There is a small, bitter group of people in Malibu who keep renaming themselves. I have seen them organized as the General Plan Task Force, the Local Coastal Plan Committee, the Committee to Re-Elect Carolyn Van Horn, even as the City Council itself. Lately they go by the name of the Malibu Township Council and I was truly shocked when they sued the city to prevent it from approving a local coastal plan for Malibu.

In the nine years that the Keller-Van Horn team was on the City Council, the City Council never managed to complete its obligation to prepare a local coastal plan. They wasted their time with petty infighting and their characteristic villianizing and blaming of others. And they have not changed a bit. Instead of participating in preparing a plan we can all live with, they attack Christi Hogin and they go to court to try and stop the City Council from finishing the plan.

At last night’s City Council meeting, the city approved a local coastal plan draft to send to the Coastal Commission. The councilmembers all agreed that the draft, while imperfect, would communicate to the Coastal Commission Malibu’s land use policies and how Malibu implements the state’s coastal policies. I applaud the City Council for doing (finally) what the Keller-Van Horn group never could. The majority of the citizens of Malibu want the Coastal Commission to listen to the city’s views and we are relieved that we finally have a City Council capable of getting its act together to make the City’s views known.

I served on the LCP Committee for four years and I have attended many City Council meetings. I am glad to see that the city is no longer run by anger and obstructionists. Most of the residents of Malibu are happy and hopeful. Keep up the good work City Council!

Kay Furgurson

This letter to the editor was submitted as a declaration to the City of Malibu

Madam Mayor and councilmembers, we, Doug O’Brien, John Harlow, Tom Fakehany and the City of Malibu citizens in the submitted declaration [to the City of Malibu] do herein appoint ourselves a non-compulsory steering com-mittee to advise the Malibu City Council on what moneys to tax the citizens of Malibu and how to spend the gathered proceeds. In addition, we serve notice that we do so without compensation or acknowledgement of the Malibu City Council in keeping with the tradition established within the city of self-appointed and self-selected steering committees.

It is our intent as the first order of concern to oppose the $15,000,000 General Purpose bond issue and ensuing property tax proposed by the Malibu City Council for the November 2001 special election ballot. We do declare our intent to write the opposition argument and rebuttal against the aforementioned ballot measure using the input of political scientists, CPAs and economists who serve as members of our steering committee. We register this action as the above individuals and as the Lily’s Caf, Malibu Steering Committee under election code 9287 effective this date, July 23, 2001.

The members of the Lily’s Caf Malibu Steering Committee have decades of political activism within the boundaries of the City of Malibu and have been visited by many of the Malibu councilmembers seeking election. Councilmembers House, Jennings and Kearsley have sought our steering committee’s support while candidates for public office. Like additional steering groups within Malibu we may not be united in one specific rationale for our action, but our membership will avoid the inter-hostility of the opposing group, as evidenced by Georgiana McBurney’s broken arm. We invite those interested in our steering committee’s observations to join our summits at 8 a.m. Monday through Friday in Lily’s Caf, located in the Point Dume Plaza.

We, the Lily’s Caf Malibu Steering Committee, are cohesive in that this $15,000,000 bond issue must be defeated as written. We believe that the proposed general bond is in fact, general, all-purpose, broad spectrum and does not reflect the wishes of Malibuites on Advisory Measure O on the November 7, 2000 election ballot as evidenced by the dissimilarity between the misleading argument in favor of Measure O and the wording in the ballot measure itself.

We believe that the desire of the citizens of Malibu is not to give the City Council an unbound hand in the spending of this general bond money based upon local politics and political influence. Finally, we question the availability of the Malibu City Council to use eminent domain in purchasing private property from an unwilling seller. Eminent domain is, to say the least, disquieting.

Tom Fakehany

Actress Jane Seymour has been painting up a storm. Her Malibu studio is filled with colorful canvases, tools of the trade and works in progress. These days, TV’s medicine woman has a new passion to pursue.

