The Malibu Planning Commission last week, in a 3-2 vote, put to rest a problem perplexing it for the past year. Two partially constructed oceanfront homes on Latigo Beach were framed, enclosed and inspected by the city before it was discovered that their ocean sides were too high.

The applicant said the height resulted from a mistake and applied for a variance to allow completion. Opponents argue it was intentional and the homes should be torn down.

If the approval of height variances on the already framed structures are appealed to the City Council, Councilman Walt Keller may find himself in a dilemma. A 25-year-old dispute between the developer, Russell Shears, and his former neighbor in Encinal Canyon, Keller, should cause Keller to recuse himself, the Shears say.

The neighborhood dispute involved questions about parking and were eventually resolved over Keller’s objections. Keller said in response, “I was never involved in the dispute.”

At their Jan. 18 meeting, commissioners approved variances for the project, 5-0, allowing the height of the two half-constructed, single-family homes at 26520 and 26524 Latigo Shore Drive to exceed the city’s 24-foot height limit. Planners justified the variance because of the special circumstances of the slope, even though an inaccurate survey, showing a lower elevation, had been submitted to the city.

At the next commission meeting, Feb. 1, the approval was brought back as a consent item, but two planning commissioners changed their position.

Attorney Frank Angel, appearing in opposition to the project, warned during public comment that approval would encourage violations of the code if they could be remedied by after-the-fact variances. The commission, however, maintained its approval, but this time by a 3-2 vote, Commissioners Jo Ruggles and Charleen Kabrin dissenting.

Referring to the fact that the variances were granted after construction had begun, Angel said, “You are riding roughshod over the public if you grant variances after the fact. The public has a right to comment before the project is built. You are saying that there are architects who can get away with everything.”

Angel also represents Gil Segel in a stringline dispute with a neighbor about a house designed by Michael Barsocchini, who is also the architect of the Shears projects.

Bert Kelly, who lives adjacent to the Shears projects, and who last month was quoted by Shears’ attorney Alan Block as supporting the variance, seemed to be speaking both in favor of the Shears and the opposition. He called for closure.

“This has been a long project,” Kelly said. “I don’t appreciate my property losing value because the project is not built correctly. We want the building to be finished. There are homeless people and students using the property to hang out.

“The architect has designed all the homes on the street,” Kelly continued. “I believe he knew the height problem from the get-go.”

Ruggles, in explaining her change of position, said she had been “hammered” for the findings of special circumstances and therefore moved to rescind the resolution and send the matter back to the City Council. “I think we are on shaky ground,” she said.

Planning Commission Chair Ken Kearsley, Vice Chair Ed Lipnick and Commissioner Andrew Stern, however, overruled the Ruggles motion seconded by Kabrin.

“I don’t want to go through this again,” said Stern. “We have discussed this to death.”

At a time when the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District faces severe budget cuts, recently released results of the 1999 Academic Performance Index gave some cause for cheer.

The first-ever ranking of the state’s public schools, based on results of the STAR Program achievement test, brought joy to some Los Angeles County school districts and grief to others.

The API is a primary component of the Public Schools Accountability Act, signed into law by Gov. Gray Davis in April 1999. It establishes the baseline for a school’s academic performance and sets annual targets for growth. Only results of the Stanford 9 test, given last spring, were used to calculate each school’s API scores for 1999. The state has set 800 as the API score that schools should strive to meet.

As might be expected, schools in affluent districts fared best, with Beverly Hills, Las Virgenes, Palos Verdes Peninsula, San Marino and Santa Monica-Malibu school districts having more than one elementary, middle or high school ranked among the county’s top 10. Malibu High School ranked No. 10 with a score of 793 and Lincoln ranked No. 8 among middle schools with 830.

Among Malibu elementary schools, Point Dume was highest with 856, Webster was second with 824 and Cabrillo was third with 792.

No separate score was released for Malibu Middle School, which is considered part of Malibu High School. Juli DiChiro, district director of Standards, Assessment and Evaluation, said, “The state reported the breakdown as Malibu Middle School 817 and Malibu High School 766. The listed score of 793 is a composite of the two.” Middle schools are tested more like elementary schools — more heavily weighted in English and language skills. High schools include tests for science, which lower grades do not, DiChiro added.

In addition to the API score, each school’s report includes its 1999 statewide rank, how that rank compares with similar schools, the 1999-2000 growth target and the target for 2000-01.

