Resident voices concern on ‘out-of-line’ parking enforcement citations at surfing competition

At its Sept. 9 regular meeting, the Malibu City Council fielded a complaint about parking tickets issued at Surfrider Beach this past weekend during a surf competition.

“People flew in from all over the world to this contest, and that’s how they were treated by this parking enforcement that has been hired,” Malibu resident Andy Lyon said about the Malibu Surfing Association competition that happened over the weekend.

Lyon said visitors who attended the competition were receiving parking tickets overnight and hoped the city would void tickets given to visitors that weekend. 

“This is a long-standing tradition of camping out over the weekend, and your new parking enforcement contractor went out and gave everyone $73 tickets that were here for this event,” Lyon said. “The permit was paid for, this has gone on for years, and your parking attendant came in the middle of the night and gave everyone tickets. So I would love to see you, Mayor (Doug Stewart), do something that about.”

Lyon said he also saw the contractor who was giving tickets make an illegal U-turn on PCH to give someone else a ticket.

“This company that you hired is just going around and harassing the visitors here, giving them the front license plates and all this other stuff — I would love to hear from you tonight, how we can get a message to the people who got a $73 tickets, that were just here for a great event, how we can get those tickets taken care of by the city,” Lyon said.

The council presented the 2024 Jake Kuredjian Citizenship Award to lifeguard and educator Shari Latta and environmental nonprofit Poison Free Malibu. The two recipients were honored at the meeting. 

Latta has spent over 35 years as a junior lifeguard instructor and lifeguard in Malibu. She has also worked with Malibu schools for over 45 years, and will serve as the director of Our Lady of Malibu Preschool in 2024-25.

Poison Free Malibu is a Malibu-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to educate the public about pesticide problems and offer viable alternatives.

Poison Free Malibu led by Joel and Kian Schulman, helped the city draft the Earth Friendly Management Policy, which was implemented in 2019. Due to their diligence and hard work, poisons have been kept out of city parks for over six years.

Councilmember Steve Uhring also thanked Latta for her dedication to the community. 

“I’ve been in Malibu for 30 years and I’ve heard your name many, many times, and I’m just very glad to finally meet you,” Uhring said.

After City Manager Updates, Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Sgt. Chris Soderlund provided a traffic and enforcement report for the Labor Day weekend and the Malibu Chili Cook-Off and said there were no significant incidents. 

Soderlund also said they have arrested multiple vehicles on reckless driving. 

“We still see drivers here driving excessively fast, so we’re still out there and enforcing it and CHP is cracking down,” he said. 

Councilmember Paul Grisanti asked if the drivers were Malibu residents. Soderlund was not able to provide that information. 

After the council comments, Lyon spoke again and was disappointed that the council had not responded to his previous comment.  

“You didn’t even respond to your out-of-line parking enforcement,” Lyon said. “I was expected to at least be responded to in your comments Doug — there was not word back about that, and this is what Malibu is all about, that’s the tradition of this city is Surfrider Beach and all these people come here, that’s what this whole town is about.”

“Maybe you could have been like, ‘OK, maybe we shouldn’t have given these visitors to Malibu that are coming here in a traditional way, that you could take of that,’” he said. “So build a hotel, build a mall, put up speed cameras, you don’t want to listen to anyone who’s coming here, but you had a lot of people who were just trying to enjoy the beach for the weekend.” 

After speaker comments, the council addressed the denial of the Malibu Inn Motel Project. While Councilmember Bruce Silverstein was giving his comments, the applicant for the project was interrupting. The applicant was given a warning by the mayor and city attorney. The council motioned to bring back a proposal that complies with their code. 

After the break, the council addressed the Malibu Municipal Code Chapter 17.68 (Temporary Use Permits).

City Manager Steve McClary said they had received a notice from Southern California Edison about a potential power outage during the meeting in case viewers at home might lose connection. 

Speakers included Trancas Country Market shopping center vendors and organizers. The shopping center is known for the Summer Concerts but also provide free events such as lawn games, and season- or holiday-related activities for families and children.

Speakers included residents and school organizers who also host events and fundraisers. 

After an hourlong discussion on what requires permits, city staff said they will update their report from this meeting and provide an updated report in an upcoming meeting.

The council did not address Item 3B4, which pertains to the Professional Services Agreement with California Skateparks, during the meeting.

A Special Meeting Agenda was set for Wednesday, Sept. 11, at 3:30 p.m. This session will focus on the City’s petition to form the Malibu Unified School District from the territory within the Santa Monica-Malibu USD and will be held in a closed session.

