City Council Bans Plastic Bags within Local Boundaries

• Coalition of Young People and Environmentalists Issue Call for Swift Action

BY BILL KOENEKER

Urged on by high profile environmentalists and local youngsters, the Malibu City Council this week unanimously approved the first reading of an ordinance banning plastic shopping bags.
Kelly Meyer, who was followed by the students from the Boys and Girls Club calling themselves the green teens, talked about the global plastic problems, while Sarah Abramson, the director of coastal resources at Heal the Bay told the council about the impacts of plastic shopping bags on the marine environment.
Last October, in what many consider his first campaign appearance, then Planning Commissioner John Sibert, now city council member, had urged the council to explore banning the use of petroleum-based plastic and noncompostable bags in Malibu.
Long before that, Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich had urged a ban on the plastic shopping bags when the council was considering a ban on Styrofoam take-out products. At that time, a majority of that council indicated they were not ready to take on both battles.
A city staff report prepared by Jennifer Voccola, the city’s environmental program coordinator, noted the plastic shopping bags “have been found to significantly contribute to litter and have negative impacts on the environment.
Due to their lightweight and inflatable characteristics they can become windblown fouling local creeks, the ocean and storm drain system,” she said.
“Plastic bags pose a particular problem for wildlife, especially bird and aquatic life that mistake the bags for food and as a result—starving—or suffocate in the bag. Plastic bags are also known to smother plants,” she added. “Plastics are a scourge on our environment.”
The Malibu students talked about how much plastic is now in the environment and how long it takes to decompose.
Meyer said, “We know a lot of you are on board. Plastic is a huge problem. Join us in banning all plastic bags,” she added.
A debate ensued about what to do about paper bags and how just banning plastic bags might clean up the immediate environment, but ultimately create landfill problems because paper generates so much more waste.
Mark Gold, the executive director of Heal the Bay, told council members no one in the U.S. has done it yet, but Santa Monica is looking into charging a fee for paper bags. “If we move everybody from plastics to paper, we are trading one problem for another,” he said.
However, other council members did not want to take that action after Conley Ulich made a motion to direct staff to study a fee for paper bags. Council members balked, saying it would take time from the staff for other priority matters.
There were some representatives from the plastics industry urging the council to not take any action at this time. Echoing somewhat the sentiments of Gold, they argued that the ban would do nothing to solve the solid waste problem and in the long run could exacerbate it.
Council members were told the ban would not go into complete effect for a year to allow business owners to make the transition.

Corral Wildfire Damage Totals Jump Fivefold as Lawsuit Gels

BY BILL KOENEKER

Claims of more than $450 million in property damage from the Corral Canyon fire last November have been filed, according to a local attorney consolidating the cases.
Malibu attorney James Devitt said the initial estimates of damage put at around $100 million have been greatly surpassed.
“The reason the claims in these cases have escalated is due to the fact that much more than homes were burned in this fire. Many homeowners or tenants in Corral and Latigo Canyon[s] had valuable artworks and other irreplaceable media lost,” he noted, in a press release issued to the local media.
Devitt cited as an example a record producer who lost numerous irreplaceable master recordings as well as very expensive instruments and equipment. The producer has worked for such artists as Avril Lavigne and Pink.
The producer Butch Walker was living in the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ bassist Flea’s house.
Some of the most discouraging news, though, comes from residents who believed they could reuse their foundations. They have since found out is not altogether true. In many cases that seems to be the exception and not the rule, some would-be builders insist.
New foundations will likely mean new geology reports and new engineering approvals totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to Devitt.
In the media missive, the Malibu attorney maintains that 80 percent of the homeowners and tenants with major damages have already retained his firm along with two other law firms.
However, the statute of limitations for filing government claims will expire on May 24, 2008.
If any damaged party does not file by that date, they will be barred from recovery since this is considered a “mass action and not a “class action,” according to Devitt.
Besides the monetary damages, the lawsuits will be seeking a court order to force the state Department of Parks and Recreation to install a gate on Corral Canyon Road in an attempt to prevent partygoers from going to the “rave cave” at night.
Devitt stated no other government entities would be sued since “they are
protected by governmental immunities or previous case law.”
However, he insists, State Parks knew about the “rave cave,” for the past 20 years, but refused to take action by installing a gate or taking other security measures.
“Because of that failure and the state failure to hire enough park rangers or cut the brush around the cave area, the situation was exasperated [sic]. It is outrageous that State Park’s refuses to address the situation since it would be so simple and inexpensive to install a gate and have a ranger lock it at sunset.”