The district Board of Education voted unanimously last week to adopt the API, which will become part of the Standards-Based Accountability System currently used by the district. This will allow the board to monitor the progress of each of the district’s schools in meeting state-mandated performance targets.

Palos Verdes Unified had five schools among the top 10 in L.A. County; Las Virgenes had four (Agoura and Calabasas high schools, A. E. Wright and Lindero Canyon middle schools); San Marino Unified had four; Beverly Hills High School ranked No. 7 with a score of 820, but that district’s elementary and middle schools were not in the top 10.

The highest score in the county was a 966 — ABC Unified District’s Whitney High School; lowest was 311 — Los Angeles Unified’s Holmes Avenue.

While Los Angeles Unified had five elementary schools scoring 891 and higher, its middle and high schools did not make the top 10, and all of the lowest ranked schools, with scores in the 300 to low 400 range, were in the Los Angeles or Compton school districts.

School board members continued to grapple last week with unpopular options for balancing the district’s 2000-2001 budget.

Facing a significant shortfall, the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District must trim “nonessential” programs or boost enrollment of “permitted” students, those who live outside the district.

PTA representatives have proposed joint budget sessions with the school board, its staff and the city councils of Santa Monica and Malibu. “The Santa Monica City Council has stated their commitment to partner,” said Rick Gates, PTA Council president. “They’re waiting to be asked by this board to the dance. You need to send a clear message, as a board, that you support PTA’s call for joint meetings.” Gates is slated to appear at the Feb. 14 Malibu City Council meeting.

The PTA announced its position on four measures to appear on the upcoming ballot: Supports Proposition 14, the Library Bond measure; and Proposition 26, School Bonds (simple majority); Opposes Proposition 21, Juvenile Crime, and Proposition 28, Repeal of Tobacco Surtax (Proposition 10).

The board also responded to parents of Special Education students, including Judy Pace from Malibu High School, who made a video presentation to the board and urged approval of a contract with Therapy West in Santa Monica to provide physical and occupational therapy for special education students. The board voted unanimously to approve the contract and also a contract for Malibu High School with Sylvan Learning Center for reading and math tutoring support for “underperforming” students.

Funding for the district’s Fine Arts programs was cut last year, and further reductions are proposed for the 2000-01 school year. The Advisory Committee on the Fine Arts presented a detailed list of those cuts and probable ramifications. Those targeting the district’s celebrated music program provoked strong opposition from parents and teachers. These reductions include Extra Duty Units (teachers’ pay for after-school rehearsal time), music aides at middle schools, transportation for the Samohi Marching Band (members already pay fees of more than $100 per year), and reorganizing the elementary instrumental music program by using a different “delivery system.” A committee member’s aside: “We don’t know what this means and, frankly, are afraid to ask.” The report notes, “Music programs are extremely sensitive to long-run damage by seemingly minor budgetary reductions because the programs (and hence, student competencies) build from elementary all the way through high school. If staff and programs are cut, when you go to restart them, they will take many years to restore.”

An item to replace school nurses with health clerks would save the district $190,000 but would compromise ongoing health education, screening/assessments and routine medical/health services. Nurse Melissa Casarez, who serves Webster Elementary, said, “One way I can promote the health and safety of our children is to identify the students who are at high risk for experiencing a life-threatening asthmatic episode before it is too late.” Asthma, she noted, is the leading serious chronic illness among children and relates to the district’s attendance and enrollment issues. “Asthma accounts for 10 million lost school days annually in the U.S. and is the leading cause of school absenteeism attributed to chronic conditions.”

California public schools are funded by the state on the basis of Average Daily Attendance (ADA).

The budget process relies on projected enrollment figures for the upcoming school year, which are often lower than the actual number of students attending after the beginning of the fall semester.

Enrollment projections for the 2000-2001 school year indicate the district can expect to enroll 12,156 pupils: 5,339 elementary, 2,946 middle school, 3,835 high school and 36 independent study pupils. This projection represents 12 pupils more than were enrolled during the second school month of 1999-00. Staff presented a 10-year comparison of enrollment projections with the actual second month enrollments, showing the margin of accuracy between 1 and 2 percent.

“Most times, we are accurate. We are generally conservative but we got caught this time,” said Assistant Superintendent Art Cohen. “We need another 300 to 400 permitted students.”

Further budget discussion and public comment was scheduled for Wednesday, from 4 to 7 p.m., in the board room of the district offices in Santa Monica and Feb. 15 in Malibu. Call 450.8338.

