Recently disclosed details of a lawsuit settlement indicate the city and its insurance companies paid a premium for not settling at the first opportunity.

The city of Malibu paid $4.195 million in July to settle the lawsuit brought by homeowners on Las Flores Canyon Road whose properties were flooded after a landslide blocked water from flowing down the creek.

“If we could have [settled back then], we would have,” said City Attorney Christi Hogin, but the city’s insurance companies were opposed. According to Hogin, of the $4.195 million ultimately paid, $400,000 came from the city’s general fund, with the rest split among two commercial insurance companies and a “joint powers authority” made up of a group of municipalities, including Malibu, that insure themselves in a collective fund.

“It’s been a long and winding road [but] I’m pleased with the settlement,” said Hogin. It was reached after almost eight years of litigation. Said plaintiffs’ attorney Craig Collins of Berger & Norton, “They were exhausted by it and financially desperate in some cases.”

What caused the landslide remains in dispute. According to Collins, it started in the mid-1980s after the county made cuts into the hillside west of the creek to repair Rambla Pacifico Road. Collins argued the cuts undermined support of the hillside, which began sliding easterly into the creek.

The city argued, “If it’s not an act of God, then it’s an act of the county.” The county cut into the hillside before Malibu was even incorporated, said Hogin. The court of appeal 2 2 ruled that the city stepped into the county’s shoes after incorporation.

The county settled with the homeowners in 1996 for $2 million up front plus a promise of $3 million more if the city was not found liable. The city could have joined the settlement back then, according to Collins, but refused to do so. “The city could definitely have settled for less money two years ago,” he said.

More than money changed hands because the city acquired the plaintiff homeowners’ properties in exchange. “For the plaintiffs, the case is about money,” said Hogin, but for the city the ultimate agenda is to stabilize the continuing landslide, to create an alternate access road for Rambla Pacifico and possibly to change the drainage in the area. “I’ve said all along that this problem is not going to be solved in the courtroom,” Hogin said.

Malibu business owners, hard hit by extended road closures, grilled Caltrans District Director Tony Harris Friday at the Mayor’s Breakfast.

Fielding questions about the Las Flores slide-repair project, which has restricted traffic on PCH to two lanes since June, Harris said the other two lanes are scheduled to reopen Nov. 11. Construction of a retaining wall at the top of the bluff should be completed within a week, after which dirt hauling will resume on a 7 a.m.-7 p.m.-7-day schedule.

Asked why the hauling could not be carried out 24 hours a day, Harris said the disposal site was not open longer hours.

One option to increase the flow of traffic was to open a third lane by moving cargo containers closer to the slide, but the contractor said this would restrict the work area and delay the opening by one month. A lane on the shoulder opposite the slide was determined to be unsafe for residents and workers. “The trail would block access to residents, and we still would have to move the sea trains back where they would restrict work,” Harris said.

Lloyd Prell, who had helped organize the residents and Duke’s to provide resident parking, asked if there were no dump sites open at night.

“None that are approved and available,” Harris said. “Proximity is important. If it’s too far, it exceeds the bid for the contract. I don’t have the money to go to an alternate dump site. But at this point, additional money wouldn’t help.”

Barbara Lazaroff, who designed Granita and husband Wolfgang Puck’s other restaurants, said, “I’ve found throwing more money can help tremendously on my job sites. It was an emergency. Why wasn’t it talked about sooner?”

Lyn Konheim asked, “Have you asked for dump sites locally? Asked the city?”

“We were not able to accomplish that,” Harris said. “If there was a site close, within the budget, I don’t have a problem of going back to look at that again.”

“It’s all about moving dirt,” said Ryan Embree. “Children learn how to do it at about age 3. We just need to do it on a bigger scale.”

Even after the Nov. 11 opening, Caltrans must build a retaining wall at the bottom and install a drainage system and landscaping (to prevent erosion), Harris said. The total work should be completed by the end of the year.

But if it rains, all bets are off.