Everyone Is Invited to Join in the S. M. Mountains BioBlitz

It is called a BioBlitz—a 24-hour inventory of all living organisms in a given area. This year the event is taking place in the Santa Monica Mountains on May 30 and 31 from noon until noon.
The Santa Monica Mountains BioBlitz, part scientific endeavor, part festival and part outdoor classroom, is being put together by National Geographic and the National Park Service in collaboration with the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the California State Parks agency.
Teams of naturalists, scientists and volunteers will comb the park’s 150,000 acres, observing and recording as many species as possible. The public is invited to participate. Nearly 80 experts have committed to take part in the endeavor and about 1000 school children are expected to get their first taste of what environmental field work is about.
The NPS and National Geographic are planning a series of ten annual events around the country to publicize the activities, which are expected to provide important data about this area.
Last year, the society hosted the Rock Creek Park BioBlitz in Washington D.C. After 24 hours of combing the urban park, the participants found 666 species, plus several more that have not yet been identified.
Paramount Ranch has been designated the base camp where participants can check in and many festivities are planned.
At the camp, people can watch scientists doing round-the-clock research to identify and document species collected in the field.
Additional activities throughout the day and night at base camp include talks by experts, displays and demonstrations, entertainment and children’s activities.
Inventories are being staged simultaneously at five additional field stations where pre-registered participants can meet. Areas selected for their varied ecological conditions include Griffith Park, King Gillette Ranch, Leo Carrillo State Park, Malibu Pier and Lagoon and Topanga State Park.
Activities include exploring tidepools, catching butterflies with nets, searching for hidden wildflowers in the canyons and observing and catching owls with nets at night.
The term BioBlitz was coined by a NPS naturalist during the first such event in Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in 1996. Since then the events have been sponsored by different agencies across the country.
BioBlitz attempts to establish a degree of biodiversity in a defined area or park. Consequently, the event must take place over a full 24-hour period since different organisms are likely to be found at different times of the day and night.
Following the species count, NPS is sponsoring what is being called the Celebrate BioDiversity Festival on Saturday, May 31, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. with music, including the Banana Slug String Band, talks, displays and an opportunity to speak with the scientists and watch them at work.

• The Publisher’s Notebook •

Starr-Struck in Malibu

BY ANNE SOBLE

The Malibu City Council is reluctant to take on rude and noisy motorcyclists but not rude and noisy paparazzi. The symbiotic relationship of those in the celebrity spotlight who want the pap-packs at their film or clothing line openings but not around them during casual hair days is a complex subject in its own right, but the council should think long and hard about tinkering with the First Amendment, especially if it is going to let the tinkering be done by someone with the Constitutional approach that made Clintwinskygate a major paparazzi event of the twenty-first century, if not the greatest political paparazzi event of all time. Ken Starr singlehandedly (no pun intended) helped create a sea change in the public discourse on human sexuality. That could have made him a liberal but for the content of that discourse. The announcement that Starr might be engaged by the city council allowed the media to link Malibu and Clintwinskygate ad nauseum. Interestingly, the possible involvement of the American Civil Liberties Union in a project to explore ways to curtail paparazzi behavior didn’t even rate major media mention. Starr’s potential engagement has created a stir among some in the journalism community because they fear that Starr not only would like to curb the paparazzi, the so-called “bad boys” of the media, but all members of the media. They think he shares the Karl Rovian approach that the media should be manipulated, if not muzzled. In addition, I’ve asked the mayor whether she should be the person negotiating a city project with the dean of the law school she teaches at. She says too little money is involved to constitute a conflict of interest, but he’s still her boss.
In a similar vein, I am puzzled that the media describes the drafting of paparazzi controls as a done deal and doesn’t even acknowledge the role of the rest of the city council in the process. Personally, I’m counting on the ACLU and other First Amendment advocates to join me in protecting the rights of all media, from the humblest blogger to the surliest paparazzo, because freedom of speech and the press is indivisible. You allow it to be taken from some, and it becomes easier to take from all. Soon politicians will start demanding that photographers only be allowed to shoot them from their “good” side. Seriously though, the media has responsibilities and guidelines. Unsafe driving, jostling passersby, harassing children, and physically or emotionally abusing anyone are wrong. But Sheriff Baca and Chief Bratton are correct that there are adequate laws on the books to address this kind of behavior. We don’t need to be Starr-struck because some people are star-struck.