“I’ve been painting ten hours a day,” she told The Malibu Times. “It’s a little of everything– oils, landscapes, impressionist paintings, portraits of children. Last night I finished a picture of my daughter splashing in the surf.”

Seems this hard working oil enthusiast couldn’t be a better host and exhibitor at the upcoming Malibu Arts Festival. The event, which takes place this Saturday and Sunday, is celebrating its 30th year. As in years past, it promises to be a fun-filled community affair showcasing more than 200 artists who specialize in everything from tiles to textiles, etching to oils.

“I hear it’s really fun and I’m looking forward to it,” said Seymour. “I’ll take the kids and see a lot of friends.”

It will be the first outing for Seymour, a 10-year resident, and the first showing of her work in Malibu.

Her talents, however, have not gone unnoticed elsewhere. She started to attract attention when she took her easel to the set of “Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman.”

“I’d take my paints to the set,” said Seymour. “The people on Dr. Quinn liked my work and then, all of a sudden, dealers wanted to represent me. Now I’m represented by one of the best dealers in the country.”

For Seymour, art has been a life-long passion. She started with watercolors and pastels then moved on to designing clothes and fabrics and even interiors. “I’ve done a set for the Houston Ballet, a champagne bottle for Korbel and a credit card for Discover. But for the last ten years I’ve been painting and loving it.”

Next month, Seymour will travel to France to paint in Monet’s famed garden. But first, she’ll show off her talents closer to home letting locals get a look at her brush with greatness.

Sponsored by the Malibu Chamber of Commerce, the festival is one of the biggest local events of the summer. The festivities will begin at 8:30 a.m. with a pancake breakfast, courtesy of the Malibu Optimists Club, as well as fair fare from local restaurants throughout the day. For those with a green thumb, members of the Malibu Orchid Society will be bringing some of their famous exotic blooms. The entertainment line-up has something for everyone from New Age to Rock to Blues to Pop.

During my senior year of college at the University of Colorado, my professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a hard-working student and had breezed through the questions, until I read the last one: “What is the first name of the man who mows the grass outside our classroom?”

Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the man riding his mowing tractor several times as I gawked out the window during class. He was tall, dark-haired and in his 50s, but how would I know his name?

I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade. “Absolutely,” said my professor. “In the years after graduation, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say ‘hello’!” I’ve never forgotten that lesson. I also learned his name was Frank.

Which brings me to the intention of this letter. What is the name of the City of Malibu employee who does such a wonderful job keeping the Malibu Bluff’s Park unsoiled and shipshape? The maintenance man who takes additional time greeting Malibuites and visitors as he works adjusting the sprinklers, fixing a shattered tree branch or picking up a wind blown empty soda can. The question is so extremely simple! For the thousands of kids and their parents who use the park for baseball and soccer, what is his name? For those of you who visit the Michael Landon Center, what is his name? I took the time to find out.

Hello and thank you David Fant for the miracles you achieve at our City of Malibu parks.

And that is all I have to say.

Tom Fakehany

The following is a transcript of what Zepeda did say at the meeting that took place on July 9 with State Parks, representatives from LAACO, Ltd., and residents of the area concerning the Lower Topanga area.

Statement of Fred Zepeda

My name is Fred Zepeda, vice president for LAACO, Ltd. I’m in the Real Estate Division. I just want to present a letter for the record and make a short statement. Most of what’s been said here tonight is pretty much based in truth, colored obviously by a point of view and so what I’m going to share with you is in fact our point of view. We see this, not just a win win, but we see it as a win win win, three wins. I’ll get back to that in a little bit.

This property, back in the 1920s, was purchased to develop. It was going to be a Yacht Club with all the structures and all the things that go with a Yacht Club down at the end of the lagoon. It has always been a property to be developed. As a publicly traded company it is our responsibility to maximize the return to our stockholders. Since the plan was to develop the property, LAACO has always engaged in only 30-day rental agreements. This may sound self-serving at the moment but the rationale behind that was not to set-up the expectation of long-term tenancy. Obviously, circumstances have evolved to where many people have lived here for a very long time, but look at your agreements. They are still 30-day rental agreements. Many of you have asked for longer agreements. We have said no. Every year there is a rumor or two about development and I get questions from you, “is it true, do we have to leave?” My reason for stating this is that tenants have always known that they are here on a short-term basis. Yes they have been here for many years, yes it is their home but it is not a surprise to anyone because development has always been the goal of the company.

