As family and friends attended a memorial Friday for a Malibu resident who died in an automobile accident in the early morning on New Year’s Day, they not only suffered because of his loss, but also were infuriated by a recent news story which attributed his death to suicide.

Ted Demers died at 2:22 a.m., Jan. 1, when his Toyota Landcruiser went off a cliff on Briarbluff Drive landing on Castlewood Drive near the home of his ex-girlfriend.

Deputies from the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Deptartment initially theorized it was a suicide, as reported in the story.

However, members of his family, as well as friends, say that Demers suffered from juvenile diabetes, which, they say, may have been a factor in his death.

Demers’ ex-wife, Susan, said he took insulin shots for his diabetes and had to check his blood level every two to three hours. She believes he may have suffered a seizure that morning because of low blood-sugar levels.

“I’ve known him for 20 years,” said Susan. “He may have had a couple of drinks [New Year’s Eve], that will bring it up [the sugar levels], but within an hour and a half it crashed.”

David Frankel, M.D., who works at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles as well as at St. John’s Health Center in Malibu, said the biggest danger with people who take insulin is if they take too much, it causes blood sugar levels to go too low and could cause an hypoglycemic attack. A person could lose consciousnness during such an attack, he said. Frankel said it is very common for people with diabetes to suffer from hypoglycemia.

“Once a week at Cedars they have someone come in [with hypoglycemia],” said Frankel.

“I’m not saying diabetics shouldn’t drive,” he cautioned. “They just need to have a higher level of vigilance.”

One reason sheriff’s deputies may have believed the accident was a possible suicide is that a deputy found what they believed to be a suicide note.

However, Det. Christine Carns, of L.A. County Homicide, who has been assigned to the case, said it was not a suicide note.

“It was the name of a song by [the rock group] R.E.M.,” said Carns, “written on a piece of paper.”

Carns said they are investigating, but will not be able to determine anything until autopsy results are received, which could take several weeks. The L.A. County Coroner’s press spokesperson said the coroner routinely screens for drugs and alcohol in traffic fatalities. Carns also said the doctor at the coroner’s office said, because of head trauma, it’s hard to determine if it’s a suicide.

However, “it is coincidental that he happened to be near his girlfriend’s house,” said Carns.

According to people who knew Demers and his ex-girlfriend, the couple had a stormy relationship that ended two months ago.

“Everyone states that he had no reason to commit suicide,” said Carns. “It’s real hard to determine.”

Malibu resident Bruce Abbott, a friend of Demers for 8 years, said there were people who saw Demers the previous week.

“There was no part [of him] that was suicidal from what I saw,” said Abbott.

Abott said Demers had “[problems] no more or no less than anyone else on the planet.”

Abbott, as well as Susan Demers, spoke of a recent book, “Tomorrow To Be Brave,” for which Demers helped secure publishing. Susan said he had the rights to the book and also had recently signed another deal on Dec. 15 for a second book.

“His life was on the upswing,” said Susan. “He was not depressed. If he was depressed, he would have never ever left his son in this way.”

Susan and Demers’ son attends Malibu High School.

The school district is looking at possibly moving the school calendar year up by three weeks to avoid the untimeliness of winter break, which interrupts the first semester one month before it ends. If the change is accepted, the school year would begin in mid-August and end in May. This would also put the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District in line with university schedules, enabling secondary students to complete testing and applications in a timely manner.

Rick Bagley, director of human resources for the district, has been working with a small committee on the proposal for a calendar change.

“The reason changes are being recommended is that people feel it is beneficial for the education of secondary children,” said Bagley.

Though the calendar change will not have a large effect, if any, on primary-grade students, Principal Cynthia Gray, of Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School, said the change will greatly benefit those in middle and high school.

“Basically, with having been a secondary administrator and teacher, I know the need to move them,” said Gray. “The testing schedule for 10th, 11th, and 12th graders is absolutely impossible.”

Gray said the elementary schools are not too excited about a change.

“[It’s] something we all have to accommodate in this era of testing,” she said. “It [the current schedule] takes a terrible toll on the curriculum.”

“The universities’ [schedules] and testing schedule is driving this, and the additional impact from the state’s accountability,” she said. “It’s a double whammy.”

Principal Mike Matthews, of Malibu High School, said that by ending the first semester before winter break, both teachers and students can “enjoy [the] break without work hanging over their heads.”

Also, another goal is to bring the ending of the school year to May, the time for all national testing, said Matthews.

