Parking Spaces. Ten parking spaces, including two disabled accessible, on Cliffside Drive. Eight are to be in the public right of way on the inland side. The location of the two disabled accessible spaces is to be determined by State Parks. The boulders are to be removed and construction of a fence around the preserve is to begin by December 2000. The city is to pay for removal of the boulders and construction of the parking spaces. California State Parks will pay for the fence.

Nature Bus. Beginning June 2000, a shuttle bus called the “Nature Bus” will operate between Westward Beach and the preserve seven days a week during the summer, and on weekends and holidays the rest of the year. The city estimates it will pay $50,000 a year for the Nature Bus.

Preserve Staffing and Visitor Services. State parks will provide a ranger who will support the state’s volunteer docent program, ensure public safety and protect the natural and cultural resources.

Management Plan. State Parks will prepare a management plan for the restoration, renovation and enhancement of the preserve. The carrying capacity of the preserve will be addressed. There will be a public hearing on the draft management plan March 2.

Preserve Access Study. Using information developed during the management plan, the city is to commission and pay for a transportation access study.

Coastal Commission Reimbursement. The commission will reimburse the city for $40,000 – $100,000 of its construction and signage expenses.

Every quarter, the City Council meets with staff to review where they’ve been in the last quarter and where they’re going in the next. With the City Council election looming in early April and three challengers running against three incumbents, the Jan. 26 meeting was probably the last of the current council.

Dominating the meeting were major staff departures. Five of the eight departmental reports included references to staff vacancies. The city will be seeking a new city manager, a new city attorney and a new planning director among others.

City Manager Harry Peacock, who last week announced his retirement effective July 17, reviewed a timetable for the recruitment and selection of his replacement. Peacock has been with the city for three years. Councilman Tom Hasse indicated both he and Councilman Harry Barovsky had tried to dissuade Peacock from retiring, but after 30-plus years in the trenches, Peacock seemed to have made up his mind to retire.

Councilman Walt Keller wanted the panel to consider, in the closed session of Monday’s meeting, appointment of an in-house employee to the position of city manager. The city attorney indicated the panel could not make that kind of decision in closed session although they could review performance of a particular employee in closed session.

Also in Monday’s closed session, the council was to interview city attorney candidates. Los Angeles attorney Richard Terzian has been serving as interim city attorney since Christi Hogin resigned last summer.

Planning Director Craig Ewing, who has been with the city two years, last week submitted his resignation, effective Feb. 11, to accept a position of community development director for the Northern California city of Lafayette. He reviewed his department’s accomplishments. They included:

• Completion of a draft Local Coastal Program Land Use Plan (now being reviewed by the staff of the California Coastal Commission);

• Drafting a Hillside Management Plan. The council did not support it but did form a new committee of architects and engineers to review it.

• Drafting a “how to” planning procedures book for the public. It went to the council in December but the council has not given approval to distribute it.

• A draft wetlands delineation report, which has been submitted to the Army Corps of Engineers for review.

• Drafting specific changes to the Interim Zoning Ordinance regarding front setbacks, institutional uses, parking standards and modifications of variances.

Other staff vacancies include:

A Parks and Recreation supervisor to replace Paul Adams, who last week was promoted to Parks and Recreation director. Adams, who has worked for the city a number of years, had been supervisor since December, when veteran director Catherine Walter resigned; and

A deputy city clerk to fill the position recently vacated by Shelly Petrelli. City Clerk Virginia Bloom reported the job description for her deputy does not include the requirement for the two-year certification she has.

Environmental and Building Safety

In response to the last City Council meeting, where a number of people testified about selective code enforcement, Mayor Carolyn Van Horn, Joan House, Hasse and Keller voted to hold an educational workshop on code enforcement Feb. 10. [See sidebar on Code Enforcement for a list of subjects to be discussed and a categorization of open cases.]

Environmental and building safety official Vic Peterson told the quarterly meeting he is considering requesting higher fees for records maintenance, private sewage disposal systems permits, and grading and drainage. He also reported the department had issued a record number of 832 new building permits in 1999.

Public amenities formula

The council also wrestled with calculating the value of public amenities. The city needs to determine the value of public benefits to know what it should expect in return for granting an increase in Floor Area Ratio (FAR) beyond the standard limits contained in the General Plan.

The council unanimously voted to accept the objective value calculation models Peacock suggested: value of the land, avoided cost of development and added economic return. The council will also consider the subjective value of the percentage of added value/benefit the city requires in order to grant the FAR bonus.