Vicky Newman contributed to this story.

Planning Commissioners seemed overjoyed to adopt a method of applying the stringline rule suggested by local developer and engineer Norm Haynie.

After a 1-1/2 hour discussion highlighted by a presentation by former mayor John Harlow, and a plea by Malibu Road resident Elliot Megdal — “Whatever you decide, make it concise and nonpolitical” — the averaging method suggested by Haynie won out over the one suggested by Malibu architect Ron Goldman. Goldman’s memo to the commission suggests his method would not have solved all problems.

Haynie’s formula includes “only portions of the deck that are located seaward of the most seaward 25 percent of the home.” Planning Director Craig Ewing had noted Coastal Commission policy weighs the majority of the deck more than its little pieces. In response, Haynie said, “The Coastal Commission is very big on protecting public views but ignores protecting private views.”

“We have been looking for a solution to have parity and equity. Every decision we have made has been discretionary,” said Commissioner Jo Ruggles. “This is the first concept using math that is fair and equitable. This solves most problems we run into.”

The commissioners voted unanimously to use Draft Local Coastal Plan Policy 396 (as modified in several Planning Commission meetings) as the basis of the definition of the stringline.

The commissioners then voted 4-1 in favor of incorporating Haynie’s calculations into that policy. Commissioner Charleen Kabrin said she wanted calculation examples to take in more scenarios than the four presented by Haynie. “I would need to see it tested in different examples to see if it would be equitable,” she said. “Some beaches are curved, and the tide line drifts. I just know how many exceptions there are.”

Assistant Planner Glenn Michitsch is to bring back to the commission the finally revised definition, and Haynie is to bring back more calculation scenarios.

According to the Haynie formula, the “average seaward extension” of a deck (the average distance from the street right-of-way to the seaward edge of the deck) shall be calculated for each of the two nearest beach homes to the left and right of the subject parcel. There will be four average distances for the four existing beach homes.

The four average distances will be added together and then divided by four to establish the “Permissible Seaward Extension” of the deck. There are two exceptions (if any of the four homes has an Average Seaward Deck Extension more than 10 percent greater or more than 10 percent shorter than the Permissible Seaward Extension) and alternative calculations for those exceptions.

Procedural history

This rule of thumb for determining how far beachfront homes and decks can extend seaward had been a problem since cityhood. The goals of the stringline are to develop an absolute limit to seaward-encroaching development on beachfront lots, to prevent development from “leapfrogging” further seaward than the existing development pattern and to allow reasonable development consistent with existing development patterns, says the staff report.

Based on information provided to the City Council by its Land Use Subcommittee, the council initiated a zone text amendment Sept. 13, the staff report continues. Following a Nov. 1 public workshop discussing applications of the rule and discussion of three alternatives brought back by staff to the Nov. 15 public hearing, the Planning Commission approved three motions.

One involved adopting a modified version of Draft Local Coastal Program Policy 396 as a base for defining the rule.

A second motion involved removing the hardship (variance) provision from the rule.

The third integrated the phrases “except for Beachfront on Beachfront lots” into Section 9.3.02(A) and Section 9.03.02(B) of the Zoning Ordinance. This rectified the problem of the ordinance allowing fences, pools, overhangs and other structures to extend beyond the stringline.

The Nov. 15 motions addressed problems in applying the rule, but did not resolve the main problem of where to draw the stringline, the staff report says. The motions and staff’s suggestion of a “tiered-review” process were discussed at a Dec. 6 public hearing, but no further action was taken on the zone text amendment.

Two options for drawing the stringline have been presented, said the staff report: adopting LCP Policy 396 as approved, and modifying it to define a stringline as “a line drawn between the furthest seaward corner of the adjacent house or deck.”

A Dec. 11 letter to the commission from Commissioner Andrew Stern recommended more refinement of LCP Policy 396 to address “unusual corners.”

Malibu residents who have been treated for Lyme disease have Barbara Barsocchini to thank for the attention and recognition they received from their doctors. Notoriously difficult to diagnose, the disease was rarely reported to public health authorities, and, as late as 1998, most doctors maintained the disease did not exist anywhere in Los Angeles County.

Barsocchini knew better, having suffered for years with debilitating symptoms misdiagnosed as everything from arthritis to chronic fatigue syndrome. When she finally received the correct treatment, she made it her personal mission to educate other Malibu residents to the threat of the tick-borne disease and to get the attention of state and county health officials. It was a struggle.