“SATs, Advance Placement, all kinds of tests [take place] in May,” he said. “The more education we can get to the students before they take the tests, the better off we are.”

Another reason the change is a good idea, said Matthews, is that already one-quarter of kids in school, in athletics, are on campus.

“Why not have a cleaner break during the year?” reasoned Matthews. “For athletics it works well,” he said.

This concept applies to the end of the year as well, because all spring athletics end in May, he said.

One ramification of a calendar change, which Phil Cott, principal of Webster Elementary School, pointed out, is the new calendar would put the SMMUSD schedule on a different track than other school districts, such as L.A. Unified. Currently, LAUSD has three different schedules, two year-round and the LEARN calendar, which resembles most other school district schedules.

“Activities during the summer, such as summer camp, may be affected,” he said.

However, “the biggest change would be that it’s different,” he added. “Some people don’t like change.”

Bagley said the teacher’s union has been conducting a poll of their membership to see if they’re interested in the concept of a change. It is a change, he said, that could take place slowly, over a period of two, three or even five years.

The committee working on the proposal is getting together by the end of this month, said Bagley, and will have union imput by then. The committee will then take imput from the various site governance councils from each school.

If a calendar change is approved, it will then go to the district board sometime in February, and most likely be up for action sometime in March or April, said Bagley.

It is unknown what impact Gov. Gray Davis’ recent proposal to extend the school year by six weeks will have on the SMMUSD’s proposal. However, Mike Jordan, SMMUSD board member, said, “It could create a whole host of problems” for school districts in general.

Scheduling, intervention programs, teacher burnout, problems with equity in work loads are a few areas Jordan said could be affected by the governor’s idea.

“I think the idea behind it [the six week change] is good,” said Jordan, “but it seems fraught with problems from the get go.”

and Arnold York/Publisher

Luck finally ran out for one of the few original small Spanish style homes that survived the disastrous 1993 Malibu fire which devastated the La Costa area hillside neighborhood of Malibu.

A 4-inch water main, existing probably from the late 1930s, ruptured mid-day Saturday sending a continuous stream of water under pressure into the ground for almost 6 hours in the quiet cul-de-sac street of Paseo Serra.

Emergency workers dug frantically for several hours to try to locate and get to valves to shut-off the water, but before they could stop the flow, a substantial portion of the ground alongside and under the corner of a house washed away, endangering the house and its foundation

The water undermined the foundation of the house and sent three palm trees, adjacent to the house, along with the chimney and fireplace crashing into the canyon below. The house was left with a large hole in its side and several large cracks in adjacent walls.

The Malibu Department of Building and Safety red tagged the house, rendering it uninhabitable until an engineering structural analysis can be completed to see if the house can be repaired. However, rumors were circulating that a preliminary survey had indicated the damage was extensive and the house probably could not be saved.

The heavy flow of water was first noticed at about noon by next-door neighbor Melvin Seeman. Seeman has lived in the adjacent house with his wife for more than 40 years.

Seeman immediately went next door to warn his neighbor, Sharon Gibson, who has been renting the house for about a year. She did not hear the water running because she was in the other side of the house, she said. Gibson said she tried calling Water Works 29, the water district that services Malibu, but could only get their weekend voice mail, which she described as nothing but an endless message tree. She said she gave up and called the Fire Department, who immediately rolled on the call. Firemen secured the area and helped Gibson get her furniture out of the house. The water continued to run, and later in the afternoon water department emergency crews showed up to begin digging in front of her house to find the cutoff valve. It took another two hours before workers could stop the flow of water.

After the chimney and fireplace separated from the house, the gas line, which was connected to the fireplace, ruptured and neighbors reported the smell of gas all over the neighborhood. The gas company immediately shut down gas lines to the area.

According to neighbors, after the 1993 fire, about the same time as the large, above-ground, 30-inch waterlines were installed, many of the below-ground, 4-inch water lines in the neighborhood were removed and replaced by larger, newer lines. However, this was not done at the end of the cul-de-sac.

According to Mark Carney, regional water service superintendent for Water Works 29, the cast-iron pipe, probably from the late 1930s, broke in the cul-de-sac for reasons unknown, until they’re able to get a crew under the house to examine the pipe.

This can not be done until the house is stabilized.

Carney explained the water pipe actually serves as a two-way street and the flow through the pipe can actually come from either of two directions, down from Paseo Serra or up from the Pacific Coast Highway area.

In order to stop the flow, they had to stop it at both ends. They dug into the street on the upper end of Paseo Serra and turned off the water, but it was the lower end that was the most difficult.

