As the year opened, Walt Keller was sworn in as mayor. It was his third time since 1991, when the city incorporated.

Mayors Past

March 1991 Walt Keller

September 1991 Larry Wan

April 1992 Walt Keller

April 1993 Carolyn Van Horn

April 1994 Jeff Kramer

April 1995 Joan House

April 1996 John Harlow

April 1997 Jeff Jennings

April 1998 Joan House

January 1999 Walt Keller

The 1998 Malibu Times Dolphin Awards for outstanding contribution to the city were given to:

Mark Ball

Diane Baldwin

John Harlow

Jeanette Maginnis

Laure Stern

Ed & Dorothy Stotsenberg

Maude-Ann Sunderland

Destination Malibu and its leaders:

Paul Spooner, Duke’s Malibu

Jannis Swerman, Granita

Alan Goldschneider, Malibu Beach Inn

A Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School district report indicated the Malibu public school population has exploded since 1990. From a low of 1000 students, there are now more than 2000 children in local public schools, which also now includes a high school. Malibu High has 1200 students. Point Dume Elementary School (now called the Marine Science School), which closed in 1980 for lack of students and then turned into the Malibu Community Center, now has more than 200 students. The other elementary schools, Webster and Juan Cabrillo, now each have more than 400 students.

“Don’t plan on a look-at- me house, because that’s not what’s going to get approved,” said Planning Director Craig Ewing, reflecting the overall majority sentiment of the Malibu Planning Commission. Several commissioners wanted to bring most of Malibu under their jurisdiction with a slope ordinance and then limit the homes to those they liked. This seemed to mean the right color house, the right color roof, the approved kind of landscaping and a politically correct architectural style. They even took a shot at limiting the amount of light emitting from each house, but even some of their fellow commissioners balked at that bit of overreaching.

A longtime battle perking just below the surface broke into the open when the California Department of Parks and Recreation, which owns Bluffs Park, where the Malibu Little League ballfields are located, announced,”The fields will eventually have to find a new home.” The statement by Russ Guiney, district superintendent, was apparently designed to nip in the bud any thoughts the city might have about acquiring Bluffs Park permanently.

A 52-year-old Trancas-area woman was arrested for drunk driving on PCH. The sheriff’s report disclosed she had a blood alcohol reading of .33 percent, more than four times the legal limit. Apparently, earlier in the afternoon, she had consumed three gallons of wine.

The Planning Commission decided to let a road repair and paving service remain at the Trancas shopping center after several residents, claiming it was an essential service, came forward to support the business. It seems the city fathers, in their infinite wisdom, had not zoned any part of Malibu for light industrial usage, and neighbors were fearful that during storms or other times of need, outside contractors would not be able to get to Malibu to maintain the many private roads.

The City Council broke down and decided to accept a $24,000 grant from Los Angeles County to fund an economic plan study for Malibu.

February 1999

The City Council Land Use Subcommittee, looking for land for a senior citizens center, heard the hard news from a local Realtor. Average lots of an acre were going for $500,000 in the Point Dume area and for a commercial zoned acre more like $875,000 per acre, which meant the land the Malibu Bay Company was offering for the center was probably worth a million, and the total seven acres they had put on the table in the Trancas area for ballfields and such was worth $6.1 million. So far, the city hadn’t responded, but rumors persisted that there were quiet negotiations underway.

Even though restaurants were still among the top 25 sales tax receipt producers in third quarter 1998, they were hard hit by the landslide and repair at PCH and Las Flores Canyon, which slowed traffic and discouraged many casual restaurant visitors over the prime summer months.

Listed alphabetically

AM PM Mini Mart

Hughes Market

BeauRivage

Malibu Masonry Supply

Becker Surfboards

Marmalade

Charlie’s Unocal

McDonalds

Coogies Beach Cafe Moonshadows

Coral Beach Cantina

PCH Unocal

Cosentinos

Pier View Cafe

Duke’s Malibu

Sav

• on Drug

Fisher Lumber

Taverna Tony

Geoffrey’s Malibu

Theodore

Granita

Trancas Chevron

HRL Laboratories

Trancas Market

Hughes Aircraft

The City Council met in closed session for the fifth time to evaluate the job performance of City Attorney Christi Hogin, and rumors were flying. The most persistent seemed to be about a move by Keller, Carolyn Van Horn and Tom Hasse to push her into resigning. This raised speculation they wanted to put the city investigation into alleged campaign violations by Remy O’Neill into less aggressive hands. Hogin, made of sterner stuff, gave no indication she intended to quit.