“If the soil gets too weak, hauling stops,” Harris said. “We would rethink the third lane then.”

More than 1,500 amateur and professional athletes took to the beach Sunday for the 12th annual Nautica Malibu Triathlon.

The fund-raiser for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation raised more than $50,000.

The triathlon consisted of a half-mile swim, 18-mile bike ride along PCH and four-mile run along Zuma Beach to Point Dume and back.

Among the Hollywood celebrities who took part were Academy Award-winning actor Robin Williams; Ingo Rademacher (“General Hospital”); “Baywatch” stars Jose Solano and Ingrid Walters; Andy Lauer (“Caroline in the City”); Jason Scheff, lead singer for Chicago; Jim Davidson (USA Network’s “Pacific Blue”); Mike Malinin, drummer for the Goo Goo Dolls; and Olympic athletes Steve Scott, Dave Johnson, Peter Vidmar, Amanda Beard, Mel Stewart and John Naber. Solano was the first competitor to cross the finish line and Williams’ “Team Robin” came in eighth among celebrity relay teams.

Winners were:

Celebrity Relay Male

1st — Team Nautica; 2nd — Team Goo Goo Dolls; 3rd — Team General Hospital

Celebrity Relay Female

1st — Team PowerBar Go Girls; 2nd — Team Hawaiian Tropic; 3rd — Team FOX Sports

Celebrity Relay Mixed Team

1st — Team Power Tri-Cathlete; 2nd — Team Pacific Blue; 3rd — Team Summer of ’84

Top Male Finishers

1st — Darren Wood, San Marcos; 2nd — Emilio DeSoto, San Diego; 3rd — Michael Collins, El Segundo; 4th — Danny Murphy, Las Vegas; 5th — Lasse Vogelslang, San Diego

Top Female Finishers

1st– Jenny Wood, Carlsbad; 2nd — Chrystal Tunnell, Arroyo Grande; 3rd — Ana Christina Amatto, San Diego; 4th — Michelle Palmisano, Ventura; 5th — Sara Gilles, Irvine

In recent, back-to-back public hearings, Pepperdine University explained its right to develop a 50.4-acre upper campus. While the city and residents decried view, traffic, water and wildlife impacts at the earlier meeting, Pepperdine stated its case at both a Sept. 10 special meeting of the City Council and a Sept. 16 meeting of the Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission.

At both hearings, the university noted the 1987 county Board of Supervisors and 1990 California Coastal Commission approvals of the campus development.

“It is appropriate for the university to use its property, obtained for these purposes, to enhance its programs,” said Andrew Benton, the school’s executive vice president, in a letter to the community distributed at the city meeting. “The project is a sensible extension of the existing developed campus, and it has been designed and adequately mitigated to minimize environmental developments.”

In a dramatic move to bolster its case, Pepperdine arranged for seven speakers to address county planners on the moral and cultural contributions of the school.

Touching on the university’s contention that educational purposes are the major overriding factor the county should consider, public policy graduate student Erin Witcher said Pepperdine was the only school “grounded in moral and ethical values.” MBA student Teresa Chang told county planners of the inadequacy of the business school facilities in temporary trailer facilities.

Benjamin Herson, rabbi emeritus of the Malibu Jewish Center and a parent of a Pepperdine student, described the university as a “blend of academic and spiritual values,” and “Christianity in its most inclusive sense.”

People who could not get to voice their opposition at the county meeting because of a lack of time will be able to present their case at a county meeting Oct. 28.

Residents of Malibu Country Estates, a housing subdivision downslope from the university, voiced view concerns at the Sept. 10 meeting and have sent the county three letters addressing a myriad of issues.

The city has also sent the county detailed mitigation measures it would like the university to implement, and at the Sept. 10 hearing City Manager Harry Peacock called for Pepperdine to pay the city a franchise fee for wastewater pipes along Malibu Canyon Road.

Next steps: Oct. 5, county planning commission tour of site; Oct. 28, second county hearing (resident/city response); Dec. 9, Pepperdine rebuttal.