Major Decision May Come Tonight On Proposed Malibu District

Tonight may be an important step for forming an independent Malibu school district. 

But it will be only the next step on a process that started more than 10 years ago … and may not end for many more years.

Tonight at 6 … the LA County Office of Education Committee will hold its final public hearing on the divorce between Santa Monica and Malibu … two cities separated by 20 miles of PCH and vastly different education needs. 

There may even be a vote tonight … but remember … the county committee is only making a recommendation … albeit … a very important one. 

Assistant city attorney Christine Woods last night told the city council that Santa Monica has been dragging its feet … on the three major agreements reached between Santa Monica and Malibu.

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“We negotiated those agreement, the agreements are finished.

“But the district has failed to present these agreements to their board for ratification.

“There is an unsettledness within the (school) district that the city (of Malibu) can neither explain nor address.

“Since the district refuses to work according to any set timeline, the city (of Malibu) decided that it was in the best interest to return to the county committee and ask the county committee to rule on its (the city’s) 2017 petition.”

Meanwhile … there is a sudden drop in student acheivement at Malibu High School.

And school sep[aration advocates point out that there is. No similar test score drop in the other part of the district … Santa Monica.

Assistant city attorney Christin Wood … says the drop is tremendous … and only in Malibu It’sevidfenced by English scores. 

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“Malibu and Samohio scored the same in 2019 and 2022, but in 2023 there was a tremendous drop in Malibu scores.

“Malibu scores saw 19% less proficiency than Santa Monica High.”

That problem with English proficiency leads school independence leaders to say … that is proof that local control is needed.

And they point to the overwhelming vote last week … 62 percent landslide approved a very large 395 million dollar school bond election for Malibu High and Malibu Middle school. 

No matter what the county committee does … the final decision would be up to a vote by the state Board of Education… And they have a four year long backlog in cases like this.

Malibu independence advocates are hoping that a strong recommendation from the county committee will be enough to convince the state legislature to pass a special bill to allow Malibu and Santa Monica to separate.

The county committee meeting is tonight at 6 at Malibu High School’s auditorium. 

Choppers Lifting Gear Out Of Rindge Dam

Helicopters will be flying low in Malibu Canyon today.   

They will be removing the heavy equipment that had been flown down to the Rindge Dam site last month.

This equipment was used to drill soil samples and do other heavy work in the gravel and rocks that washed down and filled up the reservoir shortly after it was built 90 years ago. 

The damn is going to be removed over the next decade… funded by the state and federal governments.

Ridge dam blocks about 16 miles of critical stream bed upstream… Places where endangered, southern California steelhead salmon can lay their eggs.

This species of fish is nearly extinct .. its habitat all but wiped out by flood control channelization from San Diego to Santa Barbara. 

A similar dam removal in northern California resulted in steelhead salmon, swimming past the former damn site in just a few weeks.

California state parks is heading the effort.

They plan to remove the dam … and the tens of thousands of truckloads of sand and rock that accumulated there starting 95 years ago.

Beach quality sand will be removed from the debris… and trucked to the harbor in Ventura.

There … it will be loaded onto barges and then unloaded in the waters off the Malibu Creek Lagoon and Surfrider Beach … to replenish the sand supply.

The dam … which is useless for flood control or water storage purposes … will be demolished. 

Today … the helicopters will be flying the heavy equipment up to a parking lot off Piuma Road.

Silverstein Finishes #1, Claims Victory

City council member Bruce Silverstein claimed victory last night in the city council race.

Silverstein won the largest percentage of votes … 25 percent … in last week’s city council election.

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“After being the object of derision by a small vocal group, as well as as well as anonymous the better part of the past, it was encouraging to see that those people don’t speak for the community.”   

As we said … Silverstein finished first with just under 25 percent of the vote. 

Steve Uhring was second … with 23 percent of the votes.

Haylynn Conrad was third … knocking out Paul Grisanti’s attempt for re-election. 

She finished with 20.5% of the vote … compared to 19.3% for Paul Grisanti.

That’s a difference of 139 votes … a margin that keeps increasing as mail-in ballots trickle in.

The county still has not been able to provide a total number of votes cast for the right candidate… Andy Lyon.

But he would need the seemingly impossible total of 22 hundred 33 write in ballots … 

Lyon launched his campaign several days after many ballots had already been received by voters… filled out… and then mailed in.

Taunts From Trump Supporters At Vets Day Ceremony Criticized By Councilman

Incumbent city councilman Bruce Silverstein says he was offended by some of the speakers at the official City of Malibu commemoration of Veterans Day last Monday.