In a sign of shifting political winds and the growing strength in the Malibu political process of families with children, the council unanimously agreed to consider negotiating with Malibu Bay Company for a development rights agreement. The Bay Company wanted to develop its properties in the Civic Center, Point Dume and Trancas areas, and the city was looking for acreage for ballfields and civic improvements like a community center and senior citizens center.

Malibu Realtor Brady Westwater was hot on the trail of Los Angeles writer Mike Davis, whose books “City of Quartz” and “Ecology of Fear” made Davis a worldwide literary celebrity for his bleak, apocalyptic view of Los Angeles. Brady, a leader in the revisionist movement challenging many of Davis’ facts, began to get coverage in the major newspapers and magazines and forced a new look at Davis’ works.

March 1999

The first annual Malibu Film Festival kicked off with a gala party at the Malibu Castle, overlooking the Civic Center. The gala was given by the castle’s new owner, Lilly Lawrence, and was complete with trumpeters and celebrities ranging from Gary Sinise to Mr. Blackwell. The festival honored director John Frankenheimer (“The Manchurian Candidate”) with a Lifetime Achievement Award. It screened entries from independent producers and directors from all over the world in a makeshift festival tent set up on Malibu Lagoon State Beach. Planning immediately began for the sequel.

Malibu political activist Gil Segel, under investigation by the California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) for alleged campaign violations, was apparently undaunted and launched a new environmental group called the Malibu Coastal Land Conservancy, whose stated purpose was to acquire land for environmental purposes. It was looking at the Civic Center.

The unanimous City Council decision to open negotiations with Malibu Bay Company that might include trading land for development rights in the Civic Center and at Trancas was almost scuttled when Councilmembers Keller and Van Horn had a change of heart. Hasse, who had been pushing the negotiations, stuck to his guns and was able to convince Councilmembers House and Harry Barovsky to go along, so the negotiations were apparently still a go. An ad hoc committee of Hasse and House were to begin meeting with the Bay Company.

While denying they were trying to push Hogin out of her job, the council majority, Keller-Van Horn-Hasse, hired an employment law, sexual harassment and wrongful termination legal specialist from the tony law firm of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher to advise them, at the startling rate of $420 per hour.

Webster Elementary School turned the big 50 and looked not very different from when it opened its doors in 1949 to 120 students, a teaching staff of four and six classrooms.

As part of its investigation into possible campaign finance violations during the last City Council race, the FPPC subpoenaed financial records and donor lists from Segel and his Citizens Group, who promptly filed a motion in court to block the subpoenas. Their attorney, Brad Hertz, charged, “The issuance of the subpoenas is in violation of the rights of Malibu citizens, who have never injected themselves into the political campaign process.”

April 1999

After fits and starts, the Bluffs Park playing fields, which had undergone a highly controversial renovation and several rain delays, were ready for the start of Little League season. Even with the fields back in service, there was a shortage of playing fields, and the softball diamonds at Malibu High School were recruited into service. The soccer teams split their play, with half the games at Bluffs Park and half at the high school, if the fields were available.

A 7:30 a.m. blast at Tivoli Cove Condominiums, caused by a leak from a gas fireplace, blew out large windows in two units and narrowly missed some residents. Fortunately in one condo, a family who had moved in only two days before were sleeping on futons because their furniture hadn’t yet arrived from storage. “When gas is leaking, it doesn’t take much of a spark — a light switch, a heater switching on or off, even static electricity,” to ignite the gas, said Fire Capt. Don Schwaiger.

The investigation by the FPPC into the circumstances of the 1998 City Council election took a sudden, unexpected turn with the introduction of the name of megastar and Point Dume resident Barbra Streisand into the controversy.

According to court documents, Segel, a friend and former business associate of Streisand, had obtained a $1000 contribution from the star before the last election, which was allegedly used to purchase five full-page, anonymous ads in the Malibu Surfside News. Attorneys for Segel and the group known as Malibu Citizens for Less Traffic on PCH maintained it was an educational, issue-oriented advocacy group and therefore entitled to keep donors’ names secret, and not bound by Malibu’s $100 campaign limit.

