Body Found In Surf Near Point Mugu

A man’s body was found in the ocean along Pacific Coast Highway west of Malibu yesterday.

The floating body was spotted in the surf next to Highway 1 opposite the giant sand dume … at about 4:20 in the afternoon.

State parks lifeguard say the man was dead when they got there. 

Firefighters and the sheriff’s department’s Major Crimes Unit responded. 

The body showed no signs of trauma or evidence of suspicious circumstances .. according to a sheriff’s sergeant interviewed by the Ventura County Star last night.

He told the newspaper that the incident was phoned in by a man fishing on the rocks next to PCH. 

Sheriff’s detectives believe the person had been in the water for multiple days.

No name or cause death is available yet.

 

MTA Bus Driver Attacked By Homeless Person In Santa Monica

An MTA bus driver was attacking in Santa Monica early this morning.

Apparently … a homeless man tried to break into a number 4 westbound bus as it approached the end of its route across LA at Fifth and Colorado.

The driver kept the glass door shut.

The man kicked the door open.

The driver tried to get out of the bus.

The man attacked him with a sharp object and injured his face.

The bus driver not seriously injured. 

The attacker was arrested by Santa Monica police. 

This was the third MTA bus driver attacked in a week in the Los Angeles area. 

 

Caltrans Keeping Close Eye On Errant PCH Signal

Caltrans electricians are closely monitoring the new traffic light in eastern Malibu.

It malfunctioned again yesterday morning … causing an hours long traffic snark on Pacific Coast Highway at Tuna Canyon.

Caltrans spokeswoman Lauren Wonder tells KBUU that some sort of wiring issue was the problem.

Crews took the signal offline last night to try to isolate the problme. 

The new signals at Tuna Canyon are mounted on trailers … and will be removed once Topanag Canyon Road is cleared for traffic.

When will that happen?

There was an update last night … delivered to Topanga Canyon residents.

We’ll have a report on that tomorrow.

 

No Public Hearings On Malibu Divorce Set Yet In Santa Monica

So how is the Malibu school separation landing in Santa Monica??
Hard to say. 

There have been no widely circulated comments.

No letters in the Santa Monica newspapers.

The Santa Monica Malibu school board meets tonight for the first time since the City of Malibu announced a financial deal had been made regarding a breakaway Malibu school district.

No response from school board members for comment to the radio station.

The district put out a statement … coauthored but the city’s P-R guy … stressing “the

guiding principles that prioritize equity, fairness, and local control in education.” 

But no official comment.

And tonight at six… The santa monica Malibu school board will meet in executive session… Behind closed doors… To talk about separation.

As of now… The school district has not scheduled any community workshops in Santa Monica…

The press release from the city and district last week said the school district plans to hold community workshops in Santa Monica.

Right now … none have been publicly scheduled. 

The City of Malibu is holding a public session … Saturday afternoon at 1 at City Hall.

It will be in-person only … the workshop will not be streamed.

At that meeting … the Malibu team will provide residents with a comprehensive understanding of the revenue sharing agreement with Santa Monica.

Some questions have already been raised by taxpayers about the 38 percent of Malibu school property tax revenue that will be sent to Santa Monica.

City officials stress that the current tax structure already sets that transfer of Malibu property tax revenue to Santa Monica schools … and that the school deparation actually means transfer of 62 percent of the Malibu money back to Malibu for local controls.

And taxes will not go up.

The Malibu workshop will be Saturday afternoon at one… At Malibu City Hall.

Again… It will not be streamed on the Internet.

 

Supervisors Cites General Lack Of Fire Insurance When Voting Against Mulholland Hwy House

A family’s plan to build a house on Mulholland Highway was knocked down by the L A County Board of Supervisors this week.

And one of the reasons was … the California fire insurance crisis.

The family had been working for seven years to get permits for a house on Mulholland near Cold Creek Canyon … a scenic winding section east of King Gillette Ranch.

Neighbors objected … so did the president of the powerful Las Virgenes Homeowners Federation. 

Kim Lemorrie  [PHONETIC] … checked off a list of objections at Tuesday mornings board of supervisors meeting.

70241 MULHSE LEMORRIE

“This is not a simple single-family home in a developed neighborhood. It’s a megamansion.

“It’s perched on a hillside.. carving into new habitat, fragmenting the landscape and scarring the view shed. 

“It pushes new development out into open space and it brings in new infrastructure in the middle of vacant parcels which could result in the development of five additional lots.”

But the landowner … Arthur Absconi [PHONETIC] … said his architect has reduced ed the size of the house … and done everything the neighbors have asked.

70242 MULHWY OWNER ARTHUR ABSCONI 

“We have 435 thousand square feet of land and we are building a 53 hundred square foot house.

“It is a one story house … not two.  It was approved as a two story house in a previous approval … we took that down so we could have just a one story house.” 

Absconi also said allegations of illegal grading on the site … leveled by the Homeowners Federation … could be explained by his overzealous clearance of brush to reduce fire danger.

LA County Supervisor Lindsay Horvath represents Malibu and the Santa Monica Mountains.

And she had a statement ready … to toss the proposed house back to the Regional Planning Commission.

70240 MULHEY LH UNCOMFORT

“I believe that additional considerations are needed to incorporate revisions to reduce the project size and its impact to the incredibly sensitive and important habitat that is present in the Santa Monica Mountains.”

But Horvath also said that the California fire insurance crisis should also be considered by county planners as they evaluate construction proposals for the Santa Monica Mountains.

70239 MULFIRE INS LH

“On another note… I am also very deeply concerned about the insurance issues, raised in this region, and the ability for property owners to obtain insurance. 

“Just last week there was a front page article in the LA Times, that (reported) approximately 90,000 people in this region are at risk for losing their insurance.”

The house on Mulholland Highway will go back to the regional planning department… For redesign, add another public hearing before the county planning commission.

 

Hawaiian Fire Disaster May Have Lesson For Malibu

What went wrong in Lahaina???

And are there lessons for Malibu???

A series of reports from Maui fire officials have just been released … detailing what went wrong when Lahaina burned in the deadliest wildfire in U-S history.

101 people were killed … 

Yesterday’s report identifies 17 specific challenges faced by the Maui Fire Department — including poorly stocked fire engines, a lack of mutual aid agreements between Hawaii counties and limited equipment.

Some of the problems echo the disaster that hit western Malibu five years ago.

One recommendation is that the Maui department keep all back-up vehicles ready to go at fire stations.

Malibu’s back up engines are in Los Angeles. 

The report says a radio repeater station enabled fire radio communications to stay up despite cell towers and fiber-optic cable damage taking down the cellular network.

Evacuation routes … and fire truck access … was blocked by collapsed power lines.

That was a huge problem in the Woolsey Fire … when fire trucks trying to get over the hill encountered  dangling power and communications lines on Kanan Dume Road.

The traffic jam left some trapped in their cars when the fire overtook them … Malibu was lucky as the winds were blowing flames away from the line of traffic backed uop heading to Santa Monica. 

Residents and tourists also could not get emergency alerts or communicate with loved ones, and 911 operators were inundated with calls.

The Maui report also highlights a vulnerability … invasive grasses. 

A prolonged drought created a “volatile fuel bed” for fire, the report says.

It’s been five years since the western Santa Monica Mountains burned in Woolsey.

Take a look at the grass in the areas that burned five years ago.

Now picture all that green turned brown … in 70 mile an hour winds.