• Rain possible tomorrow night.
• The MRCA wins at the Board of Supervisors – a new camping plan is approved from the hills above Malibu.
• Enforcement will be up to Malibu residents … who will be able to ask for campground permits too be yanked if there are fire problems.
• A Malibu city councilman tosses an F-bomb at the Board of Supervisors to try to win them over.
• The county apologizes … sort of … for keeping its plans for a prison camp above Malibu quiet.
• The first five of the 150 convicted rape and murder offenders will arrive at Campus Kilpatrick soon.

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This is Malibu’s Only Local Daily News … the Wednesday edition … I’m Hans Laetz reporting. 

60% Chance Of Rain Possible Thursday Night

A low pressure system is moving into Southern California tomorrow… bringing the possibility of showers tomorrow.

We may get a little more than a 10th of an inch of rain starting tomorrow night.

And there’s a slight chance of thunderstorms.

Sunny for the weekend … and highs around 80 are likely by Monday.

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Support for KBUU Radio comes from the Mark & Grether Real Estate Group.

The Mark & Grether Group is a small tightly knit team based in Malibu … with full-time marketing and operations staff to deliver exceptional results and smooth real estate transactions.

The Mark & Gregory Group a top producing team … with 35 years of experience and over $1 billion a real estate sold unleased for Malibu’s coast line to the mountains.

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Support for KBUU radio… For eight years now… Has come from Rancho Del Cielo. Perched high above the Pacific Ocean and overlooking Paradise Cove… Rancho Del Cielo is a partner bringing public radio to the Malibu.

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County OKs Camping On Trails Above Malibu, If Someone Lights A Fire, Residents Can Petition For The Permit To Be Rescinded

L A County supervisors voted to go along with the Coastal Commission’s vision for camping in the hills just above Malibu.

By a 5 to nothing vote … the supervisors approved changes requested by Joe Edmiston and his Mountain Recreation Conservation Authority … the MRCA. 

The changes will allow the MRCA to set up backpack in – haul trash out camping areas above Malibu. 

No campfires … no open flame … no cooking stoves allowed. 

County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl represents the Malibu area she says this represents a balance of competing interests. 

NEWSCART A73293 CAMP SK 111 BALANCE

“The coastal commission has a pretty tricky job.
“They have to balance the directives in the Coastal Act that include environmental protection … but also access.

“But it must be safe access … 

“So this amendment is essentially a good example I think of the art of compromise.”

215 Malibu residents tried to squeeze in to the public comment window.

But the supervisors had a huge agenda … lots of people wanted to talk on lots of issues … and only a few were granted a chance … a window limited to 60 seconds. 

One of them … Julie Hoffman.

NEWSCART A73287 JULIE HOFFMAN

“Like every massive fire before, the Woolsey fire caused people to become homeless. This overreach by the homeless commission is irresponsible and contrary to the passional passionate wishes of the public.

“One a one day notice… 215 residents registered a vote of opposition yesterday.”

But the camping plan .. was going to pass from the get-go yesterday.

It was strongly backed by Sheila Kuehl … the lame duck county supervisor who represents 2 million people in a district mostly composed of the San Fernando Valley … a vast number of constituents not in Malibu.

Kuehl says in balance … the camping plan is carefully crafted to prevernt fires … while allowing public access. 

NEWSCART A73292 SK 222 CAMP PERMIT

“There is a no flame rule for any of it.

“I mean everybody is talking about bringing in you know fires in building fires.

“The campground person is in charge of enforcing what happens on the campground … under this … and that means no fires.

“And so if you don’t enforce it people are going to know … and then you lose your permit.”

What does that mean?  The MRCA will have to actually take out permit.

They will actually have a public hearing before the county Regional Planning Agency (the RPA) before it gets a permit to have a campground.

And if the operation of the campground is in violation of that permit … things like trash noise litter or most particularly fires …. residents can go back to the county and ask for the permit to be yanked.