While the disease was recognized to exist on the East Coast (it was named for the Connecticut county where it was first discovered in this country), doctors in California, particularly in the southern counties, refused to acknowledge its presence. There was even a backlash in the medical community against doctors who made the diagnosis on clinical evaluation in spite of blood tests that were admittedly often inaccurate.

Barsocchini, who lives with her husband, architect Michael Barsocchini, and their two children in the Malibu Knolls area, has devoted the last five years of her life to helping those who have suffered from the long-term effects of the disease to get effective treatment, and to inform pet owners and hikers how to protect themselves from the ticks that carry the disease. State and county health agencies now confirm Lyme disease is one of the fastest growing infectious diseases in the state, and have launched education campaigns for prevention and treatment.

Bill and Lisa Curtis

In a comparatively short period of time Bill and Lisa Curtis have made a major impact on Malibu by taking a leadership role in our community, our schools and our recreation. Individually and through Bill’s company, CurtCo Publishing, and its affiliate, Malibu Post & Production, an audio video post-production facility serving the entertainment, Internet and technology-based education industries, they have generously contributed to local schools: the computer lab at Pt. Dume Marine Science Elementary School; outfitting several other Malibu public schools with computers and bringing in their company personnel to install and set up the systems; helping to finance the sports scoreboard at MHS and several other athletic support ventures.

They are more than passive contributors. Lisa has served as 1998-1999 PTA president at Pt. Dume school, vice-president for Cultural Arts, and as a classroom volunteer, she has brought her guitar and taught music to the fourth- and fifth grades. She also was the former president of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church in Woodland Hills.

With their three children, Danny, Jenny and Chelsea, attending Malibu schools, the Curtises are deeply committed to quality public education.

Both Bill and Lisa are originally from the East Coast — Lisa from Glenrock, N. J., and Bill from Garden City, Long Island. He began in advertising with Bozell & Jacobs and Benton & Bowles but soon gravitated to publishing and, since 1982, when he founded CurtCo, has launched 25 magazines individually and in partnerships. He and Freedom Communications continue as partners in CurtCo e-Media Ventures and the development of smalloffice.com, an interactive Web site serving small business and home office entrepreneurs.

Beverly Hammond

A Malibu resident of 23 years, Beverly Hammond lives in the Point Dume home built by her late husband. Her son, a UC Berkeley grad, currently lives in Japan working as a computer software developer with Cambridge Technology Partners. Her daughter is a junior at UCLA studying design and computer animation. “We’ve now become the little computer family.”

She was secretary of the original study committee in 1990 for Malibu High School, co-wrote with Jeff Jennings the group’s report to the school board and was an active leader in overcoming opposition from board members, who worried about a brain drain and defection of athletes from Samohi.

Her son had graduated from Samohi, and her daughter, an eighth-grader when MHS opened, chose to go there because she wanted a more diverse environment, Hammond said. “I think we can be very proud of our school district, its fine teachers and students at both high schools. MHS has a broader multicultural experience than they would have expected. It’s been a benefit to the district as a whole. It has exceeded our vision.”

The year MHS was established, she taught journalism and was advisor for the school’s first yearbook and first newspaper. At the same time, she had started Image Maker Publishing, which produced “Malibu’s Cooking Again,” a fund-raiser for survivors of the 1993 wildfire, and a calendar, “Fire Storm,” using photos from freelance photographers that was distributed to firefighters.

For the last two years, she has published the Chamber of Commerce Business Directory. As chamber president, she says her primary goal this year is to get the board focused on projects like redoing its Web site and improving communications with members.

As president of the Point Dume Community Services District board, which has run the Community Center for the last 16 years, Hammond is working with the city on the establishment of a new community center.

“I’m afraid it’s been very busy,” she said. “My goal for the near future is to do some cutting back after my present commitments are over.”

Doug Himmelfarb

For years, it sat lonely and abandoned — the old Malibu courthouse — surrounded by highway rubbish, dead plants and broken windows. But slowly, plank by plank and brick by brick, this local landmark was lovingly restored to its former glory. Palms and geraniums were planted, aging wrought iron was replaced and colorful replicas of Adamson House tiles were laid. No detail was overlooked, from the recreation of the famed Malibu Potteries Persian rug in the entrance to the sweet ceramic inset of a California friar.

