The Lost Hills/Malibu Sheriff’s Station, which serves five cities that have a population of more than 65,000, plus unincorporated areas that may number the population at 100,000 that the station must cover, is theoretically without a captain in place.

Sheriffs’ Capt. John O’Brien is on medical leave, leaving the station in the hands of Operations Lt. Jim Glazar, who has been acting captain for the past six months.

However, a search is on for an acting captain who will eventually be the replacement for O’Brien, which may or may not be someone from the station.

“My job is to keep the ship afloat here, [while a search is conducted]” said Glazar.

The city managers of the cities of Malibu, Agoura, Hidden Hills, Calabasas and Westlake recently met with representatives from the station to discuss the process of the search and to communicate what both sides are looking for in a replacement.

“Technically O’Brien will be in that spot [captain] for a while, so what we’re looking at is a lieutenant in an acting capacity,” said Christi Hogin, interim city manager for Malibu. O’Brien will not retire officially until October.

Although Hogin expressed that “there are complications on their part [the station]” regarding the situation, she did not elaborate.

Hogin did not know the time frame in which a choice would be made, but outgoing O’Brien said a choice would be made within the next 30 days.

Susan Nissman, senior field deputy for Supervisor Zarovlavsky’s office, which includes the third district, said she thinks it’s “protocol that [Sheriff] Baca asked for input” from the cities and Zarolavksy’s office.

“We would just communicate what the unique needs of the Santa Monica Mountains area are,” she said.

Nissman did say of the current situation, “I don’t get a sense that there is no one at the helm [of the station].”

O’Brien, who has spent three quarters of his almost 30-year career in the department in Malibu, has been off duty since December when he had surgery on his shoulder.

“I still got some back issues [injuries],” said O’Brien. Rather than go back and do his job on a part-time basis, O’Brien chose to take the medical leave. “It’s not fair to me or the people you’re working with. It’s asking an awful lot, especially for Lt. Glazar, who’s been doing both jobs.”

“It was not an easy decision,” said O’Brien, of his medical leave and eventual retirement. “I waited for someone else to make it [for me], in this case my orthopedic doctor.”

O’Brien, who lives in Thousand Oaks but who said he has spent half of his life in Malibu with “a lot of overtime,” said he “hasn’t a clue” as to what he’ll do next after his official retirement.

Before his career in law enforcement, O’Brien was “in industrial sales.”

“It was a passion,” he said, of his decision to switch careers. “Still is.”

O’Brien spoke proudly of receiving a leadership award two months ago, one of three captains to do so, from the sheriffs deputies association.

“That kind of capped my career,” he said. “To leave while you’re on top.

“Seriously,” he added, “To be recognized by [the] deputies is the high point of my career.”

O’Brien was presented with a tile by the City Council in honor of his service to Malibu at Monday night’s council meeting.

Though Carol Winter faced a series of ups and downs during her 32 years of residency in Lower Topanga Canyon, an area also known as Rodeo Grounds, she never gave up on staying because the community has been a true home to her.

Before moving to the north side of Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), Winter lived in a home on Topanga Beach from 1969 to 1979. When the beach was acquired by the state, she moved across PCH, where she lost her house in the floods a few years later and was forced to relocate once more. But she did not move far.

Winter has lived in the house she currently occupies in Lower Topanga since 1988. “I’ve lived in many places in the world but this is my home,” she said.

“What made me a part of this land is the people who live here,” she said. “This is a community that does not close their doors, where everyone is there for everybody else.”

Topanga is reminiscent of the 1960s’ peace-and-love days, and Winter remembers those times well.

When she first lived in the area, Winter was known as the Banana Bread Lady because she baked for a living and distributed her goods to the local stores.

“A simplistic and wonderful life without question,” said Winter, who is a teacher in Santa Monica.

Because of skyrocketing prices in the local real estate scene, Winter finds it hard to think about moving.

“Even though we live on a month-to-month lease, after so many years we never imagined that the eventuality of moving would come,” said Winter. “The only thing that they would do with my house is make parking.”

For now, Winter continues to hope that she can stay. “This is my home. If a fire came through I would build up again,” she said.

