MRCA Attorney Tells City Council: Sycamore Park Homeowners Are Unfair

The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Agency … the M R C A … has fired back at Malibu residents who want to prevent a park from being built on their private street.

M R C A attorney Oscar Victoria appeared before the Malibu city council late Monday night … to argue that the park is on a trail that has been used by the public for decades.

Victoria says the city’s own policies prevent the Sycamore Park residents from erecting an entrance gate to the private road that serves them … and the new park.

M R C A has named individual homeowners in a new lawsuit … and they want 15 million dollars from each of them.

This comes after the M R C A has lost in a five-year-old lawsuit over the matter … according to former Malibu mayor Ken Kearsley .. who lives in Sycamore Park.
M R C A lawyer Oscar Victoria stood before the city council late Monday night to offer the agency’s side of the story.

NEWSCART 77529 MRCA OSCAR VICTORIA AAA :26 QQQ: OTHER RECRATIONAL PURPOSES.

“I understand if you don’t want to take my word for it.

“I understand if you don’t want to take the county’s maps’ word for it.

“I understand if you don’t want to take the C-D-P (Coastal Development Permit)’s word for it.

“But maybe you’ll  former Mayor Kearsley’s word for it.

“What you are seeing here is a declaration that he swore under oath, that states in part:

“ ‘I am aware of the use of the trail continuously since 1950 for by many other people in the general public, who have also used the trail for hiking and horseback riding and other recreational purposes.”

That’s the M R C A’s attorney … and former mayor Ken Kearsley then stood up at the city council meeting … called that state government lawyer .… a liar.

KEARSLEY :34 QQQ UNDERSTAND THAT … YOU LOST!

“I don’t know where to start, the lies that have been said.

“That thing I signed, sir, was for a trail outside of Sycamore Park.

“… We have no trails in Sycamore Park, and you know it.

“The county has no trails in Sycamore park, never has.

“It’s been closed, we closed it off every year for 54 years ever since I’ve been here.

… This is a suit that has been going on for five years, it has been adjudicated.

“The major part of the suit has been thrown out, he’s appealing, I understand that.

“You lost!”

The drama didn’t end there.

The M R C A played a video of its executive director … Joe Edmiston … being denied access to the lot his agency bought … up the canyon.

In it … a security guard with more gusto than legal training blocked access.

NEWSCART 77530 MRCA SYCAMORE :20  ((NATSOT))

SYC PARK GUARD: “You are claiming that you are a peace officer, and that is understood.

“if you are a peace officer you know that this property right here, you are standing on, is private property, sir.

EDMISTON: “So I may not go not go up, this is Via Escondido?”
GUARD: “This is a private property, sir.

EDMISTON: “OK.”

GUARD: “All around here it says private property, THIS IS NOT YOUR PROPERTY.

EDMISTON: “So I can’t walk up there?”

GUARD: “This is private property, sir.

“What you not understand, the “private?” Or the “property?”

There were no folding chairs thrown.

That was the sound of a security guard in Sycamore Park … reacting to a provocation by Joe Edmiston ,… the M R C A executive director … at the entrance to the neighborhood.

People have complained that Edmiston has been showing up in a police officer’s uniform and with a badge and gun … to get into arguments in the street … in a civil access dispute that he lost …  in a courthouse.