Harry on the case
This letter was sent to the California Department of Fish and Game and the National Marine Fishery Service.
Last week the city of Malibu received several reports of seals and sea lions with gunshot wounds washing up on beaches in Santa Monica Bay as far west as the Ventura County line and as far east as the Pacific Palisades. These reports have coincided with the recent return of night commercial fishing using flood lights in this area of Santa Monica Bay.
The city has been informed by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department personnel that while it is legally possible to shoot at marine mammals it is illegal to actually hit them, according to a ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court, and that a permit is required to even harass marine life in this fashion (by gunfire).
The purpose of this letter is to alert your agency to these reports, which have also appeared in the local press, and to ask that as an appropriate enforcement agency to investigate this matter. As you can well imagine the people who have found these animals are very concerned as is the city that something like this could be going on. Anything you can do to catch the people who are doing this and to stop this from continuing in the future would be greatly appreciated.
Harry R. Peacock,
City Manager
Sea lions’ lament
This letter was sent to Save Our Coast.
I’ve been trying to reach someone for weeks re dead sea lions.
I had read in the Malibu papers of your attempt to get the city of Malibu to pay attention to the dreadful, recent killings of sea lions near the County Line.
I had seen a dead sea lion, the first weekend after New Year’s, near our beach (just west of County Line).
I saw, that day, a small, commercial fishing boat close to the dead body. The boat was, I believe, in way too close to shore, so I took all the ID markings.
I have since seen another small, commercial fishing boat in very close in the same area.
I would be very happy to give you any of my information which might help you in your battles.
To help, please contact Save Our Coast, at 310-457-2205.
Denise A. Colla
The Taste Police
The Taste Police are coming,
Watch out for what you do!
The colors that you paint your house,
Can not be white or blue!
And red? My God, that’s really out!
Particularly if it’s tile.
And here I thought, what I had bought,
In Malibu — was in style.
I must call in some experts
Who know how to camouflage —
A tasty green, with a leafy scene,
And a gray and brown hodge-podge.
Or how about a great huge Net,
To cover up my house?
So the Taste Police, with their mental feats,
Might forget what I’m about.
It’s really sad what’s happened,
To our expressive Malibu.
It’s now infested with the types —
That control all that we do.
Phineas P. Fogbottom
Black Swan, Bronze Idol
Nicholle Moffitt, 16, a locally trained ballet dancer fresh off her triumph in the Malibu Civic Ballet’s Nutcracker, became the second American ever to win a medal at the prestigious Adeline Gene International Ballet Awards in London Jan. 3.
Overcoming jet lag, a “dreadful” preliminary judged class and a sloping theatrical stage floor mined with trap doors for “The Phantom of the Opera,” Moffitt dazzled the Royal Academy of Dancing (RAD) judges with her interpretation of Odile in the Black Swan variation from Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” ballet.
“Her Black Swan was riveting,” said JoAnna Jarvis, Moffitt’s teacher and director of the Ballet Studio by the Sea in Malibu. “So in focus.”
Samantha Anfanger of Malibu, 18, another Jarvis student who is now an apprentice at the Milwaukee Ballet, also participated in the competition, performing a variation from “Giselle” for the semi-finals. Anfanger’s performance was superb, Jarvis said — “Brilliant, so perfect for the English style” — but illness stole the edge that might have won a medal.
Informed that a long skirt was required for the Giselle variation, Anfanger borrowed a costume that had belonged to the great Russian dancer Natalia Makarova of the Kirov, Royal Ballet and American Ballet Theatre.
Moffitt, Jarvis and Moffitt’s other teacher Jean-Marie Martz of the Idyllwild Academy for the Arts in Idyllwild, Calif. — all of whom collaborated on the choreography — decided that Moffitt’s Odile would be more elegant than evil, as the role often is interpreted.
“When I was first learning the Black Swan, I thought she should be flirtatious and evil,” Moffitt said. “Then when I saw the other Black Swans [at training sessions in London] they seemed too dramatic for the Gene awards. They seemed overdone.
“With JoAnna and Jean-Marie we decided she should be elegant, like a queen and composed. You don’t want to give everything away. You don’t want to be as aggressive. You can’t be as dramatic. Draw it back.”