The city’s proposal for a passenger shuttle, an attempt to make peace with the California Coastal Commission, which cited the city for installing “No Parking” signs on Birdview and placing boulders that block access to the Point Dume headlands park, was roundly opposed by local residents at the council meeting.

The council was trying to eliminate parking on Birdview. The passenger shuttle, which would have run 4.9 miles up to the headlands and back, was seen by the neighbors as overkill, and the proposal was cut back significantly. No one was sure if that would satisfy the Coastal Commission and get it to back off its enforcement action against the city.

Realtor Rick Wallace reported the hot market of 1997-1998 continued into this year. The market, which first heated up in spring 1997, kept at a torrid pace for 18 months, with prices rising at about 1 percent per month. The market seemed to rest the last few months of 1998, but a hot economy, a shortage of property and low interest rates had their impact. Prices were once again rising, and sales were brisk.

September 1999

A ballot easure to create a two-term limit for all City Council members was introduced by Hasse for the April 2000 election. Although the current, longtime incumbents, Keller and Van Horn, were not impacted by it, even if it passes, they seemed less than enthusiastic about the proposal.

The city of Malibu decided to make an 11th hour bid to acquire a 35-acre parcel known as Trancastown, on Trancas Canyon Road. The parcel, which was in bankruptcy, was said to be large enough and flat enough for ballfields. However, a source close to the bankruptcy said it was too little, too late, and negotiations for the parcel had been going on with private developers for months. The source turned out to be correct, and the bankruptcy court later approved sale of the parcel to a developer.

A ray of light was cast on the future of Malibu Pier with the launching of a renovation project by the California Department of Parks and Recreation to rehabilitate it. The state, which owns the pier, put almost $700,000 into the kitty for the first phase of the rehabilitation, which included fixing the pier enough to allow reopening for foot traffic and fishing and was to take about six months, state officials estimated. The project’s official start date was Oct. 27, and they were hoping for an April 2000 completion of this first phase.

The Bank of America on Heathercliff Road was held up by a ski-masked young man with good manners. Before leaving the bank he said, “Thank you,” to the teller. It didn’t do him much good. He was caught shortly thereafter on the freeway, after a well-televised freeway chase.

In a sign of growing stress within what was once the old “Slow-Growth Movement” that controlled the City Council for a number of years, Sherman Baylin, a commissioner on the Mobilehome Park Rent Stabilization Board, resigned with a letter blasting her old ally Van Horn. The friction allegedly arose when Baylin declined to support either Keller or Van Horn for re-election, and Baylin said, “No one talks to anyone anymore. Do we want a City Council that doesn’t speak to each other?… They’ve been around too long.”

Five young men from Oxnard with spray cans left their mark over numerous walls, trees and rocks in Malibu. The graffiti trail went from the Ventura County Line to Pepperdine University, but the perpetrators didn’t get very far. At 2 a.m., the sheriffs stopped the suspects’ car at PCH and Corral Canyon and found the spray cans.

October 1999

The city’s skateboarders, who spend much of their time eluding sheriffs and angry merchants, have a new home with the opening of Malibu’s skateboard park. Papa Jack’s Skate Park is named in honor of Jack Shultz, an 82- year-old Malibu commercial landowner who donated the use of his land for the park.

The City Council race in April 2000 began to heat up. Incumbents Van Horn and House announced their entry into the race, as did former Councilman Jeff Jennings and Planning Commissioner Ken Kearsley. The only one apparently still undecided was Walt Keller.

A 10-wheel dump truck carrying a load of ground asphalt from a Caltrans construction site ran off PCH near Corral Canyon. It broke a 12-inch watermain, sending a geyser of water 55 feet into the air and 5,000 gallons of water per minute running down the hill into Tivoli Cove condominiums, causing major damage to several units and the common area.

Streisand and her husband James Brolin received Planning Commission approval to build a new, two-story residence on a bluff on Point Dume, over the objection of a number of their neighbors. The matter was appealed to the City Council.

Hasse announced his decision to fire Telecommunications Commissioner Nidia Birenbaum, despite a public campaign by Birenbaum and her husband, attorney Sam Birenbaum, to stop the action. Her husband charged the firing was politically motivated.