For old timers and residents of nearby Rambla Vista, it was like watching a dying loved one bounce back to life. More importantly, it is a major milestone in the preservation of Malibu’s minuscule and rapidly vanishing heritage. The revival is due, in large part, to Doug Himmelfarb. He worked long hours to restore the aging structure with the help of Ruth and Ella Hirschfield, whose father built the courthouse in 1933. “They became a very important part of the restoration project and helped me every step of the way,” Himmelfarb explains. “They were instrumental in helping me make it the best it could be.”

Now that the place is back in top shape, Himmelfarb wants to transform it into a private club, which he envisions as an elegant spot for special events and upscale banquets. “We are very proud of it,” Himmelfarb explains. “We’ve got authentic light fixtures, mahogany doors, bronze work, period furniture and chandeliers.” He describes his Mission Club as a warm and inviting place with sophistication and style.

Plans are also underway to revitalize the building’s sister structure next door. The site once occupied by Georgio’s restaurant will reopen as La Costa Court, Malibu’s newest eatery. “Together, we’ve made it what it should have been long ago,” he says. In completing the project, he has also restored the spirit and the style of Malibu’s past, beautified a shabby stretch of highway and salvaged a precious piece of yesteryear. For that we owe him a great deal of thanks.

Steven Ravaglioli and Bonnie Lockrem

Steven Ravaglioli and Bonnie Lockrem, husband and wife, teach music at Malibu’s three public elementary schools, traveling up and down PCH each day. Luckily, they are teaching as a team this year. Each teaches string and wind instruments.

Both are also adjunct professors at Pepperdine. Both are active with the Malibu Optimist Club. He joined at age 26. “It’s an important part of my life,” he says. “Those guys mentored me and supported me.” He is one of the club’s past double-distinguished presidents.

She received a 1988 Optimist’s award for excellence in commitment to the youth of the community. “It helped me realize the community was not only deserving but appreciative.”

Their many students have performed before the community, from Little League games to Stairway of the Stars, from school assemblies to Malibu’s many club meetings.

Lockrem was raised in San Diego. She attended USC, earning a bachelor’s degree in music and a master’s in music education. After a few years with the L.A. Unified School District, she came to Malibu, “when no one else in the Santa Monica-Malibu district wanted to drive that far” — and stayed.

The program at the time was small, she recalls, but the parents were very invested. She branched out from elementary school to Malibu Park Junior High to coordinating the districtwide performance, Stairway of the Stars, to coordinating the district elementary music program for eight years.

Ravaglioli was born in San Francisco and also attended USC, receiving his bachelor’s degree in business, later earning a master’s in music education.

He holds a real estate broker’s license, and his company, SR Realty, has bought and sold real estate locally since 1986. He has played trumpet professionally with various groups, occasionally with the Pepperdine Community Orchestra.

Students from 20 years ago call them. Many are now professionals, some are even music educators.

Kristin Reynolds

Kristin Reynolds, founding president of the advocacy group PARCS (People Achieving Recreation and Community Services), has been in the “recreation business” most of her life.

A native of Brentwood, Reynolds came to Malibu when she attended Pepperdine. She had also met a wonderful “partner,” a friend’s horse named Joe Joe, whom she rode everywhere. “That’s how I grew to love Malibu.”

Along the way, she also met her husband, Bill, who had lived here most of his life and also rode horses.

With a degree in leisure science, Reynolds had worked for the cities of Los Angeles and Santa Monica and the Conejo Valley, and taught physical education at Our Lady of Malibu School before becoming the first director of the Malibu Community Center. She worked there 15 years, completely renovating the programs and the site.

“That opened the door to the community movement,” she says.

PARCS was formed in 1998, when the City Council voted to disband the informal study group that had been investigating Malibu’s parks and recreational needs, and to form instead a five-member, council-appointed commission

“We wanted to bring together senior citizens, Little League, AYSO, all the groups so they could have their own voice,” she said. The group, whose mission is to find permanent space for active and passive recreation in the city for all ages, now has more than 1,000 individual endorsements.

Last week, PARCS presented the Parks and Recreation Commission with a land survey. Monday, Reynolds presented the City Council with the mail-in component of the city’s Parks Master Plan the council had requested.

PARCS will now be working toward a compatible relationship with the State of California on the long-term use of Bluffs Park, which has overwhelming support from the community.

Reynolds says working with Malibu-based Justice for Homicide Victims showed her people don’t give recreation enough importance in their lives. “If these criminals had been involved in recreation, this never would have happened,” she said. “Play resolves conflict, it blows the carbon out of the engine and restores the soul. It makes better people.”

