• The Publisher’s Notebook •

Malibuites Rely on Noteworthy Notice

BY ANNE SOBLE

Timely notification of public meetings and deadlines for other forms of participation are critical if government operations are to be open and accessible and meet the barest minimum of requirements to be labeled “responsive” and “democratic.” That is supposed to be the logic behind all the current state and local requirements for the posting and publishing of public notices. While it is true that there was a time when the public notice process was a patronage game with financial benefits predicated on governments working hand-in-hand with publications, that relationship is now more often an adversarial one with public notices serving as one way to force government to publicize major policy changes before they can be implemented. When the public is not aware of a pending action on an important issue, its opportunity to voice an opinion is impeded. Notices are supposed to be published where those affected can see them. This is not always done. A case in point is the lack of local notice on the sole scoping session on one of the two new liquefied natural gas projects that are wending their way through the approval process. Even though these projects are not in Malibu’s line of sight, Malibuites should be just as concerned about spotlighting the same environmental and safety issues that took the BHP Billiton project down. And there is still no evidence that an LNG plant is even needed on the South Coast. That these companies also want to play the security and proprietary cards and keep information that may not reflect well on their proposals under wraps does not bode well. City of Los Angeles staffers who set up next week’s meeting know the map of the area and, no doubt, are aware of the concerns that Malibuites have expressed about LNG. No one wants to think that outspoken community members were deliberately excluded from the hearing process..

Intentional exclusion may not have been the goal, but it could become the practice if all public notices take the form of one printed on page 11 of this week’s issue. It was submitted by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for the public hearing on the proposed Santa Monica Mountains Local Coastal Program that covers all of the unincorporated areas of the county, including unincorporated Malibu. To say that a notice in such small type is illegible for many people states the obvious. Notices that meet the letter of the law, while ignoring its spirit, reinforce the view of cynics that government really doesn’t want the public to take part in what it does.