It appears that the Malibu City Council majority is engaging in subterfuge. Whenever public officials arrange a hush-hush meeting to make a major move, their action tends to look shady, especially when they conveniently neglect to videotape the meeting. That the council majority’s early Monday decision was to hire a contract city attorney without going to bid is downright suspicious.

Why do councilmembers Sharon Barovsky, Ken Kearsley and Jeff Jennings want to go through the convoluted exercise of creating the unnecessary position of assistant city manager? The city already has created and eliminated that post once. They’ll just have to eliminate the position again as the person they hire is shifted to the city manager’s post when Christi Hogin’s city manager contract expires June 1.

If their true objective is to give Hogin the power to pick the next city manager, why don’t they simply have her advise them of her choice then use their three-vote advantage to hire the chosen one? That would be a lot more straightforward.

If their goal is to make Malibu the laughing stock of the Southern California public-administration community, they are on the right track. Their move makes for really bad personnel and administrative policy. When and if Hogin begins advertising for a new city manager — er, “assistant city manager” — any professional in his or her right mind will say, “Why, so I can be hired on a 3-2 vote too?”

And what about the money? What sense does it make to shell out $216,000 a year plus nearly $200 an hour and litigation and “specialized” legal services fees and $150 an hour for management consulting services to the same attorney the city recently employed for an annual salary of $100,000 and change? I don’t pretend to be in a position to judge the quality of Hogin’s work, but has she done something in particular to merit a more than doubling of her salary?

For perspective on the insanity of paying what likely will be a minimum of a quarter of a million bucks a year for Malibu’s city attorney, the top municipal lawyer for the state’s largest city — Los Angeles — makes about $160,000 a year, according to the city controller’s office. Los Angeles’ city attorney is responsible not only for managing one of California’s largest law firms (400 lawyers plus 400 staff), but also prosecuting all misdemeanors committed within the city, filing and defending countless civil lawsuits, and giving legal advice to the mayor, 15 councilmembers and 37 city departments. As a Los Angeles resident, I guess I’m getting a really good deal.

The Malibu Times quoted Barovsky as saying, “Occasionally you have to put politics aside and vote for what you think is the right thing and pray that it’s right” (“City Council terminates city attorney’s contract,” March 29). But hiring someone for a top staff position on a 3-2 vote and scheming to deny the full council the opportunity to choose the person who will fill the other top staff position smacks of the very worst kind of politics — the kind I thought Malibu finally was beginning to cast aside.

Barovsky indicated that the council majority’s move might need a prayer to succeed. I’m pretty confident it’ll need more than that. Meanwhile, I’m left wondering if the council majority has been spending a little too much time with the SMP (as in “smoke more pot”) crowd.

I worked on Tom Hasse’s 1998 City Council campaign, but the views expressed in this letter are my own.

Chris Ford

Los Angeles

A very inaccurate and obviously exaggerated fact was reported in Sylvie Belmond’s front-page article [“Malibu Road dispute reaches the council,” March 15] where she writes, “[A] group of about 10 Malibu Road residents … asked the council for help.” In fact, there were four (4) speakers in the pack. So more than doubling the number is just plain erroneous and apparently a means to sensationalize the report. Nidia and I demand a retraction.

According to Lt. Thom Bradstock of the Sheriff’s Department, who was in attendance for the sneak attack, “My take on it was they were complaining because they can’t do something that’s simply illegal [walking dogs on the beach].” He was skeptical about complaints of alleged serious crimes that were never reported to the Sheriff, rather reported belatedly, to the City Council, a political group. Were they looking for protection and justice, or just power and influence?

I also find it odd reporting that after your recent front-page, multiple-article coverage of the San Francisco dog murder, and all of the letters on the issue, that you “bury” the Malibu mauling by dogs in Decker Canyon last week as just a little “bit” piece (pun). Now that news item is sensational and local in its own truthful telling. But it is not so poIitically charged.