Jack Schultz

Jack Schultz is a man profoundly grateful for his personal and financial success. “I like what I’m doing,” he says of the family business and donation of use of prime land for a park.

The man who helped create Papa Jack’s Skateboard Park in the Civic Center is a child of the Depression. Like Kirk Douglas, with whom he shares the same birthday, his early jobs were in the iron and metal junkyard business.

Schultz met his wife of 63 years, Pearl, in Echo Park. He was an acrobat, working out on bars and rings in the park. By the time Jack and Pearl got married, he was in the glass-container supply business, working with the company for about 15 years.

In the late ’30s, Schultz started getting interested in real estate. He went to the Hall of Records and looked for “tax sale” property and found a very old, “grown-over” house, which he bought for $1,350. He told his friends, “I’ll buy you hot dogs if you help me clean up the place,” and they did. He leased it out until the state condemned it to build the Hollywood Freeway and paid Schultz “considerably more” than he paid for it.

Schultz has continued to follow that pattern with subsequent properties. “I upgraded each time,” he says.

Today Schultz has a family-run property development company, J&P Enterprises. Daughters Harlene and Marsha help run the business.

After living in Malibu for 30 years, he says, “I love the people and the camaraderie of the small community,” noting how he meets friends several times a week. “Taverna Tony’s is like Rick’s, everybody goes there,” referring to the classic film “Casablanca.”

He decided to donate use of the land because he knew the problems the skateboarders were having. “If we have something to give, we do,” Schultz said. “My wife and I feel very good about that.”

Nidra Winger

She came to Malibu in the early 1970s, a Valley girl from Van Nuys, to watch her then boyfriend surf. She thought she’d stay until he got out of the water. Now, 25-plus years later, he’s long gone, but she stayed to live, work and marry in Malibu and became an active community leader.

Nidra Winger Maus, as those who have worked with her know, is a pint-sized dynamo who is now the executive director of the Malibu Community Center and a leader in the fight to preserve the center. As more of its meeting rooms are converted to classrooms because of growing student enrollment, the center can no longer supply space for seniors and teens, exercise and dance facilities and Malibu’s long-established AA meetings.

Winger came to the center after many years of public service involvement as a leader of the Kiwanis Club, one of a pioneering group of women who became club members in 1987, when state law mandated women be admitted to formerly all-male service clubs. She became the club’s first woman president, in 1993-94, and chaired the Chili Cook-off for several years. Kiwanis’ major fund-raiser, the event annually contributes close to $100,000 to local charities.

Winger was also a musician, played the flute, and an artisan, working as a seamstress for Jackie’s Leatherwaves since 1975.

She was a board member of the American Heart Association Malibu Chapter throughout the 1990s and served as its chair for two terms.

Currently, Winger is involved in the recently created Malibu Youth Coalition, which brings services, support and activities to Malibu’s growing youth and teen-age population.

Michael Zakian, Ph.D.

Michael Zakian, Ph.D., is director of the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art at Pepperdine University.

He was selected to receive the Dolphin Award for his role in arts outreach to local and inner-city schools, assisting with tours, bus-in programs and children’s art workshops.

But the curator says, “I’d like to correct that,” generously emphasizing the work others at Pepperdine have done to bring children in, particularly the efforts of Marnie Mitze, director of Center for the Arts. Says Zakian, “My biggest contribution to Malibu has been a series of exhibitions focusing on Malibu art and artists.”

In 1998, he curated “Historic Landscapes of Malibu,” which focused on works painted in Malibu that date back to 1897. In 1999, he organized “On Location in Malibu,” for which he invited members of California’s oldest art association, the California Art Club, to paint their interpretations of Malibu. Currently on exhibit is “John Register: A Retrospective,” about the late Point Dume artist.

For a future exhibition, he is considering “Malibu Collects,” in which he hopes to borrow selected works from the many art collectors living in Malibu.

He says he was notified of his Dolphin Award by a member of the California Art Club, “who has a very strong Russian accent, who called me on his cell phone with a very bad connection while driving to San Francisco. How did he hear about it on his way to San Francisco?”

The New York City native studied art history at Columbia University and received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Rutgers. Before coming to Pepperdine, he held curatorial positions at the Palm Springs Desert Museum, from 1986 to 1995.

He is engaged to Lia Skidmore, owner of Skidmore Contemporary Art in the Malibu Country Mart.