The cutoff valve below, near PCH, was sitting under a large construction dumpster that had to be moved first and the debris from above had washed down and covered the site.

The water was diverted with a sandbag dam and workers then dug under the debris to get to the valve and shut off the water, which was completed in the late afternoon with the help of the city, Caltrans and the Fire Department.

At the City Council meeting Monday night, City Building Official Vic Peterson told the council it was an older house with shallow footings and the broken main was “positioned as a water jet.”

The house was in “definite jeopardy” and as a result he red-tagged it. He said the adjacent house had been inspected and was not in danger. There were actually a series of four valves that had to be shut off to stop the flow and “it took about three hours for them (WW29) to locate the water main,” said Peterson.

The electrical energy crisis, up to now just a headline, may finally be coming to Malibu in the form of rolling power blackouts.

Representatives from Southern California Edison, Malibu’s electric provider, said blackouts will happen unless things change drastically and quickly because there may come a time when there will not be enough power to cover the demand. Therefore, Edison will have no choice but to shut down part of the system.

“We will curtail power for about an hour at a time per location,” said Mark Olson, Edison’s regional manager for west side cities.

Edison has already established a sequence of sections for the rolling blackouts, said Olson, “but local Edison representatives may not know what section will be blacked out ahead of time.”

“We wouldn’t know until the day of,” he said. However, when Edison is made aware of the locations, they will share that information with the city, “if at all possible.”

“The outages that we are talking about would not be different from those when a car hits a pole. They would be outages for a measured period of time,” said Olson.

Rick Morgan, city engineer, said, “Certainly, it has potential disaster implications if we go through prolonged power loss.”

Possible problems caused by outages are traffic stoppages on Pacific Coast Highway and delayed emergency response. The city has made arrangements with the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Department to man extra intersections, said Hap Holmwood, Malibu Emergency Services coordinator. Intersections like Las Flores Canyon, Webb Way and John Tyler are considered critical, he said.

Meanwhile, Holmwood is working with various agencies and attending meetings conducted to address any life-threatening emergencies that may occur if electricity to Malibu is cut off.

“My biggest concern is for the senior citizens and handicapped people who rely on electrical systems for life support,” said Holmwood. “We need to know who they are and where they are and what needs they have, so we can alert their neighbors to assist them.”

City Councilmember Sharon Barovsky, whose husband Harry Barovsky died last year, knows the importance of having a continuous electric supply first-hand.

“My husband’s life depended on being able to have access to an oxygen converter,” she said. “So my greatest concern is for those who have medical conditions that rely on an adequate, constant energy supply.”

“Even if we were not facing the possibility of an energy crisis, I would recommend anyone with a medical condition have a small generator that would supply energy in an emergency,” said Barovsky.

Uninterrupted Power Supply units (UPS) can be used to provide continuous power when outages occur. These devices act like buffers between regular electric supply and generator power supply but they are not easy or cheap to install.

Despite the threat of rolling blackouts, Malibuites have apparently not purchased extra power generators to keep their homes lit. Employees at A & B Hardware and Plumbing, and Malibu Lumber Company said they have not sold extra generators recently.

“The real crunch was at last new year’s when, [the now unfounded], threats of a Y2K disruption existed,” said Patrick Walsh, assistant manager at Malibu Lumber.

Blackouts may also impact the operation of local businesses.

The increased cost of electricity will cause problems for local, small businesses and it will inevitably carry on to customers, “which is not fair,” said Lupe Baraivia, manager at A & B Hardware. “The big business can handle it, but it’s killing smaller businesses,” he said.

“It’s going to have a significant impact on our business because our sales and checkout procedures are computer scanned,” said Walsh, about potential blackouts.

Some larger, local stores, however, are not as concerned yet. Art Postajian, manager at Ralph’s supermarket on Malibu Road, said in case of a blackout, the store will not have to close down completely.

“We can control our lighting in the store so that we reduce it in half,” he said. The store also has a generator that allows it to function during power outages.

As for the cost of power, it is in the thousands monthly already because refrigeration takes up a great deal of energy. Keeping the store lit is a large endeavor in itself and certain departments like deli and meats take up a lot of power as well.

“It’s almost like a living being,” said Postajian.

The higher cost of power is not expected to have a direct impact on customers in larger stores for the moment.

“If the cost goes up chain wide, the cost increase on merchandise would be minimal,” said the manager.

What to do in case of a power outage

• Most power companies and cities want people who depend upon electric-driven health equipment to register with them ahead of time. They also advise that you have a backup generator to provide continuity in power supply for life-support devices.