When the parents of two small children wanted to testify in favor of keeping dogs on leash at the National Park Service hearing for the Golden Gate Recreation Area in San Francisco in January, “Park police were called in to keep the peace when nearly 500 people jammed outside a packed hearing room … [they began] banging on windows and chanting ‘No leashes! No leashes!’ … the atmosphere was so hostile that [the parents] had to be escorted out by police for their own safety.” (The New York Times, March 25.) It seems that the dog owners, there and here in Malibu, tend to resemble their snarling, snapping dogs, not vice versa, as is commonly said.

Man’s best friend (not kids’) will bite 4.7 million Americans every year, more than 60 percent of them children according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More children are seriously injured by dog bites than are taken ill by measles, mumps and whooping cough combined, according to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

“Somebody offered a $25,000 reward for information on kidnapping of a child, and at the same time there was a reward of nearly twice that amount to find the killer of a dog,” said Ed Sayres, president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in San Francisco. “As someone who advocates for humane treatment of animals, I have serious questions over what that says about our culture.”

What it says is that dog lovers like those at the City Council would rather attack people than protect children.

Sam and Nidia Birenbaum

This is an open letter to the host of the latest dogfomercial, and those associated with its production: You are correct, pet owners need to be more responsible. You are absolutely right that they need to have more consideration for others and for the environment. Yes, they should clean up after their pets, but I have just recently seen one of your programs, and it is very disturbing. I am speaking of the one with a song in the background where a man is singing about killing the dog next door, strangling the dog to death, and even speaks of killing the man next door who owned the dog (which is now strangled to death).

I am sure you are aware of what kind of a society we live in. Maybe you do not understand the power of a subliminal message? People are very capable of violence towards each other and I personally know of cases where people have indeed killed a neighbor’s dog for reasons described in this song. These background lyrics should not be supported or continued to play in your commercials.

Your message to dog owners speaks of personal responsibility; you might want to take a moment and look at your own in this matter. This song about killing a neighbor’s dog and the neighbor himself is very dangerous in the world we live in. Please find more appropriate background music to get your message across. Music that portrays and speaks of violence and harm to a pet and a human being cannot be accepted, even in jest.

The host of the show may also want to look at how she speaks to the people she is complaining about on the beach. People will be much more inclined to listen to the message if it is presented in a less aggressive manner and spoken from a place of trying to educate people instead of being rude or snide. It is one’s attitude that invites these dog owners to “bark” back. Usually, when the messenger comes from a place of trying to help instead of a place of resentment, folks will hear the message and not the anger and they will then be more likely to change their habits.

Alethea Guthrie

Wishin’ and dishin’

It was a gastronomic dream come true at the Barker Hanger as the Make-A-Wish Foundation put on its annual wine tasting and auction. There was a tempting treat for every taste bud and from every locale. Hundreds of hungry guests nibbled on everything from succulent prime rib sandwiches with horseradish sauce from Chicago, to sweet banana boats from Jamaica, to tenderloin tamales from south of the border. Many of L.A.’s top restaurants took part in the sumptuous smorgasbord, including Citrus, Fenix, McCormick & Schmick’s and the Water Grill. Extraordinary and flavorful cheeses from around the world could be picked up courtesy of the Cheese Shop of Beverly Hills and paired with great grape selections from Chalone, Grgich Hills, Niebaum-Coppola and Tattinger. The live and silent auctions held throughout the evening featured works of art from modern masters like David Hockney and Peter Max. The event is expected to raise more than $400,000 to grant wishes to kids in need.

Boone tunes

Crooner and sometimes leather-clad punker Pat Boone was in a “Symphonic Mood” with the release of his new CD featuring 125 musicians of the Junior Philharmonic Orchestra. Guests gathered on the lush grounds of Lori and Neil Gordon’s Beverly Hills estate.

The evening paid tribute to orchestra founder Dr. Ernst Katz, who is often likened to the real Glenn Holland in “Mr. Holland’s Opus.” The good doctor has helped thousands of young people from various social, economic and ethnic backgrounds realize their dreams through music and has personally funded the orchestra as a service to the community.

Mama mia A&E-a!

