Anger At Malibu City Hall Boils Over Into 2 Overflow Rooms Last Night

Two overflow rooms could not contain the anger last night at city hall …

The biggest crowd in Malibu city history … most of them furious with the performance by government agencies during the worst fire disaster in Los Angeles County history.

Incompetent … nonresponsive … amateurs … a joke.

Invectives were hurled ….

In two overflow rooms … people watched in TV monitors carrying a feed from the main city council chambers.

They jeered and made derisive retorts.

In the main council chambers …. a little more decorum, 

A little.

An ugly confrontational tones was made worse … when Councilman Skylar Peak suggested limiting public comments to two minutes.

That was quickly shot down by his colleagues.

What followed was three hours of the collective voice of a hurt city … a people that was let down.

Fury was directed at firefighters.

Leo Harrington described fleeing the fire … not seeing any fire trucks … and arriving at Corral Canyon.

NEWSCART 77945 LEO HARRINGTON   42

I pulled in there looking for gas.

I saw a sign that said no gas.

What I did see was between eight and 12 firetrucks parked on the entrance to Corral Canyon.

Parked!!!

On the entrance to Corral  Canyon!

Parked!

With firefighters in their driving seats!!!

Said to them what are you guys doing?

They said ‘uh, well. we waiting here for some orders’

I said ‘orders???

‘Point Dume is on fire, Busch is on fire!

‘Turn your firetrucks around and get out there and go and put the fire out!!!’

And they said, ‘well, we’re not from this area, can you tell us what the cross street is?’

I said ‘the cross street is PCH and Heathercliff.’

‘Go up there, make a left, look for the fire, put it out!’

– Leo Harrington

Dozens of similar comments.

Here are a few.

Melanie Goudzwaard described leaving her house on Point Dume.

Six hours after the fire front had passed through.

At that point … the house was still standing.

At that point … fire spread to her house.

NEWSCART 77946 GOUDZWAARD  :29 QQQ:

It started to burn about 4 o’clock.

I was there I saw it happen .

I couldn’t do a damn thing anything about it because I had no power, I had no water, I had no cell service.

There wasn’t a firefighter to be seen anywhere on Point Dume.

There were no airdrops in the skies.

We were left absolutely defenseless, we were abandoned.

And you can defend it all you want but that’s the truth.

We were left to burn.” [APPLAUSE FADEOUT] 

– Melanie Goudzwaard

For the most part … city staffers and the city council sat there and did not respond to each comment.

One exception … when tempers boiled over as resident Scott Dittrich pointed a finger at city manager Reva Feldman.

This ….  over the lengthy mandatory evacuation orders.

Some areas of eastern Malibu were never threatned by the fire but were evacuated for more than a week.

NEWSCART  77947 DITTRICH  17 QQQQ YOU’RE WRONG.

SCOTT DITTRICH: “We were kept out for no reason.

“Why wasn’t our city manager fighting for us to get back in??

“Reva [POINTING FINGER], I’m sorry, you didn’t do anything!”

REVA FELDMAN:  “I -WAS- fighting for you to get back in.

“You’re wrong.”

The sheriff’s department blockade of Malibu … preventing the volunteers who stayed behind from getting food and gas and water via P C H … came in for particular blasting from the public.

Terry Jacobs.

NEWSCART 77948 TERRY JACOBS :23 QQQQ [[[APPLAUSE FADEOUT]]]]

What appalls me, and probably the rest of the world, is seeing supplies being brought in to these distraught homeowners by boat and kayaks and surfboards.

Who is running the show here??

Who???

CROWD MEMBERS: “Exactly. Exactly.”

JACOBS:  Who?!?!?

– Terry Jacobs

And on it went … from 645 until 10 o’clock.

Hard to estimate … to report …on how angry people were.