Additionally, a second special City Council meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 18. The next regular City Council meeting will occur on Monday, Sept. 23, at 6:30 p.m.

Dick Van Dyke has made history again, winning yet another Emmy Award. The 98-year-old took home a Creative Arts Emmy on Sept. 7 for Outstanding Variety Special. The television special, “Dick Van Dyke: 98 Years of Magic” produced by the entertainer’s wife, Arlene Van Dyke, was a tribute to Van Dyke’s 75 years in show business and a birthday celebration for the legendary actor/singer/comedian. 

Van Dyke’s win ties him with his late friend Norman Lear as the oldest winner of a Creative Arts Emmy. While accepting his trophy, Van Dyke had glowing words for his wife, who commented, “you’ve created endless joy and playfulness for generations to come.” The spry nonagenarian did a few dance moves at the ceremony too. The Malibu resident’s latest Emmy comes on the heels of his recent Daytime Emmy win for a dramatic performance on “Days of Our Lives.” The iconic performer turns 99 on Dec. 13.

The Smart Coast California Summit explored many considerations for dealing with sea-level rise

Experts providing scientific data relating to sea-level rise, Coastal Commission personnel, engineers, urban planners, local and county elected officials, policymakers who work for and consult with local and county governments, bankers, realtors — including Jerel Taylor, executive director of the Malibu Association of Realtors, and Congressperson Katie Porter, who represents constituents in Orange County, all convened at the Newport Beach Renaissance Hotel on Sept 5 and 6 for the fourth annual Smart Coast California Summit: One California. One Coast. 

The mission of Smart Coast California, an Agoura Hills-based nonprofit organization, is to provide planning advocacy and information to California’s coastal communities and citizens, focus on stewardship of the state’s 1,100-mile coastline, foster community sustainability, and address property rights and environmental changes.

The summit featured an comprehensive array of speakers who provided timely presentations, including “California’sCoastal Future: An update from the Coastal Commission executive team”; “Adapting at the Local Level: Neighborhood Strategies for Coastal Resilience”; and “Trending Issues at the Intersection of Coastal Land use Regulations, Local Control and Property Rights and Blue Flag Beaches,” a presentation by Malibu City Councilmember Paul Grisanti, who is the immediate past president of Smart Coast California. 

The Coastal Commission officials addressed the commission’s role in assisting local governments in enacting local coastal programs — Los Angeles and other jurisdictions have yet to do so — and in periodically updating LCPs. 

“SB 272 now requires all coastal California areas to have Local Coastal Plans that account for sea level rise.SB 272 now requires all coastal California areas to have Local Coastal Plans that account for sea level rise.” Coastal Resilience Coordinator Kelsey Ducklow said. “In the past year, the commission has provided millions of dollars to local governments to update their LCPs. We have updated our policy guidance with the best available science and consider environmental justice to be a priority.”

Ducklow announced that the draft Sea-Level Rise Policy Guidance Update document, which is available on the commission’s website, will be available for public comment until Sept. 23 and members of the public are encouraged to provide comments via email to statewideplanning@coastal.ca.gov. 

An agenda replete with climate change issues

Concepts discussed in other presentations focused on issues concerning coastal storm monitoring, a marked increase in landslides attributable to excessive rains, and replenishing beach methodologies for addressing the impacts of sea level rise with nature-based solutions aimed at improving coastal resilience — such as installing pre-dune habitats with indigenous plants and moving sediment from creeks and other tributaries to beaches. Current legal cases affecting sea-level rise and homeowners’ ability to construct structures to mitigate against damage as well as the homeowners’insurance crisis were also the subject of presentations.

The status of sea-level rise projections and adaptation strategies

In a presentation entitled “California report based on national SLR Technical report scenario-based framing,” Professor Laura Engeman, who is a coastal climate resilience specialist at California Sea Grant and program director for the Center for Climate Change and Adaptation at Scripps Institution Oceanography, addressed future California coastal impacts and opined that sea level rise will exacerbate coastal hazards.  

“The continuing rise in sea levels across California is predicted to lead to an exponential increase in the frequency of coastal flooding, doubling with approximately every 2 to 4 inches of sea level rise and there will be an increased frequency of shoreline and cliff retreats,” Engeman said. “There will also be increases in groundwater intrusion and more damaging storm events.” 