Allegria has found itself in the spotlight and will be featured on the Arts and Entertainment network as one of Malibu’s favorite eateries. A film crew recently spent the day with owner Franco Simplicio posing many a query about the restaurant and its celebrity clientele. “They wanted to know about film stars, who comes and who doesn’t come,” Simplicio explained. “I told them that we have a lot of stars as well as locals.” And when you ask him to spill some names, he does. Like who? “Oh, we have Tia Leone, David Duchovny, Mel Gibson, Pierce Brosnan, Barbra Streisand, Olivia Newton-John, Anthony Hopkins, Rod Steiger, Liz Taylor, Richard Gere.” OK — we get the picture.

With its piping-hot pizzas, fresh pastas and Italian homestyle entrees, Allegria has been a popular spot since the day it opened its doors, and Simplicio is all too happy to explain his success in what is a really tough restaurant town. “What we set out to do was to offer really good food as well priced as possible and to have a comfortable homey feeling,” he said. “That’s why people come, because it’s a magic thing that happens when you have the right combo of food price and atmosphere.” Buon appetito!

“I love history, I love architecture and I love films,” says David Wallace as to why he wrote his recently released book “Lost Hollywood.”

About two years ago, Wallace was visiting Adolfo Nodal, who recently retired as the cultural affairs commissioner of Los Angeles. In talking to Nodal about how the idea of an anecdotal history of Hollywood would make a good book, “Nodal, in effect, said ‘Stop talking about it and go write the book,’ ” says Wallace. “Luckily for me, St. Martin’s Press agreed.”

Wallace researched endlessly, reading hundreds of books and conducting dozens of interviews with people who remembered the Golden Years of Hollywood.

“The problem is Hollywood, of course, has always dealt with fiction,” explains Wallace. “People, especially the movers and shakers, have always had a tendency to embellish anecdotes and facts, so cutting through to what the real stories were” required perseverance.

“This is an anecdote-driven book, not a dry history book,” Wallace adds. The writer found, by and large, as he conducted his research, that many of the anecdotes started to fall apart. Perhaps the most famous was the “borrowing” of John Barrymore’s body from Pierce Brothers Mortuary as part of a practical joke to be played on actor Errol Flynn. In his research, Wallace found that three or four people claimed to have been responsible for the joke, and several claimed it never happened at all. It apparently did happen. Another wild story Wallace recounts, which he says may or may not be true, was that a telephone was buried in the casket with evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, “So when she came back, as her congregation believed she would, she could pick up the phone to call them to dig her up.”

Wallace said he found a report in the Los Angeles Times that the phone had, in fact been buried with her. “So who knows?” says Wallace.

“It’s fascinating to deal with things like that,” the writer says of the many interesting, and sometimes sad stories he encountered while writing his book.

“If you live in Hollywood, you never know what you’re going to find around the next corner.”

David Wallace is signing copies of his recently released book, “Lost Hollywood” (St. Martin’s/LA Weekly, 224 pp., $23.95), Thursday at 8 p.m. at Borders bookstore, 14651 Ventura Blvd. in Sherman Oaks.

Book Review

The volume has been reviewed in Booklist, which libraries use to make buying decisions.

This treat for Hollywood history buffs offers a look at some of the movie capital’s most interesting locations and the stories connected with them.

Here’s Gower Gulch, a former wheat and barley farm that became the site of Hollywood’s first stage set. Here’s the corner of Sunset and Hollywood boulevards, where D. W. Griffith made “The Birth of a Nation,” and Whitley Heights, where you could once find the homes of Rudolph Valentino, Charlie Chaplin, and Harold Lloyd. And here’s S. Alvarado Street, where director William D. Taylor was the victim of one of Hollywood’s most perplexing unsolved murders. Wallace, who’s written about Hollywood celebrities for 20 years, knows his material inside out, and he writes in a light, lively style.

The book could use a lot more illustrations, but this lack is balanced by the wealth of little-known information. Unlike the sleazy Hollywood Babylon series and its numerous imitators, Wallace’s account is respectful to the men and women who built the movie industry. A fine addition to the literature of Hollywood.

— David Pitt