to doctor a drink, thereby incapacitating the drinker and making him unable to defend himself or remember anything when he was robbed. The expression first appeared in print in 1915.

However, that slang phrase is no longer de rigueur. Now, the insidious and dangerous practice of spiking a drink is known as “Roofie-ing” a drink, and lawmakers in Sacramento have mandated that all nightclubs and bars with a Title 48 license (those that don’t offer food) must offer patrons a way to test their drinks to determine whether they have been roofied or spiked with date-rape drugs.

Assembly Bill 1310 states that those bars and nightclubs that sell alcohol to be consumed on-site, but that don’t have to offer food, must provide drug testing kits that can detect the presence of “roofies,” a term defined as substances that are used to spike a drink, often with the intent to facilitate a sexual assault. The drug test strip must be able to detect at least one controlled substance, like GHB, ketamine, or flunitrazepam, typically used to spike drinks. The law requires the drug testing kits to be available at a reasonable cost or gratis. The law also requires businesses to place a notice and warning sign with the verbiage, “Don’t get roofied! Drink spiking test kits are available here! Ask a staff member for details.” 

Readers should note that this article only covers those new laws that go into effect on July 1 and that affect commerce. There are a myriad of other laws that relate to other issues. As laws change regarding Malibu’s economic sector, The Malibu Times will update readers.