Engeman recommended a multi-phased approach for local governments that seek to make important decisions concerning how to address flooding and shoreline and cliff retreat. She suggested that policymakers first assess historic observations provided by data and long-term residents with historical knowledge concerning flooding in their neighborhoods so as to determine what areas are most vulnerable. Doing so will assist in establishing baseline rates of erosion and flooding, Engeman explained.

“After doing that, we should define an adaptation framework and strategies, evaluating whether current actions are working, and assessing whether making repairs after sea level intrusions is worth doing repeatedly, a determination that is not always a function of pure science, but rather can highly relate to whether there is societal and community tolerance for repeated mitigation,” she said. “Subsequently, cities and counties will need to implement and monitor response strategies, evaluate their efficacy and make needed adjustments.”

Addressing the various big elephants in the room, i.e., just how significantly the sea will rise and specifically when and where, the professor noted that there are numerous factors, including local geology on land as well as ocean morphology, that impact how to answer that query as to each region along California’s coast. 

“Sea-level rise scenarios for California vary, depending on many factors, including how many El Nino and El Nina years we experience and what may happen with glacier thawing. However, the key takeaways are that scientists now predict there will be approximately one foot of sea level rise by 2050, which could increase to 1.3 feet, and that by 2080, sea level rise could double of triple the amount experienced by 2050, resulting in the sea-level rise being as high as two feet.” Engeman explained. “Moreover, there may be variances in the glacial ice melting and thermal changes in the ocean — a global community of glaciologists participated in the projections I’m giving you, but we will find out more information as the Glacial-Polar research team at Scripps makes assessments and NASA’s robots that are currently going under the ice sheets to evaluate conditions affecting the rapid ice melt provide data.”

Blue Flag Beaches

Speaking about more local initiatives, Grisanti’s Blue Flag Beaches presentation included addressing efforts to stop the flood of plastics into the oceans and waterways and waste management. He noted that a three-pronged approach aimed at reaching that goal includes city efforts, business engagement, and public engagement. 

“Cities can implement ordinances to promote reusable products and eliminate single-use plastics, as Malibu has done,” he said. “They can also incorporate clean recycling programs, green waste programs, and water refill stations. Businesses can promote certified ocean-friendly restaurants. Residents will be more engaged if they are providedinformation resources regarding the impacts of plastic pollution on our environment and if governments and the private sector offer solutions regarding how they can reduce the use of plastics.” 

Grisanti also discussed the role of cities in protecting water quality and public health, including utilization of best practices for wastewater management, such as capturing stormwater using green infrastructure, implementing robust recycled water infrastructure, and regulating water quality monitoring scrupulously. He also addressed protecting and restoring habitats and the importance of engaging residents and visitors in citizen science to measure water quality.  

The lawyers, the insurers, the Realtors and the engineers

Attorneys embroiled in current litigation under review in appellate courts focused on what the term “existing” means in the Coastal Commission’s statutes. Why?  The California Public Resource Code Section 30235 of the Coastal Act states that revetments, seawalls, and other shoreline protective devices “shall be permitted” when required to serve coastal-dependent uses or to protect “existing structures.” However, defining what constitutes an “existing” structure is under heated debate. Importantly, the commission has exclusive jurisdiction regarding issuing permits for shoreline protection devices.

In a recent trial court decision, Casa Mira Homeowners Assoc. v. California Coastal Comm’n, the trial court added another significant ruling to the decades-long jurisprudence germane to the temporal debate regarding what “existing” means in this context. The Casa Mira court ruled that the commission’s proverbial line in the sand regarding whose property is entitled to protection is unreasonable. The commission maintains that “existing” means that a structure must have been in place when the Coastal Act was enacted in 1977, and that thus, owners with structures built thereafterhave no entitlement to address coastal erosion by building seawalls or revetments. The court held that the commission’sposition that “all structures along the coast that become endangered or unstable due to erosion should be allowed to collapse,” is unreasonable, and is “contrary to the stated purpose of the Coastal Act.”

Contravening the commission’s position, the court ruled, “it is clear that the [Coastal Act] supports people protecting their existing structures from the danger of property damage due to subsequent erosion.” 

The commission is pursuing an appeal and the resolution of the issue in higher state courts.

In a colloquy between Grisanti, a Malibu Realtor and Joe Prian, a Cambria realtor, the focus shifted to the duties thoseprofessionals have to inform both buyers and sellers of all risks relating to sea level rise and bluff stability. In an era of unsettled jurisprudence, meeting those obligations can prove to be a tough task.