November 1999

Because of the tragedy in Littleton, Colo., a group of Malibu citizen activists, the Malibu Youth Coalition, decided the time for action was now. Rather than wait for a physical facility to be built, the group decided to start its community Youth Center Program wherever it could find space. “We’ve got to figure a way for kids to interact and socialize. They are looking for something to do,” said Laure Stern, Malibu Youth Coalition founder.

There was a time when the only people who had yurts, those little, strange-shaped, portable tents, were hordes of Mongols come to conquer Europe many centuries ago. Lately, yurts have had a resurgence, and the residents of Latigo Canyon and L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky were incensed 95 yurts been approved for a 300-visitor camp site in the upper reaches of Latigo Canyon. They vowed to fight it.

A large crane used in the rehabilitation of Malibu Pier teetered and toppled onto the prep kitchen on the site of the former Alice’s restaurant, trapping the 19-year-old operator inside the crane cage. It took firemen several hours to extract the injured operator, who was emergency helicoptered to UCLA.

FEMA, the federal agency that controls disaster funds, audited Malibu’s books in connection with the 1993 fire that destroyed almost 400 homes and decided the city’s paperwork was deficient to the tune of $750,000. It sent Malibu scurrying to fill in the holes, if possible this many years later. “This is not exactly chopped liver,” said Barovsky, referring to the $750,000 cutback.

Longtime community activist John Wall threw his hat into the City Council race, bringing the total to five.

O’Neill, former campaign manager for Van Horn and the past subject of an unsuccessful campaign violations prosecution, served notice on the council she was back in the politic arena. In a lawyer’s letter to the council, she advised them unless they changed Malibu’s campaign ordinance and remove the $100 limit on political campaign contributions, which she charged is unconstitutional, she was prepared to sue the city.

December 1999

The city took a hit in Superior Court when a judge decided the decision to deny any rent increase to the Kissel Company, owner of the Paradise Cove Mobilehome Park, was unjustified. The judge said, “The city’s proceeding in this matter was unjustified, unfair and clearly prejudicial to the petitioner [the Kissel Company],” and indicated the action of the city’s rent stabilization commission was going to be judicially scrutinized in the future.

An early morning fire in the Country Mart destroyed the landmark Malibu building that housed the Malibu Colony Company store and significantly damaged its adjacent neighbor, TraDiNoi restaurant. The cause of the fire was being investigated as electrical.

A new real estate record was set for Malibu when a seven-acre parcel along the beach on Encinal Bluffs sold for $27 million. The 18,000-square-foot, 13-bathroom, beach accessing house was owned by the widow of a Nevada casino mogul and was sold to the owner of a worldwide company that produces herbal and nutritional supplements.

The City Council had a change of heart and with some heavy pushing, in a 3-2 vote, agreed to the construction of a warehouse/storage area in the Civic Center, near Malibu Creek, with a somewhat larger interior rental space. In return, the city got a “public amenity package,” which included a 15-foot easement to construct a pipeline and pump station from Malibu Creek to Civic Center Drive and a $100,000 payment towards the construction of a wetlands project.

The vaunted music program at Santa Monica High School, considered one of the best in the state if not the country, seemed in danger of extinction because of an anticipated budget shortfall in the SM-MUSD budget. The board was grappling with cutting $3 million?, and the music program was one of the possible casualties of the cut.

The year ended with Van Horn as mayor. Many in Malibu were staying close to home, not exactly superstitious about Y2K, but then again, why take chances?

Two of the three bandits who robbed the Point Dume branch of Bank of America of $8,000 in September will be in court today, said the head of the Malibu office of the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office.

James Franklin Johnson, who pled guilty last Thursday to two counts of robbery and one count of attempted robbery, will be held to answer in Malibu before Superior Court Judge James Albracht, said Deputy D.A. Martin Herscowitz. Johnson was only recently arraigned because of crippling injuries he received when the car driven by co-defendant Myron Keith Edwards during a two-county freeway pursuit crashed into the center divider of the San Diego Freeway at Wilshire Boulevard.

Kim Sheri Bailey, who allegedly drove away the silver car Edwards and Johnson used to flee the bank and provided the red car in which they were caught, will also appear before Albracht Thursday at a pretrial conference. She pled not guilty to the same charges as Johnson and will present various motions. Johnson and Bailey each face maximum state prison terms of about 12 years, Herscowitz said.

Edwards pled guilty last month to two counts of robbery and one count of “evading with injuries,” said Herscowitz. He is serving 15 years of a maximum of 25 years in state prison.