I just want to correct a point that was made earlier. Development on the property is, in fact, possible today. The local land use plan allows for development on that property, the revised land use plan will allow for some development. We can question where, how much, how to put it in, all of that has to be resolved but there can be development. I will tell you that even after announcing our option to the American Land Conservancy to sell this property to the State of California I continue to get calls from developers who are interested on the property and who want to make sure I call them if it falls through. So anyone who tells you that development is not possible is not right. I can tell you that in my desk I have some preliminary estimates for development on the northwest end of the property. So it’s not just around the beach. The reason I tell you this is because we really feel this is a win win win. The State of California will win, 63 million Californians voted for Prop 12 to do just exactly what the State Parks is doing here, providing parks where parks are needed. The second win, is for LAACO. We’re going to make some money from this.

We’ve owned the property for 70 years and the people who originally invested in this property and those who now own the stock deserve some return on that investment. The third win is all of you folks. Again this may sound self-serving but one of the pluses when we looked at selling this to the State of California was that you folks, you tenants, would get relocation money. Whether it’s forty, fifty thousand dollars or more is to be determined later. You will get money as opposed to getting a 30-day notice of termination from a developer.

If in fact this doesn’t happen, if the sale to the state does not happen, that will be the inevitable end. You will have a developer show up, joint venture with us and the property will be developed. Again I don’t say that in a threatening way, I started by telling you that this is our point of view, this is what we have to do.

If you can get past the initial awkwardness and embarrassment, NIA might just be the best thing for the mind, body and soul since crystals and incense. This metaphysical workout mixes yoga, tai chi, martial arts, meditation, jazz and modern dance as well as African rhythms and freestyle steps for an exercise program like no other.

At first glance, it seems like you went back in time and landed at a ’60s love-in, but for many, this natural-high happening is a welcome change.

“I feel relaxed and energized at the same time,” says a serene looking Dr. Jessie Hanley. “I love everything about it. It’s the perfect workout.”

NIA stands for “neuromuscular integrative action” and offers an alternative to the bump-and-grind gym routine.

“In the ’80s, it was a high-impact, go for the burn, hurt yourself kind of thing,” says Pacific Athletic Club instructor Sarah Lampro. “Now we have a chance to heal and enjoy our bodies.”

The classes are, to be sure, a bit out of the ordinary. Amid a sea of flailing limbs, you are told to “reach for the sky,” “go low to the earth” and “smile with your whole body.” Although you loosely follow an instructor, participants are encouraged to do their own thing and let it flow. How does one do this? Think Woodstock. “Some people say it’s like being at a Grateful Dead concert. It’s this crazy hippie sense of letting go,” says Lampro.

Everyone from physicians to grandmas to office workers are getting into letting go.

“It’s fabulous,” says psychologist Cye Hoffman. “It lets you move and the motions tune out everything else. It’s very calming psychologically.” NIAphiles also get a chance to practice their pipes. In unison, they shout “Yes, yes, nooooo … yes, yes, nooooo!” The room is filled with periodic sighs and aaahhs as they vibrate, jiggle and sway to the beat of their own drum.

NIA newbies have an understandable hesitation their first time around. Compared to the run-of-the-mill Tai Bo or spinning class, it strikes one as a little, well, weird, but once the NIA bug has bitten, it seems they just can’t wait to shake that thang.

“Even I was afraid at first,” says Lampro. “It felt goofy. But as I got more and more comfortable, I found it to be a great way to release, to leave your body, to free your thoughts and get in touch with a lot of emotions.”

A saving grace may be safety in numbers. Thankfully, there’s no one here to judge you–after all, they look silly too. But the silliness is seen as a way to “dance through life.” And dance they do. Maybe it’s all a craze, maybe a return to the Age of Aquarius, but while hard-core gym rats huff and puff, tie-dyed NIA fans are fine tuning their Chi, getting in touch with their total being and letting it all hang out. What can you say but , “Good Morning Stratton!”