The civic event … inside Malibu City Hall … included speakers who openly celebrated the election of Donald J Trump as president. 

Silverstein complained that the celebratory and partisan remarks were insensitive to many in Malibu … a city that voted for Kamala Harris by a 3 to 2 split. 

Silverstein said the victory lap by Trump supporters should not have happened at the official city ceremony. 

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“it was uplifting, an important event.

“For the most part of the event was non-partisan and focused on honoring our veterans who serve and protect us all, without regard to our political leanings.

“Unfortunately, there were multiple references – both overt and subtle – to the result of the presidential election, which I found disrespectful to the many attendees who were dismayed by the election results.

“I’m hopeful the organizers will see that this lapse of judgment is not repeated in the future.”

Silverstein made his comments at last night’s city council meeting.

SCE Outages Target Of City Council Ire

Southern California Edison is in the targets of the Malibu City Council … over two recent power blackouts that were purposefully triggered by the power company. 

The city council last night directed that three immediate steps be taken.

Mayor Doug Stewart last night argued that the regional power distribution company is apparently abusing state rules designed to protect the public during intentional power outages.

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“I think we can all agree that it would seem that SCE is not always follow these guidelines, but we need to find out.

“And they certainly are not making an effort to mitigate the risk that they create.

“The loss of traffic lights … loss of loss of cell Internet and phone services for emergency communications our but a handful of the hazards that they create. They community has to say the least and extremely vocal about this.”

Longstanding California law requires SCE to provide safe and reliable power in exchange for being given the power to run overhead lines virtually anywhere that they want.

Opponents of the frequent power outages say that a power system that needs to be turned off is inherently not safe… And that interruptible power supplies are not reliable.

But the state public utilities commission in 2018 gave SCE permission to enact what they call Public Safety Power Shutoffs … a power that the Malibu city council feels is being abused. 

Complicationg the issue … a new state law that requires SCE to put its power lines underground in severe high fire risk areas … including Malibu and the entire Santa Monica mountains. 

No one from the power copay has explained to anyone in Malibu what this means. 

And city council member Steve Uhring last night complained that … in the October power outage that lasted three days … there was no wind hazard.

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“There was no wind in Malibu but the power was still cut off because tthere was Wind back someplace and they were afraid of the impact so just underground stuff in the canyon. OK to prevent any problem coming out of there and they can leave the power on here in Malibu.”

While that is certainly true for the October three day blackout … it was not true for the November three day blackout. 

That was a much stronger storm dot and in point of fact, it was so strong that SCE cut off the transmission lines, feeding Malibu from generating stations in distant cities.

That November storm was much stronger than usual… and it’s rare to see the transmission lines blacked out.

It’s a complicated situation … and last night the city council decided to set up some sort of committee or task force to get to the bottom of what happened … and what can be done. 

The city attorney has also been asked to find experts in the field… to help fight SCE’s misuse of the intentional power outages. 

And the city council wants to declare a state of emergency … to deal with the complicated set of facts coming at us … in the middle of the Santa Ana season. 

Malibu Township Council Asked By City Council Member” Why Can’t the Kids Play Ball At Trancas?

Why can’t Little League kids play ball at the city’s Trancas Canyon Park?

The Malibu Township Council holds the legal right to prevent Little League or AYSO soccer teams from using the city park. 

A decade ago … the civic watchdog group sued the city to prevent construction of the park … perched on a Ridgeline above the Malibu West subdivision.

In a legal settlement to get the park built … the city council signed a lifetime ban on Little League or soccer league games in the grass.

Last night … Riggins said the Malibu Township Council needs to allow kids to play games at Trancas Canyon Park.

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“I would certainly like to request that the Malibu Township Council and the City of Malibu come to an agreement to remove that settlement agreement language, and so that we can move forward to actually using Trancas park to meet the full needs of our community. 

Restriction the full needs of our community. We know that we need additional field space we have a beautiful park up there and I would like to see us move forward to make that so that that league play can be played at that park as soon as possible.”

Riggins also blasted the president of the Malibu Township Council … a political club … who has publicly said that the council does not hold veto rights for youth groups to play games at the city park.

“Hopefully the current president of the Malibu Township Council will be informed that what she has been saying, that there is no lawsuit and there is no restriction, is inaccurate … and she will apologize for her statements to that effect.”

No comment yet from Malibu Township Council president Jo Drummond. 

Riggins last night also asked city council member Steve Uhring to abstain on the Franca’s Park issue. 

Sheclaimed  that he was the president of the Malibu Township Council when it successfully demanded that the city prohibit Little league games at Trancas Park.

Uhring said he would consider it.