First Malibu Election Results Are In: Kean, Smith, Leon-Vazquez Win SMMUSD Board Seats

The election is 40 days away … but we already have three winners to declare in the Santa Monica-Malibu school board race.

The lone challenger to the three incumbents school board members has withdrawn.

The Santa Monica Daily Press reports that Christine Falaguerra has withdrawn.

That leaves three incumbents running for three seats: Jon Kean, Jennifer Smith and Maria Leon-Vazquez.

It’s too late to cancel the election … Falaguerra will still be on the fall ballot … which gets mailed out this week. 

Falaguerra’s name and candidate statements are going to be included in those ballots regardless of her intent to withdraw from the race.

And it is possible that Malibu residents might “single shot” her, as a vote off protest against the three Santa Monica incumbents. 

Crackdown On PCH RVs Near Topanga Beach May Take Months To See

A crackdown on RVs and campers along Pacific Coast Highway was approved … in concept … by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors yesterday.

And despite with the LA TV stations are reporting this morning… the new parking ban is not in effect yet …

It has to be approved by the California Coastal Commission. 

And signs have to be posted.

The county is trying to work around a recent court ruling that took away the power of sheriffs deputies to tow away RVs that are violating overnight parking bans, and accumulating stacks of tickets.

The court left open the door for tow-aways if signs are up declaring the area to be a tow away zone. 

That seems to be a simple fix… But remember… The coastal commission is very very concerned about providing beach access between two and four in the morning… And they have vetoed earlier parking crackdowns.

It may be several months before the new signs are posted and the line of decrepit RVs… Dumping sewage into the ocean… Is removed.

The Malibu city council plans to ask for the same restrictions in the city. 

Calif State Parks Chooses Longer PCH Bridge, Bigger Lagoon At Topanga Beach – Total Now At 70,000 Truckloads

California State Parks has chosen a preferred plan to rebuild Topanga Lagoon … a construction project that will be one of several huge earthmoving efforts bracketing Malibu in coming years.

The five-year construction project will include moving 256,000 cubic yards of dirt out of the lagoon area – a five-year project that envisions moving the equivalent of more than 21,000 dump truck loads.

State Parks will also be removing 700,000 cubic yards of sand and rocks from Rindge Dam in the same time frame. That will fill another 58,000 truckloads moving between the Malibu Canyon tunnel and the 101 freeway.

At Topanga, what once was a 30-acre lagoon has been filled in with dirt and construction over the past century … now it’s just one acre in size.

The chosen alternative will mean the reconstruction of Pacific Coast Highway … a years-long bridge extension … the removal of thousands of truckloads of dirt … and the removal of some landmark businesses.

All but one of the businesses on the north side of PCH will be replaced … including Malibu Feed Bin.  The Reel Inn and the Wylie’s Bait store may be offered spots after construction is finished, and financial aid during the five or six years.

They all rent space from the state … which purchased the Topanga Beach area more than 40 years ago. 

The current bridge will be extended to 460 feet long … and there new lagoon will be built  right where’re the highway is now. 

This will case a major construction detour on Malibu’s eastern end.

The bridge construction will be much like at Trancas … with the center lane eliminated and some sharp zig zags added .. lasting several year.

The traffic load at Topanga is much heavier than at Trancas … 90 percent of the vehicle access to and from Malibu is over that bridge. 

You can count on the Topanga Lagoon jam to be a major issue getting to and from Malibu for 2 to 4 years… depending on whether Caltrans makes the same construction mistakes it made at Trancas.

Measure MM, The Malibu School Bond Will Assess $395 Million In Taxes, But Malibu Is Worth $25 Billion

So how much will the Malibu School Bond … Measure MM … cost the average  Malibu homeowner?

School advocate Wade Major says the 395 million sounds like a huge ask … but the overalll assessed valuation of Malibu is 25 billion dollars. 

Spreading out the small amount of tax increase over such a huge base …about the price of two sacks of groceries per year.

70628 SCHOOLS MAJOR and state of the art facility.

“It’s $40 assessed for $100,000 of assessed value which is what you see on your property tax bill. It’s not what the property is worth on the market. It’s what it’s worth on the assessors roll.

“So let’s say you have a $5 million property but you lived in Malibu for 60 years and you paid bought it for around $250,000. It’s still gonna be around $250,000 on the tax rolls which means you’re gonna pay $100 on the tax bill. 

“The properties that will assume the largest burden here will be the commercial properties which have changed hands many many times, and especially have changed hands recently and have been recently reassessed. 

“So that’s where the burden on this primarily falls. 

