City Council ‘Reorganizes’ with Mayoral Gavel Transfer

• Ceremonial Exchange Brings Visibility to the Council Member with the Title of Mayor

BY BILL KOENEKER

The mayoral title rotated in traditional fashion when the outgoing mayor, Ken Kearsley this week turned over the gavel for the largely ceremonial position to the incoming mayor, Jeff Jennings.

Jennings, who has served on the council for 12 years, took over the top post for the third and final time when the Malibu City Council met for its reorganization meeting. Jennings is serving the last year of his term and will be forced out by the voter-enacted term limits.

Kearsley, who will also be termed out, made outgoing remarks saying he did not want to talk about himself, but wanted to direct attention to the council and what it had accomplished in the last year.

The outgoing mayor boasted the council had spent upwards of $10 million for public works projects in which 96 percent of the project costs were paid for from grants obtained by the municipality.

Kearsley claimed that no other city had accomplished such a feat. He praised the staff, including Grants Coordinator Barbara Cameron and City Manager Jim Thorsen, for helping undertake such a feat. “Prior to this council there had been very little paid for in grants,” he said.

The outgoing mayor also claimed that just one employee separated from Malibu during the past year, reversing what had been year after year of staff turnover. “They now want to stay here. We heard all the rhetoric during the past campaign [about staff turnover]. It is not true,” he said. “They want to stay because of the council.”

Kearsley did not say what caused the reversal from when the current council had to replace the city manager, several department heads including public works and parks and recreation and other top posts and several planners.

The outgoing mayor ticked off a list of accomplishments and acquisitions, including three new parks: Las Flores, Trancas and Legacy parks. He described the Civic Center park as the “showpiece for everybody in Los Angeles.”

“People can come and look at it. It is our number one priority,” he added, saying that all of this had been accomplished and the council still managed to grow a reserve fund of $14 million.“That is an amazing figure for this city.”

Kearsley also talked about how the council had brought back City Attorney Christi Hogin in a successful effort to reduce the litigation of the city.

“There were 17 active cases in November 2001. We now have four active lawsuits. This council decided to get out of the litigation business,” he added.

The outgoing mayor did not reveal if the litigation costs were also lowered. The current council voted for extensive and expensive litigation against the California Coastal Commission, which after a lengthy courtroom battle, beat back the city’s challenge of the hotly contested Local Coastal Program.

The outgoing mayor also contended that the morale of the citizens has changed for the better and that civility is the key word of the council. “In other cities it is like open warfare,” added Kearsley, referring to many other municipalities where the opposing elements to the reigning power structure still take on the status quo. Malibu’s opposing elements have either been co-opted or nearly gone underground.

Kearsley concluded by praising his wife for “being the den mother” of Malibu. “She is the cheerleader,” he added.

Jennings seemed to acknowledge that the outgoing mayor had somewhat stolen his thunder saying, “Ken said a lot of what I was going to say.”

Despite his previous experience in the role as mayor, Jennings said the post still presented challenges. “You are the public face or voice of the city. You must represent the feelings and voice of the city and carry out that role,” he said.

The incoming mayor said the biggest change he has seen on the council during his tenure is what he called the division of labor. He contended when the city was young it was more difficult for council members to work together. He said that has changed dramatically and pointed out how various parings of council members had produced results as each member spearheaded their own causes. “It is that kind of thing working together and taking on our own projects,” he said.

Jennings also said he now realizes that government does seem to move at a slower pace than he anticipated. “The last time I was mayor, five years ago, I said things were just breaking. I thought that was the next year. But now thing are really breaking,” the incoming mayor noted, saying that the city was making strides in changing the actual physical landscape of the municipality, referring to the acquisition of parklands including Legacy Park and the old Malibu lumber yard site and how that will change Malibu. “Things are being built. There is a physical change in the city,” he said.

Jennings offered up a list of pending legislation from a proposed view protection ordinance to formula retail law. It will be very interesting. There is a lot going on next year,” he said and concluded by praising the staff asserting things are moving much more smoothly than in earlier years.

Councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich was sworn in as mayor pro tem.