There is no antibiotic for this virus

This week I joined a small, but very select club, one whose membership is growing rapidly.

It’s called the W32.Sircam.worm@mm Computer Virus Club. All you need to do to join this club is to open any e-mail with an attachment that contains the computer virus. Immediately you can become a card-carrying member of the club in good standing.

As part of your bonus for joining, the virus swiftly goes through your computer and sends out a bunch of e-mail messages from your computer to a bunch of your friends and colleagues whose e-mail addresses are somewhere in your hard drive. It selects topics from your computer memory so that the e-mail has your name on it and a topic that sounds familiar, like the “Civic Center.”

The message says:

Hi! How are you?

I send you this file in order to have your advice.

See you later. Thanks.

The attachment to that message contains the virus and you soon know it because you get back from lunch and your e-mail and voice mail filled with unhappy messages, and you begin to understand how a leper must feel.

You definitely have the feeling that you passed on some sort of a social disease and many are not pleased. No matter that you swear that you have no control over the virus. No matter that the virus decides what and who to send itself to. No matter that the virus has its own little SMTP engine, which, as explained to me, means it does not even need your computer’s cooperation.

The virus is the son of an earlier virus called W32.Magistr.Worm, so I expect somewhere in our future its grandchild is headed our way. About all you can do is unplug your computer and get some pro to clean it up.

So, to those of you whose computers I’ve contaminated–mea culpa, mea culpa. In the future I promise to practice “safe computering.” In the future, if you want to send me anything, please cut and paste it into the e-mail which I’ve been told is safer. The virus hides in the attachment portion of the e-mail, and as long as you don’t open the attachment, you’re safe, for now anyway, until some 14-year-old computer whiz figures their way around that one.

The local coastal Plan (LCP) is on its way

Last Monday night the Malibu City Council stiffened its spine. After seemingly endless objections from the old zero-growth crowd, the council voted to send its current version of the Malibu Local Coastal Plan off to the California Coastal Commission.

Earlier on Monday, the Malibu Township Council went to court in Santa Monica to try and block that from happening but the judge turned them down cold and, in effect, said the city can send the Coastal Commission whatever it pleases.

The irony of all this is that the entire battle may be over nothing because it may not make one iota of difference what Malibu does.

Despite promises that the Coastal Commission would try and cooperate with the city, the rumor is it simply has not been the case.

The Coastal Commission has virtually ignored Malibu, or at least turned a very cold shoulder to the city. It’s becoming abundantly clear that Malibu’s LCP is going to be written by Peter Douglas, the executive director of the Coastal Commission, who is certainly no lover of Malibu, and probably Sara Wan, the Coastal Commission chair.

Last year’s Assembly Bill 998 passed and was signed into law giving the Coastal Commission the power to write Malibu’s LCP. It’s a reasonable bet that is exactly what it intends to do. If the city doesn’t like it, that’s just tough, because under the law the commission is not required to listen to the city.

Depending on what it comes up with, the city’s only option may be to go to court. But, generally speaking, that’s an expensive and not very productive alternative because even if the city wins, a judge ends up making the final decision anyway.

Drug rehab has become a cottage industry

Another piece of legislation whose effect is just beginning to be felt is Proposition 36, which mandated the treatment of certain drug offenders rather than imprisonment. Drug treatment is going to become big business, and apparently Malibu is an area of choice for high-end drug treatment facilities. As long as it’s six or less patients in treatment, state law seems to say it can be in a private home in an RR1 (single-family residential) neighborhood, and there is nothing the local jurisdiction can do.

My guess is this is so because most neighborhoods don’t want drug treatment facilities so the Legislature decided to insulate facilities from local attack. This battle is probably going to rage up and down the state, probably in all of the choicer urban and suburban neighborhoods, because treatment at $30,000 plus per month per patient means they can afford to locate the facility almost anywhere.