Sudden, Closed Door City Council Meeting Scheduled To Discuss Possible Lawsuit, Feldman Job Performance
Written by 991KBU on January 22, 2021
This story has been changed, see note below.
A sudden and very unusual meeting of the Malibu city council has been called for today at 12:30.
Two items on the sudden agenda.
One … a meeting behind closed doors … with the city attorney … on a possible lawsuit to be brought against the city and its taxpayers.
No details on that.
Two … a job performance review for city manager Reva Feldman.
Also in secret … also behind closed doors.
No details on that.
It may reasonably be inferred that the two matters may be related.
But that is nothing more than informed speculation.
Feldman has been facing what some lawyers in Malibu call a hostile work environment …. as two city council members claim a mandate to get rid of her.
Silverstein in particular has been bombarding the city manager with emails … public documents requests and demands for research.
So much so that the majority of the city council has set a policy … limiting the city manager’s responses to any one council member to one hour per week.
Feldman has three city council members solidly in her camp … and two who claim a mandate to oust her.
The two anti-Feldman council members finished one-two in the last election.
But the three anti-Feldman candidates together got 42 percent of the vote … while four candidates more friendly to Feldman together split 58 percent of the votes cast.
The special meeting is today at 12:30.
After taking comments from the public … the city council will adjourn to meet on a closed-to-the-public Zoom meeting to discuss the lawsuit threat … and Feldman’s sudden performance review.
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Malibu also has a city council meeting on Monday night … and once again … it looks like it will take days to get through.
Huge changes in the city government operation remain on the agenda … undone from last week’s fiery and bogged down meeting.
New councilmembers Paul Grisamti … Bruce Silverstein and Steve Uhring have all introduced their plans to change the way our city operates.
Silverstein and Uhring have drafted a proposed plan to … as they put it… “Instill Transparency, Accountability and Ethics in All Aspects of Malibu’s City Government.”
This set of policies would require the city manager and city attorney to tape record and transcribe and all conversations with any city council member … among other changes.
Silverstein and Uhring have also introduced a proposal to overturn the federal court decision … the so-called Boise case.
Silverstein .. a corporate lawyer … has written a lengthy legal dissent to the way the Boise case has been implemented in Malibu.
The Boise case was decided by a federal appeals court and is … in effect …federal law.
Lawyers at L A County …. the Cityy of Los Angeles … the sheriff’s office and other governments in California interpret Boise as to prohibit arresting homeless people and campers unless a city operates a homeless shelter.
And a federal court judge in Los Angeles has been ordering cities across the area to observe that interpretation … no homeless shelter means no hassling people for sleeping in public.
Silverstein disagrees.
His interpretation is that all the other interpretations are all wrong. he might be right … but a federal court judge in Los Angeles might disagree.
That judge has been ruling against city after city … striking down bands on camping … requiring some cities to set up designated camping areas.
The mayor … Mikke Pierson … has been working informally with that federal court judge and homeless services agencies … to set up homeless services in Malibu … possibly at the abandoned courthouse in the Civic Center.
Silverstein and Uhring both live near there … and are strongly opposed.
The mayor proposes a special city council meeting to discuss the city’s response to camping and homelessness …. a process that essentially has been frozen since the Covid outbreak one year ago.…
CHANGE, 9:47 am: The first version of this posted copy said there were five candidates who generally supported Feldman in the last election, and who split the vote. Before broadcast, that was replaced with four candidates, and that change is reflected here.
