Publisher’s Notebook

• Listening to Malibu’s Vox Populi •

ANNE SOBLE

The City of Malibu was recently castigated by the attorney for one of what seems to be the ever growing number of organizations suing the municipality for refusing to acknowledge any errors with regard to public policy. In no area is the city more reluctant to accept criticism than regarding the notion that it might have been out-negotiated by a crackerjack team of lawyers and accountants on the purchase of the former Chili Cook-Off site. As a result, it is unable to respond to popular will.
Some critics contend the city may have paid anywhere from $5,000,000 to $10,000,000 too much for land that could never have been developed without support from the city itself, and, even then, major development was questionable. Although the ink on the contract has long dried, it’s not too late for the city to make amends to its citizens and find a way to meet public needs and help to facilitate the location of a hardware/lumber/emergency supplies business on city land.
There are fantastic places in Malibu when I need sparkly new attire, a birthday or anniversary gift, or any of life’s pleasurable superfluities, but I can’t find most basic household and ranch needs, emergency provisions, and the general necessities that are required when one does not ring a bell to summon assistance to fend off the rigors of daily life. I think I speak for the community’s majority when I say that when officials excuse public policy paralysis by saying their hands are legally tied, they don’t understand political power.
While we are on the topic of public opinion and majorities, for the last few weeks, we have listened to speakers at public meetings and read letters to the editor that could lead one to believe that any objections to Trancas Canyon Park were being voiced by a clutch, or coven, of loudmouths who were openly denigrated as mean-spirited, anti-children, anti-dog and anti-everything else. The nature of some of the verbal volleys assumed a degree of vituperativeness that turned the proposed playground/fields/dog park into a battleground.
But what happens when it is shown that park opposition is broader based? To wit, the members of the Malibu West Homeowners Association just cast a majority, albeit close, vote in favor of litigation to prevent a project they think will bring traffic, noise, loitering, pollution and increased fire danger to their neighborhood. Instead of trying to reconcile their neighbors’ concerns, the park proponents cry that the canvass was rigged—undoubtedly by those same “mean-spirited” people.
Elected and appointed officials have to start listening to all citizens, not just to the small circles that surround them that often can lead to a myopia resulting in decisions that catapult policy-making into the courtroom