“But people think $395 million per Malibu, that’s a lot that’s a lot of money. But it really just brings us up to speed with all the surrounding schools.

“When Malibu separation school occurs, we need to be competitive with Viewpoint, with Oaks Christian, with all the surrounding schools that have taken our students away. “So we have to be competitive to have a state of the school district with state of the art facilities.”

PTSA president Kevin Keegan says look at the construction rising on Morning View Drive … look at there new middle school … and imagine the entire campus looking like that. 

70627 SCHOOLS BOND KK WM KEVIN KEEGAN

KEVIN KEEGAN: “We’ve had one other opportunity in Malibu to vote on school facilities bond specifically for Malibu, with Malibu local control, and that was measure M in 2018.

“And when voters supported Measure M with over 70% support of registered voters, they approved phase one of the construction of the Malibu campus plan.

“Measure MM on the November ballot is for phases 2 through 4 so it’s a significant completion of the vision for Malibu Public schools. 

WADE MAJOR: “And there will be money in there for the Malibu Public schools in there as well there will be money in there for security for Webster and for Malibu elementary schools. So there will be money for everyone there. And really it just makes us competitive with all the other schools.”

Malibu school bond proponents Kevin Keegan and Wade Major. 

We would bring you opposing views on this … but frankly … there have only been a few scattered Internet comments that we’ve seen.

The Southern Californian Republicans and the Southern California Democrats have both endorsed the bond, as have all five Malibu city Council candidates.

Silverstein Making Public Statements: Memes About Naked Hookers ‘Are All A Joke, All In Good Humor … Take A Chill Pill’

Controversy over a Facebook group showing patently offensive and crude humor … very sexist … and set up and run by city council member. 

Bruce Silverstein has called attention to the issue … by reading a statement about it at Monday’s city council meeting. 

70626 BRUCE MEMES ONE

“In March of 2020, months before I even decided to run for city Council. I created a Facebook group called COVID-19 memes I’m very proud of having done so actually.”

Silverstein read his statement at last week’s candidates debate … and Monday night at the city council meeting. 

The humor is gross. 

Double-entendre cartoons of crudely drawn naked female crotches.

70625 BRUCE MEMES TWO

“One of the latest posts, from this year actually: ‘I’m so grateful this group is still up and running. I need comic relief more than ever.’ “ 

Jokes about how women make less money than men. 

An entire section devoted to Covid 19 hookers.

70624 BRUCE MEMES THREE 

“Some people do seem to be very touchy about certain issues and some folks do seem to go a bit overboard. Remember, it’s all in jest, at least in this group.”

The Facebook posts indicate many of the sexist memes were posted by Silverstein … not just curated by Silverstein on the Facebook page that he runs.

70623 BRUCE MEMES FOUR

“If a post offends, you take a chill pill and remember it’s intended to be humorous. Some humor succeeds and some humor bombs. It’s all in good fun.”

Great fun …. Unless you’re one of the people who found it gross … stupid … highly offensive … and bad enough to complain to a reporter. 

KBUU radio had been watching the complaints mount in Malibu, until Silverstein brought it up at Monday’s city council meeting … elevating the issue out of the Internet sewer and into City Hall. 

Silverstein closed his city council statement Monday night with this bit of projection, placing responsibility for being offended on the viewer, not him.

70629 BRUCE MEMES FIVE 

“it’s all in jest and it wasn’t intended to offend anybody or be sexist discriminatory discriminatory or racist or anything like that. 

“And if you don’t have a sense of humor, I feel bad for you.”

City council member … and candidate for reelection … Bruce Silverstein … not apologizing for his high school boys room public Internet page. 

His comments were made at the last Malibu city Council meeting.

L A County Approves 24/7 Homeless Shelters, Instead Of Showing People The Street Every Morning

L A County is getting ready … for the first time … to open year-round emergency homelessness shelters.

Although several cities … including malibu … contact with private charities to operate homeless shelters … they close during the daytime. 

These eight centers will be scattered around the county .. and will be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Supervisor Lindsey Horvath co-sponsored the measure along with Katherine Barger,

They said that keeping homeless shelters open during the daytime is very important … particularly as global warming is causing the inland parts of L A County to broil. 

Coming Soon To Malibu Flight School: Silent Battery Plane

The first electric airplane approved by the FAA was delivered Tuesday to Santa Monica Airport.

It’s called a Pipistrel Velis Electro — a quiet, zero emissions, low-cost airplane.

A flight school will be using it for flight instruction.

The Malibu coastline is marked on aviation charts as a good place to practice.

Proteus Flight Services at Santa Monica Airport to be the first to offer the Velis Electro for flight training.

The press release did not specify how long the extension cards are.