Silverstein Roasted By City Council Majority – ‘I Don’t Care’ He Says About Critics – Says He Only Cares About People Who Voted For Him

A dozen Malibu residents last night stood before the city Council to blast Bruce Silverstein …some demanding that he resign … others saying he should be censured and stripped of privileges. And those comments were relatively mild compared to the criticism fired at Silverstein by three fellow city council members.

Four members the public spoke to defend Silverstein.  They said the investigative report done by outside lawyers was incomplete and had major errors and omissions that should be obvious.

This comes a week after the release of the investigation into the affidavit prepared by Silverstein … the charges made by outgoing city Council member Jefferson Wagner.

The independent lawyers concluded that all of Wagner’s allegations were unsubstantiated … they concluded that Wagner changed his stories so much that he was unreliable as a witness … and that Wagner and Silverstein together came up with an affidavit that just could not hold water.

The controversial city councilman nevertheless succeeded in his efforts to oust the city manager… and the city attorney… at a City Hall that he opposed.

Never in modern Malibu history has so much bitterness and acid been vented at a city Council meeting by city council members.

Silverstein’s angrily said he did not care what his critics said … the same old people who’ve always been picking on him… as he says.

Some of those words … from last night’s city council meeting.

Burt Ross and Andrew Weyman. 

NEWSCART BURT ROSS

“You should resign but you are too arrogant to do so. But I urge this counsel to censure you for your conduct and to remove you as mayor pro tem.

NEWSCART ANDREW WEYMAN

“Mr. Silverstein should not be permitted to assume the position of mayor. If he does not resign I urge to counsel to pursue every means necessary to remove Mr. Silverstein from office.”

There were four defenders. 

Among them … Kraig Hill. 

NEWSCART HILL

“There’s so much misinformed vitriol misdirected at Bruce. So much sniping at the messenger. It’s a common misconception that he ran on kicking out Reva. No. He ran on finding the truth.”

Ryan Embry reeled off a list of Malibu residents and Malibu employees who were not interviewed by the investigating attorney 

He said … the investigators did not find corruption because they did not look for it.

NEWSCART EMBRY 

“It’s like a screenplay but we saw the movie. This is in what happened, the lack of investigating is atrocious. I don’t know if you should pay them in my opinion.”

Former city council member Rick Mullen also spoke,.

He pointed out that the biggest steps ever taken to preserve Malibu … the purchase of land at the Civic Center and at point Dume … was engineered by three people that Silverstein has driven out of City Hall.

NEWSCART MULLEN. 

“This was probably the most significant preservation accomplishment in Malibu history. It was voted on by all the congressman but it was executed as it was by everything in the city by the full-time professionals: Christie Hogan Reva Feldman Lisa Shogar. None of them will be working for the residents of Malibu any longer.”

Silverstein addressed his critics.

NEWSCART BS I REALLY DONT CARE

“2400 people voted for me … and they voted for me based on my running on a platform that was very transparent about what my platform was.  So I really don’t care about you 12 people who show up and say the same thing over and over again.”

The 12 people who spoke last night may be easily dismissed by Silverstein… but it was the three member majority that most severely blasted Silverstein … 

They said they cannot trust him.

Karen Farrer stopped just short of asking Malibu voters to recall Silverstein. 

NEWSCART KF REAL WORLD

“In the ideal world you would have the decency to resign. But this is the real world and I don’t think he will do that.”

Karen Farrer said more than 300 thousand dollars had been wasted as a result of Silversteon’s affidavit.   She said that could have been spent on building inspectors … code enforcement on B and Bs … or iIncreased law enforcement.  

NEWSCART KF SQUANDER

“The report speaks for itself. The document listed many serious allegations of illegal activity at City Hall. Not one of which was found to have any merit. So now hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money have been squandered and for what? So that Bruce Silverstein could declare that the city had a clean bill of health? What’s next? The search for Bigfoot? “

Mikke Pierson said Silverstein’s comments after the affidavit report was issued disturb him.