As the only one of the 13 finalist to dance the Black Swan, Moffitt said, “I felt special. I was different than the others.”
Moffitt’s idol, the legendary English ballerina Dame Antoinette Sibley, announced the 1999 awards from the stage of Her Majesty’s Theatre in Haymarket as the finalists stood nearby. According to Moffitt, the 60-year-old Sibley had been moved to tears backstage by the high quality of the dancing at the competition.
“I was surprised when they called my name,” Moffitt said. “I thought I was going to pass out.”
She described the event as “the most stressful thing I have had to go through in my entire life. I usually don’t get nervous.”
The first Adeline Gene award was presented in 1931. Stella Abrera of the Pasadena Dance Theater, who had trained for a year in Australia, won the first medal awarded to an American three years ago. Moffitt is strictly an American product.
“They couldn’t believe I was from California,” said Moffitt, whose competitors included three Canadians, two South Africans, two Scots, two male dancers from Brazil, two New Zealanders, one Spaniard, two English dancers and 27 Australians, all of whom had earned top honors in the rigorous RAD exams to qualify for the event.
“It’s so hard for Americans to compete,” Jarvis said. “Australia has professional schools from the age of 15. They learn academics on a correspondence basis.”
One gold, two silver and two bronze medals were awarded this year. The number varies annually; sometimes only one or two medals are given out.
Moffitt, Anfanger and Jarvis left for London Christmas day, along with Moffitt’s mother, Cheri, of Ojai. They spent the next week in training sessions at the RAD studio in Battersea.
With the medal, the judges handed Moffitt an envelope.
“I thought it was a thank-you note,” she said.
She stuck it in her pocket and went out to celebrate with Anfanger and Jarvis. As they walked to a restaurant, she opened the envelope to discover a check for 1,500 pounds ($2,645.00) — her prize money.
“As she was waving this envelope on the crowded street in central London,” Jarvis said, “spinning around and announcing, ‘It’s 1,500 pounds!’ I was getting a little worried.”
Moffitt, who lived in Malibu until her home burned in the 1993 fire, has returned to her studies at the Idyllwild Academy. She will launch her professional career when she graduates this spring.
But can he play the sax?
I’m so glad you got around to the impeachment of the president.
Regardless of the outcome, he will never be my president.
He is commander-in-chief — yet he is a draft dodger.
He has disgraced the office of the presidency.
He has disgraced the White House by making it into a brothel.
He has lied to the Grand Jury.
He is completely amoral as far as his sex life is concerned.
E. Reta Templeman
Commission grants paving company permission to stay at Trancas
Citing a need for a locally based road repair and paving service, the Planning Commission last week authorized the Malibu Paving Company to remain at its current location at the Trancas shopping center. In an effort to reassure Malibu West residents who objected to the business’ location, the commission issued an operating permit that is valid for only two years.
The company’s owner, Jim Denson, moved to the Trancas site four years ago without knowing that in doing so, he was violating local zoning laws.
City officials have not zoned any part of Malibu for light industrial activities, and that fact played a large part in the commission’s decision to grant the company the necessary operating permit. The company uses the Trancas location mainly as a storage yard for its trucks and construction materials, which are stored behind a tall fence. Asphalt production is done only at the road repair site.
If the commission had denied the conditional use permit, Denson’s supporters argued, he would be put out of business because he would have no where to move to, and Malibu residents, particularly those living on private roads, would be deprived of an essential service.
Joe Kearns of the homeowners association on private Via Escondido Road said because of road closures during heavy storms, contractors outside Malibu are often not able to get into the city to clean up the debris and rock slides on his street.
“With the number of private roads we have in the area, this is a service business we absolutely have to have access to all year round,” he told the commissioners.
Malibu West residents argued that the business is not suitable for the small shopping center and therefore the commission should be unable to make the necessary findings to support issuance of the permit.
Steve Hotchkiss, speaking on behalf of the Malibu West Board of Directors, said issuing the permit would set a precedent. “You need to look at what the land use policy is for this area,” he said.
Resident Brian Spengel said he did not want Denson going out of business, he just did not want the company located so close to his home.