• Phones with various gadgets, and cordless phones will not work in a power outage. Make sure you have at least one phone with a cord that you can plug into a phone jack to call for help.

• Keep food that does not spoil stored away, as you would for earthquakes and other natural disaster preparedness, since refrigerators and most stoves depend on electricity to function.

• To preserve cold and frozen foods, keep the refrigerator and freezer doors closed and fully stocked. A fully-stocked freezer will stay cold for up to two days without power.

• Be prepared with plenty of warm clothes and blankets.

• Know where your flashlights are and be sure that they are functional with plenty of batteries on hand.

• For the computer savvy, surge protectors are a must.

• Turn switches off. This will help safeguard electrical equipment from power surges when electricity is restored and help the power company get its systems back online with fewer glitches.

• Practical conservation tips can also be found on the edisonathome.com or sce.com Web sites.

Sylvie Belmond/Staff Writer

The search is in full swing for a new superintendent for the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District (SMMUSD), and applicants are going to have big shoes to fill.

The toughest thing the new superintendent will face is the financial straights the district is in.

“We’re just perennially and perpetually under-funded,” said Cynthia Gray, principal at Point Dume Marine Science Elementary School. “Education is a tough area to be in anymore and the superintendent takes a lot of the blame.”

Because estimates for enrollment were substantially off for the school year, among other problems, the district was in a financial crisis last year.

“It is a complex issue that goes all the way back to Prop 13,” said Mike Jordan, newly-elected district board member representing Malibu. “This district always tries to do a lot of things, multi-faceted, and we stretch ourselves thin.”

The district is also short $2 million for next year’s budget, said Jordan. However, he did say he believes the district is no longer in a crisis.

“Of course, a lot of this depends on the governor’s budget, which comes down this week,” he said.

Jordan said the new superintendent will need the ability to develop new partnerships within the community.

“We need to look under every rock in Santa Monica and Malibu to find if there is money under there that can be spent on our kids,” he said.

The new superintendent should also have an interest to improve academic achievement and be sensible to the needs of special education students, say community leaders.

Gray hopes the new superintendent will have the same qualities as Schmidt.

“I never had a superintendent who was so hands on,” explained Gray. “He is here a lot, so much so that, in my 22 years of education, I never had a superintendent like that.

“We’re going to miss him.”

The SMMUSD serves approximately 12,500 students of which 20 percent are from Malibu. It is a diversified district where each school has individual needs. A factor to be considered is the distance between Malibu Schools and the offices of the district.

“I’m worried that we will never see the new superintendent,” said Gray, “because we are 27 miles up the road.”

Another challenge for the incoming superintendent will be that he is coming into a district that has subscribed to sight-based management, said Gray.

“Every one of us operates differently, allowing each principal and faculty member to set his or her own priorities to meet the needs of the school and the student population they serve,” she explained.

But for a superintendent, a one-size fits all management would be a lot easier, she said.

Jordan said, “We’re looking for a good administrator and a scholar, who appreciates and loves kids.”

While the next superintendent will need those qualities, which are basic, he will also need to go beyond that, continued Jordan. The board is looking for a motivator who has good people skills. The school district always tries to include a multi-faceted curriculum for the students, explained Jordan. However, “in trying to maintain these good programs we’re constantly scraping to get the money to get the job done.”

Jordan, too, enjoyed Schmidt’s presence in the community.

“The thing I really appreciate about him is that he has been accessible,” he said.

“He is everywhere. Every single PTA meeting or school function in all 14 schools, he is there,” said Jordan. “He has been supportive at the grass-roots level.”

Another necessary skill for the incoming superintendent will be the ability to improve communication within the district.

“Improve the way the district communicates with its own employees, teachers and staff and the way it communicates with the community, parents and students,” said Jordan.

The hardest part of the job, said Schmidt, was trying to complete construction projects on time and trying to respond in an appropriate manner to all the different problematic needs facing the district.

As for special needs, it is an area where the school district hasn’t done as well as they would like to do, explained Schmidt.

“Many parents feel that we have not been as supportive and responsive as they would like us to be, but we’re working on it,” he said.

In Schmidt’s view, the new superintendent will need to value differences and diversity and look at it as a richness, not something to overcome.

“You can’t do that in an office.”

Cascade Consulting Group from Bellevue, Wash. is conducting the search for the new superintendent and a national advertising campaign has begun with notices posted in publications, online and in university placement offices. The applicants must have a master’s degree, preferably a doctorate.