But: the RPA the regional planning agency has a somewhat romanticized view of how these campgrounds will be used… of how people actually camp at the local mountains.

Here is RPA Director Ann Bodak at yesterday’s Board of Supervisors meeting.

NEWSCART A73290 ANN BODEK

“Tents are allowed.

“What’s not allowed is you can’t you can’t toss a sleeping bag in the back of your car and car camp.

“You can’t drive an RV here.

“You can’t have a 20 of your friends and do a group campground experience … you know … with giant family tents.

“This is really you’re on the Pacific Crest Trail and you know you’re going to be hitting the Santa Monica Mountains in a couple of days.

“And you go on the website to make a reservation for this campground and you get there … you sign in … you camp … and then you leave the next morning for your continuation to either northern Washington state or or Mexico depending on what direction you’re traveling.”

We should point out for accuracy’s sake that the closest that the Pacific Crest Trail actually gets to Malibu is 50 miles inland.  … where it crosses the 14 Freeway near Agua Dulce. 

And the rules passed the supervisors yesterday allow for camping of 14 days duration.  Not just one night one a hill,.

Supervisor Janice Hahn represents the South Bay … she says her constituents will enjoy this.

NEWSCART A73281 CAMP JANIS HAHN 

“I see a balance between access and sort of safety and in and consideration of lots of variables with people who live in one of these very desirable .. uh … places.”

Camping will be banned on days when there are predictions of fire danger winds … Red Flag Warnings.

We might point out that yesterday … a fairly routine spring day in Malibu … wind gusts hit 36 miles per hour at one foothill campsite location … in Escondido Canyon.

This was strong enough to spread a fire … but not strong enough for Red Flag Warnings.

Camping would have been legal in yesterday’s winds. 

And if someone had started a cooking fire at that campsite … it would be up to nearby residents to gather evidence … and then go to downtown Los Angeles to demand a hearing on revoking the permit for the MRCA … the agency that will run the campgrounds.

Malibu residents who live near MRCA trailheads or beaches can testify about how strict MRCA is on its polices at its facilities … with tales of overflowing garbage cans … people setting up barbecues in fire risk areas … MRCA dispatchers clueless about local addresses … and MRCA rangers nowhere in sight. 

Malibu Councilman Chooses Obscenity At Supes Hearing

Like everyone else … Malibu city council member Bruce Silverstein was given 60 seconds at yesterday’s Board of Supervisors meeting for public comment on the campaign issue.

NEWSCART A73286 FBOMB 111 

“What the fuck are you thinking?  Now that I have your attention …  offer just a few more words of comment.” [The work “fuck”was beeped on the KBUU broadcast.]

Under federal law … radio is not allowed to broadcast the f-bomb.

Silverstein then noted that 215 people from malibu signed up to speak to oppose the camping plan.

NEWSCART A73288 FBOMB 222

“Please listen to your constituents. I do that all the time. There are consequences if you don’t.”

If Silverstein hoped his obscenity got the supervisors’ attention … none reacted. … 

County Official Backs Into Semi-Apology For Not Telling Malibu Of Plan To Send 150 Felons To Malibu Camp

L A County officials yesterday apologized to Malibu and four nearby cities for failing to let anyone know about plans to move violent convicted violent criminals … who were teenagers when they committed their crimes. into a detention camp for juvenile offenders … in the hills above Malibu.

And the let out the first details.

About 150 men … convicted of violent crimes like murder or rape while they were below the age of adulthood … will be moved to Campus Kilpatrick … one of two new homes for violent offenders in the county’s juvenile justice system.

The men were teenagers when they committed serious crimes – murder, rape, assault – – crimes that would have been felonies had they been adults.   But they have entered adulthood while in custody of the state prison system, and the state is dumping them on counties.

Veronica Palowski is the advisor to County Supervisor Shiela Kuehl on justice issues.