Dial-A-Ride

The council adopted Administrative Service Director William Thomas’ recommendations to contract with Malibu Yellow Cab at fixed rates for Malibu residents who use the city’s Dial-A-Ride taxi service. Services to be provided will include the city, medical facilities in Santa Monica, West Los Angeles and Woodland Hills. Cost of the contract is expected to be $138,500, $9,000 below last year’s costs and about $13,000 less than the city receives from Proposition A and Proposition C funding programs.

Under the new program, the city is to give riders written rules for use. The city will also continue negotiating with the county for accommodation of noncity residents.

Litigation

The city is involved in 12 pending court cases.

Local sheriff’s deputies will be assisting federal agencies in retrieving debris from the Alaska Airlines jetliner that crashed Monday off Port Hueneme, an official said.

Since high winds are expected in the next few days, deputies will probably be instrumental in retrieving debris, liaising between lifeguards who sight the debris and the command post on the Channel Islands responsible for salvage, said Sgt. Cally Barrier of the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station.

The command post is shared by the U. S. Coast Guard, responsible for salvaging everything on top of the water, and the U.S. Navy, which is sending divers.

The sheriffs do not anticipate retrieving bodies, Barrier said.

People applying for Planning Department approval for any “structure” on their property, even a prefabricated storage shed or a fence, should have a much easier time getting the permit, the City Council said Monday.

Applicants and the community, which includes Realtors and the applicants’ neighbors who are notified of any development, will also be given more information about the planning process so they can save time and money.

The moves arise from a two-month audit of the Planning Department by City Treasurer Pete Lippman requested by the council as part of its goals of permit streamlining and improved relations with city service users.

Audit and response

Lippman’s November report was based on the theory of Total Quality Management, meant to provide organizations with a systematic striving for customer satisfaction. He noted as his first “condition” that permitees consider the process very complicated and view the staff as not well trained in assisting completion of the process. To change the organizational culture from regulatory (“iron fist”) to partnership oriented (“velvet glove”), customer satisfaction should become a priority, Lippman said.

Planning Director Craig Ewing responded in November and again Monday by saying the audit definition of the “customer” was limited to the person at the public counter. The Planning Department also considered “customers” to include phone calls, appointments, conferences and written correspondence with city commissions and committees, applicants, neighbors, interest groups and the media.

Ewing said the audit did not investigate the regulations themselves, how they implement the council’s objectives and how they direct the staff’s actions. Additionally, it takes new planning staff about a year of full-time work to become trained in the complexities of the city’s laws, Ewing said.

Ewing, who has been with the city two years and who has resigned, effective Feb. 14, is the department’s most senior staffer.

“Do words in the audit such as ‘compromise’ and ‘creative alternatives’ accurately describe the proper values for the building and planning staff? Do these words reflect the council’s preferences?” Ewing asked.

“In the past, the council has stated that development in Malibu must be controlled, restricted and, in some cases, discouraged. If the council wishes to allow compromise and staff involvement in creative alternatives, new questions are raised: In what ways is staff to compromise with developers? How should staff offer creative alternatives, especially if it fosters new development?

“I believe the whole purpose of our regulatory system is to implement the values of the council,” Ewing said. “The report needs to state its own assumptions regarding development more openly, so the council can better understand and evaluate its recommendations.”

The council Monday reviewed the audit report, Ewing’s responding memorandum and City Manager Harry Peacock’s analysis of the two documents.

Among the short-term improvements are:

• Immediately distributing copies of Ewing’s 8-1/2 x 14-inch, color-copy booklet called “Planning Department Zoning Clearance Procedures” to applicants and the Malibu Association of Realtors. The booklet has flow charts and explanatory text. Advertising availability on Channel 15.

• Producing a video taking a person through the development process. Airing the tape on the city’s Channel 15, and advertising that it is available.

• The Planning Department counter will be open one night a week. There will be a person there to troubleshoot and answer questions.

• Offering pre-application consultation, and advertising the pre-application process.

• Offering a customer feed-back form and prompt departmental response.

• Putting the permit process on-line.

• Having greater customer service and interdepartmental training for the Planning, Building and Safety, and Environmental departments. In this way, the applicant would get consistent information from all departments.

• Developing a sign-up system in the lobby.

The short-range, pilot-project improvements are made to fulfill Lippman’s and Peacock’s overlapping recommendations.

In addition, on Councilman Tom Hasse’s motion, the council unanimously voted to consider hiring additional Planning Department staff for fiscal year 2000-2001.

Councilwoman Joan House also emphasized the need for constant staff improvement and empowerment, part of Lippman’s first recommendation.