Radiocarbon Dating of Malibu Artifacts Confirms Importance of Farpoint Site

• National Science Foundation and Smithsonian Officials Are Among Those Urging Preservation and Additional Archaeological Research at Point Dume Property •


BY ANNE SOBLE

Archaeologist Gary Stickel announced at a recent lecture at the Malibu Public Library that a stone spearhead, or point, found at a local construction site by a Native American project monitor in 2005 has been established as an artifact from the oldest archaeological find in the City of Malibu.
Radiocarbon dating of mussel shell fragments from the site that was provided gratis by the National Science Foundation at the Accelerator Mass Spectrometer Laboratory at the University of Arizona dates them to 9074 BP (Before Present).
The shells would have been brought to the site, Dr. Stickel says, by the area’s prehistoric inhabitants, ancestors of the Chumash, the earliest recorded Native Americans who inhabited much of the immediate coastal area, including Malibu.
The archaeologist and his research associate, James Flaherty, indicate that the shell samples were found above the level where the spearhead, believed to be a Clovis era artifact, representing the “oldest identifiable culture in the New World,” was found. The date that Clovis people might have occupied the site has not been established, but proponents of their presence think they could have inhabited Malibu from 12,500 to 11,000 years ago.
Stickel says that Edgar Perez’s find of the spearhead, unearthed during construction work on private property on Point Dume, is “a major archaeological discovery of almost unlimited significance.”
The ebullient archaeologist, who dispenses copies of a letter confirming his role as an archaeological consultant for the film “Raiders of the Lost Ark” the way other PhDs provide CVs, says the Farpoint site, as the property is known, “keeps yielding new secrets that are important” to learning about the people who lived in Malibu 9000 and more years ago.
Stickel says, “There is vital additional work to be done at the site.” The current property owner prohibits further excavation, but Stickel hopes to raise the funds to acquire the site and permanently protect it. He adds, “Additional excavation could provide human teeth or bone material that could [corroborate] theories of human habitation.”
Dennis Stanford, the chief archaeologist at the Smithsonian Institution and a Clovis era expert, says Farpoint is a “site of national significance and requires interdisciplinary research and protection.”
A growing chorus of archaeological voices supports additional exploration of the site that some say could hold the key to where the people who inhabited the western coastal areas originated.
Stickel has urged the public to take greater interest in the find and rally behind the call for more research. He is critical of what he describes as a lack of interest by Malibu municipal officials in local archaeology. Farpoint’s champion says, “Unfortunately, the City of Malibu is not following the recommendations of Dr. Stanford and has done nothing to protect and preserve this special site.”

City of Malibu Explores Legal Options for Curbing Paparazzi

• Law Creating Personal Safety Buffer Zones Is under Consideration

BY ANNE SOBLE

While other cities have floundered in efforts to curb what is viewed as aggressive and invasive behavior by photographers who target celebrities, the City of Malibu is preparing to enter the legal fray.
The photographers, most of whom are freelance, are usually dubbed paparazzi, the plural of paparazzo (from the name of a character in the Fellini film “La Dolce Vita”).
They have come under increased public fire for engaging in unsafe behavior in public places, such as reckless driving and jostling people who block their shots.
At its quarterly goal-setting meeting last week, the city council approved efforts to frame a measure to address creation of “safety buffer zones” or other ways to protect people from endangerment or harassment.
Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich said the city’s approach could be to engage outside independent counsel that reflects all sides of the U.S. Constitutional issues “to draft and defend” an ordinance.
Conley Ulich said Ken Starr, dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law and the former Independent Counsel in the Clinton impeachment effort, who is currently representing Blackwater Security on alleged atrocities in Iraq, and Nadine Strossen, the president of the American Civil Liberties Union, have expressed interest in working on this at no charge to the city.
The pairing of these constitutional extremes (the ACLU recently published “Revisiting Our Rights”—a First Amendment treatise) prompted some raised eyebrows in the chambers.
Testifying on behalf of curbs on the paparazzi was Jolene Dodson, the self-described “celebrity assistant” for Pierce Brosnan. She relayed how Brosnan was eating lunch with a friend in a Malibu establishment a day earlier when “he was attacked by [paparazzi] who surrounded him.”
Dodson said Brosnan had to call the police. She said that establishments should hire security guards to protect people from paparazzi, then added, “We think the restaurant owners encourage [paparazzi]” to get publicity.
Mayor pro tem Andy Stern said, “It is certainly a threat.” The council unanimously agreed to make this a priority issue and ask City Attorney Christi Hogin to meet with these experts to see what ensues. Council members said they want any arrangements in writing.
City Manager Jim Thorsen reminded council members that First Amendment clashes have derailed most of the attempts to curb the paparazzi so far, adding with regard to Conley Ulich’s statement that the experts’ work would be “free” that there would be hidden staff time costs associated with any legislation that might be proposed.
The city manager indicated that his main concern is that whoever drafts a paparazzi regulation measure for Malibu “should agree to take on the [legal] defense of it.”