NEWSCART MP AFTER 

“After all that’s happened it seems like you’re trying to play off the affidavit and the investigation as some sort of worthy exercise and that the investigators that you recommended might not have gotten quite right. No apology for the waste of time and money. No real attempts to unify Malibu and move forward.

“It just feels as business as usual. In my opinion to be successful as an elected official people must trust you everyone of us up here. And right now I’m hearing a lot of voices that don’t feel that way at all.  We are hearing calls for you to resign in more, we’re hearing anger, we’re hearing from a city where the majority appears to be tired of this BS.”

And Mikke Pierson also blasted the people furthering what he called a conspiracy theory.

 NEWSCART MP CONSP

“The psychology of a conspiracy theory … which I believe this is … is that proof that the theory is false is just part of the conspiracy. I would say John Mazza’s recent public comments are proof of that.  It doesn’t matter who the city manager is or who the department heads are. In the view of John and apparently others we are corrupt. No evidence offered or apparently needed. It’s remarks like this that grind the city to a halt and has the city staff heading to the door.”

Pierson said the divisive tactics were a toxic waste of time.

Silverstein again challenged anyone who thinks he campainged on a platform of alleging crime and corruption … to prove it.  

And he also claims now that he never said that the allegations made by outgoing city council member Jefferson Wagner were credible.

NEWSCART BS CREDIBLE

“I didn’t assess the credibility of his assertions. That’s also another falsehood. And I saw that in the attorney’s report notes of my interview where it says I found that I found Jefferson’s assertions credible. I didn’t find them credible. I didn’t find them incredible. I didn’t view  it to be within my responsibility to determine whether they were credible or not credible.”

Mayor Paul Grisanti said Silverstein has gone back to delete his incendiary comments about Feldman from Facebook and other social media platforms. 

NEWSCART PG SCRUBBED 

“And for you to tell everybody to look and see your quotes… everyone knows that you just grabbed your public comments accounts. There’s months and months and months and months of comments that are no longer there.”

Silverstein again pointed to his majority in 2020 last council race … and said the people who voted for him are the people that he listens to.

NEWSCART BS RELITIGATE 

“Bring me the … go get me to 2400 people that voted for me and have them say what you are all saying. I have no doubt that a few of them are of that view now. I have no doubt that a few people who didn’t vote for me are of a different view now. But you know … we’re just … you want to re-litigate the election?

“Give me a break.”

Silverstein continues …. 

BS GIVE ME PART 2 

“Elections have consequences the people of the city spoke … I am now here trying to do my job and you just don’t want to fight and pick on … fine.”

Steve Uhring … a political ally of Silverstein … said the report was flawed. He said there were numerous leads in the notes made by there attorneys as they interviewed city hall employees and other … and those leads should have triggered follow up questioning.

And he blasted his fellow council members for name calling. 

NEWSCART SU BU-ANON

“We got a learn how to we can’t attack each other. That’s what they’re doing in a national level right. Right? People are calling each other names their jihadists or whatever the hell they are and it’s not making anything better. And that’s what happening in this report. 

“Mikke you called me a conspiracy theorist … a Bu-anon. What the hell does that mean? Give me the conspiracy theories that I’ve tried to jam down your throat. I don’t think I’ve done that.”

It is notable that other than blasting the report … and blasting his fellow city council members … Uhring did not offer last night any substantive words of support for Silverstein.  

As the current mayor pro term … Silverstein’s supporters expect him to rotate in as mayor in February.

Silverstein’s won his seat as mayor pro tem on a 3 to 2 vote after Mikke Pierson switched his earlier vote to deny him the traditional honor.

It looks like that tradition will run head on into the political reality in February… a majority of the Malibu city Council says it does not trust him.

Silverstein repeatedly emphasizes that he won the most votes in the last election … and you heard him say last night that he only cares about the opinions of the 2,414 voters who cast ballots for him.  And it is true that Silverstein won the most votes of the seven candidates seeking three seats in 2020.

There were 7,034 Malibu voters who cast ballots in that election. Silverstein won in the crowded field with 34 percent of the voters choosing him.

Silverstein’s slate won a total of 6,809 votes.  Their four opponents garnered 8,986 votes in the race, where voters were allowed up to three choices each.