Malibu Defers Implementing Several Popular Programs To Squeak Out A Balanced Budget

Malibu will delay implementing several popular environmental initiatives … popular measures championed by city council members … as the city trims programs to avoid layoffs.

City manager Reva Feldman says several popular items … demanded by many residents … have to go on hold.

Mountain lion protection.

Planning for a new permanent skateboard project.

Discretionary projects that seems like a good idea … before the city’s budget got turned upside down by a pandemic.

While malibu is escaping practically all budget cuts … it has come at the expense of some popular and important programs.

One example … The city has just enacted a commercial garbage bin ordinance … it requires commercial buildings have have locking mechanisms on dump bins … to prevent rats from eating garbage …. and preventing the use of poison to control rats.

Joel Schulman .. from Poison Free Malibu … says there is a public health emergency.

At last night’s city council teleconference meeting … he said the danger to mountain lions from rat poison is not going on hold because of the pandemic striking humans.

NEWSCART  75572  SCHULMAN

“As you recall, the waste haulers and the food services establishments were counting on clear, advanced guidance on the timeline, because they have to procure (equipment) and train people.

“Therefore, one thing that should be made clear to everyone, is that the ordinance, whatever the funding level, will definitely be in effect on June 1. “There can be no change in that.”

But as one city official said … being in effect and being actively enforced are two different things.

City manager Reva Feldman says she is balancing the budget by cutting out consultants … including consultants who were working on permits for houses to be rebuilt after the Woolsey fire.

The city has two environmental enforcement officers … and they would be the ones enforcing the new ordinance aimed at protecting mountain lions.

Feldman says one of the environmental officers might have needed to be laid off to balance the budget … but she was retrained to work on fire rebuilding permits.

NEWSCART 75571 TASKS DONE

“One of them currently is being trained on how to be a permit tech, because we had been using consultants to do that work.

“And so we are literally changing what she is doing to keep her as a city employee, and during this time.”

The city has to pay for new things … because of the virus … tasks they were not on the city list of things to do before the pandemic.

NEWSCART 75576 CITY CLEANING

“We’re going to have to have people cleaning staff areas … public areas … three or four times a day in full PPE.

“Things that were not happening before.”

As for the mountain lion ordinance … the locking lids for the commercial garbage bins?

NEWSCART 75575 REVA DUMPSTERS

“I’m 100 percent in favor of that, I think it is incredibly important.

“But my concern is that as to being able to implement it properly comes form a couple of thIngs.

“One is that the haulers needed to identify the type of locking lid and bin that the commercial properties were supposed to buy. They have not done that, and that was supposed to happen by June 1.

“Due to the pandemic we’ve been unable to reach them, they have not even responded to us.

“And so we don’t even have the actual bin lid identified at this point.

“And if we did we did we would have to go to these commercial businesses that are closed now at this time, and say, ‘you need to buy this at this time’.

“And I think that is a tough ask.”

Feldman said the city council’s request that commercial dumpsters be inspected four times a year equals 800 dumpster checks … plus time to deal with violations.

And there is just no money for that now.

That might change.

Assistant city manager Lisa Soghur said the whole financial situation for the city is still in a great state of flux … and the projected point one percent deficit … just 30 thosuand dollars in aa 30 million dollar budget … is subject to change.

NEWSCART 75574 SOGHUR PUSH

“As we get information from the county and the state about what a lifting of stay at home orders look like, in terms of how businesses will open and what the length of that rollout will be, we will also be able to fine-tune our projections more than that.

“So we pushed and pushed and pushed and tried … and I think we’ll find that as we go through that process Will find that we have a little bit more room.”

Some of the programs being deferred are very popular.

The garbage bin-rat poison-mountain lion protect ordinance.

The dark skies ordinance.

Planning for new city parks.

And planning for the permanent new skate park.

These items are not repealed …. they are not defunded.

They are being pushed back … as noted by city councilman Rick Mullan.

NEWSCART 75573 MULLAN IMPACT

“I want to point out to everybody we are not talking about axing those things. we are just talking about deferral of implementation. Sliding the implementation a little further down the road.

“And you know a lot of these things have impact on the businesses, and we do have to be very cognizant that the businesses and individuals who’ve been out of work are the ones who are really carried the brunt of the financial impact of what we’re going through.”

Malibu … like the rest of California … the nation and the world … trying to get a handle on what the new post-pandemic world will look like.