Malibu City Council Member Rejects Call to Resign from Office

BY BILL KOENEKER

Councilmember Andy Stern brushed aside criticism about his profession as a Realtor and his involvement with a current real estate listing that has generated recent criticism that he has a conflict of interest.

In a letter to the editor, Malibu Park residents Erwin and Bonnie Schulze call on Stern to give up selling real estate if he wants to continue to serve on the city council.

“I was a real estate agent when I last ran for city council, and I was the top vote getter,” said Stern, an attorney who began selling real estate three years ago. “Do they want to set aside the will of the electorate? I don’t believe it is a sincere note.”

Stern also took issue with the description of the circumstances surrounding his having the real estate listing of a controversy-laden development in Malibu Park. “They are flat out wrong. There is nothing illegal about the house. Both the planning department and the commission approved it,” he said. Stern said he was never involved in any aspect of the decision-making process for the Malibu Park project’s building permits.

“I never voted on it. I never spoke to the planning commissioners on it,” he added.

Stern said the listing information about not being able to duplicate the house’s plans because of the city’s current building codes is true.

“I was the one that lobbied to reduce the size of basements,” he said, adding the older codes were approved by a previous council.

Stern also insisted there is no conflict of interest on his serving on the council and being a real estate agent.

“They are incorrect. Under the law [about conflict of interest] they are flat out wrong. Are they suggesting that an entire group of professionals be disenfranchised?” Stern said.

The council member noted he has recused himself on numerous votes that either might be a conflict of interest or would give the appearance of a conflict of interest.

“I recused myself and will continue to do so on the proposed point of sale ordinance, even though the city attorney told me I did not have to,” added Stern, who said he also recently recused himself from a vote on whether to establish a utility undergrounding district along Broad Beach because the district, which he would not be in, is 500 feet from his place of residence.

“Even if there is a hint of a conflict of interest, I will still recuse myself,” he said.

The council member said he is convinced, though he noted he does not know the Schulzes, that the impetus for the criticism comes from Marshall Thompson, who was outed by Stern as a contract videographer for BHP Billiton, which proposed an offshore liquefied natural gas facility overwhelmingly opposed by the community.

“He is just angry about that,” said Stern. Thompson, who said he believes everybody already knew about his work for BHP, denies that is a motivating factor in his criticism.