“He shouldn’t be in business in our little commercial center,” Spengel said. “If you do this, you’re subverting the land use process and making a mockery of the whole system.”
But because the city’s Environmental Review Board had made a number of recommendations to limit the environmental impact of the business, Commissioners Ken Kearsley, Ed Lipnick and Charleen Kabrin voted to issue the permit. Those recommendations include protecting heritage sycamore trees near the storage yard and building a berm to prevent runoff into Trancas Creek. The commission also added a condition requiring that the two-year permit lapse if the site is abandoned for 10 days.
Kearsley called it a classic NIMBY case, and he conceded he would probably not want the business near his backyard either. But, he said, Malibu West residents should be more concerned about the development potential for the Trancas shopping center, which is owned by the Malibu Bay Company.
“You’re going to have a 900-pound gorilla in your backyard in the future with that zoning,” he said. “This is the lowest economic use of that land. I’m sure Malibu Bay Company would like to put something in with a higher yield per square foot.”
Seeing a broader issue, Kabrin said other light industrial services do not have a place to locate in the city either, and she said city officials needed to solve that problem.
“I think that there needs to be a better search to see if we can find a better location for like kinds of light industrial uses,” she said.
Vice Chair Andrew Stern, who spoke after the three commissioners had indicated their support for issuing the permit, said that as a lawyer he could not make the necessary findings for the permit and he voted to deny it.
Chair Jo Ruggles, on Kearsley’s suggestion, recused herself from the discussion because she recently bought a home in Malibu West.
The conditional use permit was issued to the landowners, the Bay Company, rather than to Denson, the tenant. Although it is scheduled to lapse in two years, Planning Director Craig Ewing said the commission at that time could vote to extend it.
Pat Healy, speaking for Malibu West homeowners, cautioned the commissioners that temporary permits have a way of becoming permanent ones.
“We all know once a conditional use permit is given, it is very, very hard to have it revoked,” she said. “We’ve seen it over and over again.”
Council offers night of sit-down comedy
Was it a City Council meeting Monday or was it open-mike night?
Members of the public — including a group of Pepperdine University journalism students eager to cover the dog-eat-dog world of local government — may have been a bit confused at one point.
On a night with a rather light agenda, the item that generated the liveliest debate was one most council members professed to care very little about: their seating arrangement at the council table.
Mayor Pro Tem Carolyn Van Horn, hoping to return the council to the tradition of seating the outgoing mayor at the far end of the council table, asked her colleagues to revise the current seating policy. That tradition was thrown out of whack when former Mayor Jeff Jennings lost his seat last year, leaving the council without an outgoing mayor.
The male members of the council poked fun at spending time on such a matter. Then each weighed in with his own preference.
Councilwoman Joan House, at first, seemed to regard the subject at least as seriously as Van Horn. But even she cracked a couple of chair jokes before the discussion was over.
House, who as mayor last year recommended the seating policy that was the subject of the proposed revision, said she favored continuing the existing arrangement, which was modeled from policies in the state legislature and the U.S. Congress.
“It is more or less imitating that which open democracy has used before,” she said.
Councilman Tom Hasse said he thought the seating should mirror the city’s mayoral rotation policy, with the outgoing mayor sitting the farthest from the current mayor.
Mayor Walt Keller said, “I don’t think this is worth all the debate we’re having,” and he added that he did not care how the seating was arranged moments before voting against Councilman Harry Barovsky’s motion to continue the existing seating policy.
At one point, four out of five council members were speaking at once, and Keller interrupted to rein in the discussion. “I’m sorry, we’re losing this meeting,” he said.
With a subject matter ripe for comedy, the council members could not be blamed for hamming it up, but only Hasse and Van Horn mercifully spared the public chair jokes. Barovsky and House joked about “musical chairs” and “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.” Keller shared a strangely indecipherable tidbit involving his father and chairs.
At his turn at bat, Hasse, speaking directly to the Pepperdine students, said, “You can see the vital issues confronting Malibu.”
Eventually, the council members unanimously voted to move the outgoing mayor to the far right end of the council table. And with that, the council members remained where they were seated, presumably reserving this new policy for a future date.