And she gave local officials yesterday their first glimpse into what is actually happening at the minimum security Campus Kilpatrick … on Encinal Canyon Road just west of Kanan Road. 

NEWSCART A73298 KILPATRICK VERONICA PALOWSKI 

“We’ve got to be very responsible to all of you … responsible to the kids …responsible to everybody involved here about how we do this right.

“So we’re talking about five to eight young people to start … we start with a very small … and they will be the only five to eight people at Campus Kilpatrick …no more than 10.

“So that we can make sure that we’re putting in place all of the supportive services that we talked about … that again are critical to everybody’s safety including the community safety.”

If that is being “very responsible” … please note the County didn’t tell anyone about this until the vote to do it was already taken.

And it’s not just five to eight people … it’s not just five to eight …  that’s just a number of convicted criminals at first.

Eventually … 150 serious offenders will be relocated to Campus Kilpatrick. 

That was the big reveal at the Las Virgenes Council of Governments yesterday … 

Karen Farrer representing Malibu yesterday blasted the county.

No trust … no disclosure … and a demonstrated record of failure were all cited by Karen Farrer. 

She pointed out that the evacuation of kids and staff from Camp Kilpatrick was botched during the Woolsey Fire.

They nearly burned to death, 

And Farrer told the county that maybe it’s not such a good idea to put convicted murderers into might need sudden evacuation in a fire.

NEWSCART A73297 KILPATRICK FARRER 111

“Wildfires in the Santa Monica mountains are predictable … There is a long history.

The City of Malibu is at the receiving end of the Santa Ana winds.

“We lost 480 homes in that fire …. We had a world-famous evacuation on Pacific Coast Highway … And I’m sure you saw it on TV.

“We lost lives.

“The evacuation at Camp Kilpatrick could have resulted in death … and it seems like a miracle but for the actions of LA County Fire it would have been I’m sure.”

The county probation department completely blew the evacuation of low risk kids at Campus Kilpatrick as the Woolsey fire approached. 

A school bus that was critical to the evacuation wouldn’t start… And it was only the arrival of an LA County Fire truck that saved lives up there that day.

Karen Farrer said that’s not all.

Recent investigations by the Los Angeles Times … into critical breakdowns in the county juvenile justice system … worry her. 

NEWSCART A73294 KILPATRICK KF2 

“I have to mention the articles in the LA Times are a damning assessment of the entire system that does not inspire confidence.

“People are concerned about security … concerned about facilities that were neither designed nor built nor retrofitted for this purpose.”

At yesterday’s meeting of the Las Virgenes Council Of Governments ….Veronica Polowski… representing Sheila Kuehl … backed into apologizing for springing this on Malibu.

NEWSCART 73299 KILPATRICK PAWLOWSKI 222.  

“I don’t have any choice other than to own the sentiment that was after the fact communication.

“I don’t have any other option but to say yes, we should have been in touch with you all … and we should have been communicating that.

We’re gonna have … it’s estimated … anywhere between 100 and 150 young people in this population. 

“And what became very clear is we cannot possibly … for all the reasons you all cited today … safety … fire … almost every county facility that we have is subject to fire (and) earthquake.”

The county official in essence says they are stuck … moving 150 violent offenders to the Santa Monica Mountains is their last resort. 

No environmental impact assessment has been made on this project… and that is the Achilles’Heel that Santa Clarita is aiming at to try to block a similar move of violent criminal offenders to a camp near them.

Malibu officials tell KBUU news that our city may join Santa Clarita in their environmental lawsuit.

But that can only be viewed as a delaying tactic – because once the environmental assessment is done the county can still move the violent offenders to Campus KiLpatrick… In the hills above Malibu.

It’s a decision that has already been made. 

CORRECTION:  A combination of autocorrect and bad eyes led this report to refer to Camp Kilpatrick instead of Camp Kilpatrick.  The copy editor has been promoted and then fired.

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You can hear the news live every morning until 9:30 on KBUU.

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