View Ordinance Is City’s Priority

• Council Members Detail Objectives for 2008-2009

BY BILL KOENEKER

Responding to an overwhelming vote on the April ballot in favor of municipal action to legislate view protection, the new Malibu City Council last week unanimously agreed to make this its top goal.
Voters, by a 60 percent margin in an advisory measure, recommended that the council approve a view preservation ordinance.
“The people spoke, it should be our number one priority,” said Councilmember Andy Stern.
“I was shocked at the outcome. I thought there would be more opposition,” said Councilmember Sharon Barovsky, who had asked to have the council put the measure on the ballot. “They have spoken very clearly. I support this as a top priority. The 63 percent approval is pretty overwhelming.”
Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich said she believed drafting the measure would be a long process.
Planning and building department head Vic Peterson agreed about the timeline. “There will be nothing easy about the view ordinance. Please do not call it a tree ordinance. Based on the experience of an ordinance [for the Malibu Country Estates], we thought it would be easy. That we could use the existing ordinance of another city, but it took two- and-half years. There was a lot of disagreement [about implementation]. This will not be an easy process. We will have to [comply] with California Environmental Quality Act. It will cost money,” he said.
Peterson told council members the staff’s view of what might work is crafting a citywide ordinance—his reference to MCE is about a view protection law that was created last year solely for that neighborhood—that would be successful by planners devising overlay districts for the various neighborhoods. “The issues are going to be different. If we go to different [neighborhoods] we can do that, but it won’t happen in 100 days,” Peterson added.
Other council members agreed about view protection having top billing after there was a discussion about other issues and where they would be placed on the council’s list of goals and objectives for the upcoming year.
Members also discussed where to rank Civic Center planning. The mayor is adamant about the municipality developing a plan for the Civic Center.
Council members discussed whether it would have to be a specific plan because of the time and requirements. They agreed upon some kind of planning device other than a specific plan after the mayor and other officials approach Civic Center property owners about what they see for the future.
Other priorities include developing objectives leading to approval for grey water usage for household use, especially landscape irrigation. Members also agreed to keep on the top ten list developing green building standards.
Councilmember Jefferson Wagner said the city needs to work on a gray water ordinance.
Councilmember John Sibert, talking about green building standards, said the city needs to get folks to deal with the technologies, but not necessarily to dictate to them. “So we don’t tell them how to do it, we tell them what outcome we want. Everybody else is writing prescriptions,” he said.
The council also wants to keep as a top goal a successful approach to curbing motorcycle noise.
Former Councilmember Ken Kearsley and Dennis Torres talked about a new and different approach taken by other cities and states.
Torres said the noise is caused by custom mufflers installed by bikers who take off the manufacturer’s muffler and how that could be stopped.
He explained that some governments have crafted a law that has withstood two challenges to the Supreme Court. “Manufactures must put an EPA stamp on the bikes’ mufflers. The local law requires that the EPA stamp must be on the muffler. You do not have to measure noise. The word will get out. If no stamp, then stay out of Malibu. The previous efforts by Malibu have failed. There were 70 percent of the citations that were rejected by the court. Just cross off Denver’s name [on the law] and put in Malibu’s,” he added.
Council members seemed encouraged by the information and agreed to put motorcycle noise abatement on the list.
In other action, the council agreed to direct the city’s lobbyist to work on convincing the state Department of Transportation to stripe Pacific Coast Highway from Trancas Canyon Road westward for a bike lane, directed staff to utilize funds raised at Malipalooza for the playground at Bluffs Park and endorsed the 1Sky Mother’s Day event by proposing to create a mural about the need to promote climate change.