Viewing his stay in lower Topanga from a different perspective, but also believing that the community is the only one of its kind remaining in the Malibu vicinity, Ray Craig, owner of the Topanga Ranch Motel, is also unsure about what the future will bring.

“We really don’t know with all the talk,” said Craig. “They have never really contacted us. Although nobody has told us to leave, it’s imminent, I guess.”

As he spoke about the 80-year-old motel, which was originally built for the people who constructed the highway and currently houses 32 rooms, Craig expressed his concerns on behalf of the residents who rent rooms.

While the motel does serve people who just pass by and stay for a night or a week, the people who would be affected the most by the relocation of this business are the people who stay year-round. They could not afford to live anywhere else in the area and many are elderly. “I don’t think they understand that people are living here that have been here for many years,” he said.

Craig, who has owned the motel for 15 years, along with other business owners who rent from LAACO, Ltd., hopes to stay where he is with an extended lease.

Frank Angel, the attorney representing the Lower Topanga Community Association, is currently gathering information, according to Craig, “because the conservancy is working very clandestinely, telling us how bad we are and that they need to get rid of us.”

Commenting on the state having an interest in making the area a state park, Craig said, “Nobody is arguing that, but the process is bad. They certainly don’t let us know until they have to.”

As for the future, Craig said this is the only business he has and he is not sure what he would do if he had to move. “They talk about relocation, but they have not told us details.”

Moreover, businesses have different relocation needs. “In housing you can live in a lot of places, but businesses have to be in strategic places,” said Craig.

Also, Craig said the cost of comparable land in similar locations would be very prohibitive as is the eventuality of relocating everyone by the end of the year.

Additionally, they don’t have all the money needed yet, he said. The land was appraised at $43 million and the American Land Conservancy has $40 million that they received from the state; therefore, the total package is lacking $3 million and that does not include relocation costs, calculated Craig.

Moreover, Craig said he did not get the feeling from the conservancy that they care about people’s lives and problems.

Last week an L.A. County Superior Court judge held that the donation of land along La Costa Beach by home builders Nancy Daly, Eli Broad and Chaim Saban to the California Coastal Commission in compensation for unfulfilled view corridor requirements on their own properties “violated the basic purposes of the Coastal Act.”

The commission had granted Daly, Broad and Saban permission to build three luxury homes along Carbon Beach in Malibu without the requisite 20 percent public view corridors if they purchased and transferred ownership of an equivalent 80-foot wide undeveloped parcel to the State Coastal Conservancy.

However, presiding Judge David Yaffe reasoned that the swap did not add to public visibility since the existing undeveloped lot already provided a view. In fact, he said the exchange might even reduce the sea view along the coast in the event that the land is developed and then presumably only subject to the 20 percent view requirement.

La Costa residents also argued that the commission had acted irresponsibly by granting the permits without first sufficiently evaluating the situation.

“The Coastal Commission didn’t consider the trash, the crowds, traffic, safety or beach management issues,” said Jody Siegler, president of La Costa’s Homeowners Association. “There aren’t any small restaurants in the area and no communal facilities to accommodate the public.”

Mark Beyeler, who works for the Coastal Conservancy, the agency that acquires and manages coastal public property, said they plan to close the beach at night, orchestrate crews to clean the area and arrange parking along the coastal side of Pacific Coast Highway in front of the beach.

A related but separate suit against the Coastal Conservancy by the homeowners association is still pending in spite of attempts by attorneys representing the commission and conservancy to join the cases.

“It’s really a catch-22,” said Patricia Glaser, attorney for the homeowners association. “The commission doesn’t do anything with the property so when we complain that they can’t do this or that because there are a whole bunch of safety issues, they say, ‘Not us, the conservancy controls the property.’ The conservancy doesn’t take blame. They say, ‘We’re not responsible, we just take care of the property that is given to us.’ “

While the commission has the right to appeal Thursday’s court decision, the ruling may affect the practice of off-site mitigation altogether. By transferring the burden of view corridors to another property some distance away, said Yaffe, the parties have saddled their neighbors with whatever public intrusion will be caused by compliance with the Coastal Act.

“It’s as if I was required to install fire sprinklers in my home but instead, I installed them in a home two miles away,” said Siegler. “That doesn’t satisfy the obligation on my property. We should all be burdened with our own responsibilities.”