Perhaps an equally tough task is that belonging to urban planning professionals and to engineers who are obliged to conduct design charrettes as they grapple with how to address mitigating the effects of sea-level rise and coastal erosion, a narrative that pervaded many of the presentations.

As panels began to address the coastal homeowners’ insurance acquisition crisis, the entire audience was alerted.Simply stated, just as recurrent wildfires have caused some insurance companies to entirely exit California and have caused insurance premiums to meteorically increase, so too the coastal erosion and other effects of sea-level rise are beginning to give insurance underwriters pause. Organizers of the summit promised further discussion of this effect of climate changes would be paramount at next year’s summit.

Keynote address

The two-day conference’s keynote address, presented by U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, provided an overview of the federal government’s role in addressing sea-level change and outlined past and proposed legislation that will affect California’scoast. Porter, who serves on the House Natural Resources Committee until her service ends in January,2025, focused on the urgent action to reduce carbon emissions and protect communities from the climate crisis and to continue funding critical water conservation programs that help provide reliable, clean water to California.

The two-day program was not livestreamed. However, a recording of the sessions will be available in a few weeks, according to Smart Coast California officials.

“Sadly, we have learned of another horrific school shooting, this time in Winder, Georgia. Our hearts and thoughts go out to the families and staff of Apalachee High School,” Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Antonio Shelton said in an email to the community last week. “We understand that school safety is on the minds of students, parents, staff, and community members. It is on our minds, as well.”

On September 4, 2024, a mass shooting occurred at Apalachee High School near Winder, Georgia, United States. Two students and two teachers were killed, while nine other people were injured. A suspect, 14-year-old Colt Gray, was taken into custody and charged with four counts of felony murder.

Shelton expressed his condolences and provided information on the district’s security and safety measures. Each school plan is customized and updated annually. 

You can find the district’s general safety plan online at www.smmusd.org/cms/lib/CA50000164/Centricity/Shared/SchoolSafetyPlan.pdf.

Parents may make an appointment with your school office to review your school’s plan.

“In SMMUSD we have worked and continue to work to harden the perimeters and entrances to elementary school campuses,” Shelton continued. “By creating better defenses, we reduce the potential threat. Previous bond measures have replaced and improved fences, windows and doors have been replaced, and front offices fortified with buzz-in systems and ID checks. Bell, clock, and public address systems along with electronic locks improve the communication tolockdown.

“For middle and high school, there have been incidents where threats come from inside, by a student attending the school. Secondary schools require a different approach that predominantly focuses on reducing the threat through interventions prior to the person entering with a weapon. While the middle and high school campus perimeters have been fortified using previous bond dollars, the strategy to reduce violence has been on constructing and modernizing buildings to provide more supervision, mental health support and improve response in case there is an incident.”

Shelton said as with every other school shooting — Columbine, Sandy Hook, Uvalde, and many more — they have studied what happened and strengthened their best practices to reduce threats. 

“There are many significant and minor improvements in the works, including those being designed into Measure QS (Santa Monica) and MM (Malibu) projects. (www.smmusd.org/bonds), we will be working with local law enforcement, Santa Monica Police Department, and Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department serving Malibu to increase patrols to our schools both before, during and after school to provide a sense of security to our community in the coming days,” Shelton said.”We will continue to train the faculty, staff and students on what to do to prevent and respond to violence.”

Additionally, Shelton said they meet regularly with local law enforcement officials, in partnership to keep our schools and communities safe. 

“We regularly review our threat assessment protocols with our staff and local mental health professional partners,” he said. “We continue to encourage staff, students, and community members that if they “See something, Say Something.” Additionally, reporting concerns to school staff, calling 911, and/or utilizing WETIP is strongly encouraged. Student and staff safety are our top priorities. It is our goal to engage students in schools that are safe, well-maintained, and family-friendly.”

Here are three resources that may be helpful during times of school tragedies:

• National Association of School Psychologists: Talking to Children About Violence: Tips for Parents and Teachers(www.nasponline.org)
• National Child Traumatic Stress Network: Parent Guidelines for helping youth after a shooting(www.nctsn.org/resources/parent-guidelines-helping-youth-after-recent-shooting)
• Common Sense Media: How to Talk to Kids About Violence, Crime and War(www.commonsensemedia.org/articles/how-to-talk-with-kids-about-violence-crime-and-war)

“Please continue to take care of yourselves and each other, Sincerely, Dr. Antonio Shelton, Superintendent.”