SMMUSD Board Fires Deputy Supervisor in Charge of Special Ed Despite Protests

BY SUZANNE GULDIMANN

A standing-room-only crowd packed the Malibu City Council Chambers at the May 1 Santa Monica Malibu Unified School District board meeting. Teachers, parents and students had come en mass to speak out for the district’s embattled special education program and to defend Tim Walker, the deputy superintendent who managed the district’s special education services.
Board president Oscar de la Torre announced at the start of the public session that a settlement agreement of $193,000 had been reached on a vote of six in favor and one abstention. Walker’s name was not mentioned, but word that Walker had been terminated as a result of the recently published Lou Barber report on special education in the district had already spread before the meeting began.
Walker was not present. He is alleged to have been instructed not to appear, but he did not lack defenders. For over an hour speakers from Malibu schools and Franklin Elementary in Santa Monica argued passionately in his defense.
The common theme running through the public comments was the feeling that the Barber report was incomplete. Parents and teachers complained that negative experiences of Santa Monica parents were taken into account but positive experiences of Malibu parents and those from Franklin had not been included.
A lengthy standing ovation followed the presentation of the first speaker from the opposition, prompting board Vice President Jose Escarce to try to curtail applause. His request was ignored.
“Our department has been falsely represented by the Barber report, as well as members of the community,” said Franklin Elementary School special day class teacher Nathan Garden, who called Walker the “backbone of the special education department,” who “continually moves us in the right direction.” Garden stated that, “It is important that we have the chance to make our voices be heard before our skill level and our devotion to children and our commitment is further questioned. In our professional capacity each of us is more than just a teacher.”
Danny Sills, a sixth grader, and the son of Malibu resident and special education activist Laureen Sills, said “I don’t know why everyone is mad.” His mother discussed how she felt when she signed her son’s Individualized Education Plan agreement. “I could have signed that contract with a pen that sang,” she said. Adding that she hated to see the board use Walker as a scapegoat.
Rex Lewis-Clark, 12, stated that “In my special education class I learned so many things. I’ve learned ‘cannot do’ is not acceptable.” His mother, Cathleen Lewis-Clark, said that with her son, who is blind and has learning disabilities, but who also has a tremendous gift for music, “it’s not about thinking out of the box, it’s about throwing the box away.” And that in Malibu’s special education programs “all his needs were met.” “The support he has gotten allows me to send Rex out without worrying. With peace of mind,” she said. Rex’s story has been so successful that mother and son have become professional speakers and their experiences have been profiled on 60 Minutes.
Tiana Fazio, another Malibu student, explained that she has had “a great experience in Malibu. I know I will do even better.” Her mother, Teresa Fazio, spoke in angry defense of Walker. “If you think by firing Tim Walker all your problems will be solved, you’re going to be very disappointed,” she said.
Franklin Psychologist Meredith Abrams, speaking on behalf of the staff psychologists, summed up the concerns expressed by all of the speakers by saying that special education had been “misrepresented by the Barber report.” She demanded “a kid-first focus, and increased staff moral.”
Because the matter was not on the agenda, board members were limited to individual comments and were unable to discuss the matter without violating the Brown Act. This led to angry comments from the audience. One woman shouted that the board’s action was comparable to that of George W. Bush in the cover-up over the lack of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Boardmember Kathy Wisnicki stated that parents have approached her to ask why their positive comments were not included in the Barber report. Boardmember Ralph Mechur pointed out that “The report didn’t say everything was wrong, far from it,” and that audits “exist to point out the problems.” de la Torre’s statement that “The board is here to listen,” was met with an angry cry of "then you haven't been listening at all,” from the audience.
And that was the feeling of the teachers and parents after the comment period ended. “They aren’t listening to us. We aren’t being heard.” A view that echoes that of the Santa Monica parents who spoke from the other side of the issue at the recent Santa Monica City Council meeting.