Malibu Surfside News
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• The Publisher’s Notebook
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Believing the City of Malibu’s PR
The newly configured Malibu City Council
isn’t going to be able to catch its breath after the
election. One issue that it will have to address quickly is
whether it is going to keep believing its own press releases
that Legacy Park is the answer to the wastewater pollution
charges that have been hurled at Malibu and will continue to be
reiterated in the media and in the courtroom. Current and
outgoing council members keep patting themselves on the back
for this project, but it does not mark the end of
Malibu’s pollution concerns in the Civic Center
area. Although Malibu is not to blame for all of the ills
of Malibu Creek and Lagoon, the Legacy Park project, which this
newspaper has questioned from the beginning, will not only
not clean up the area, it could make matters worse when it
fails during a major winter “water” event.
Another issue that the 2008 council has to address
is—despite its surfeit of selfpraise for working with
other public entities—that it once again is locked in
confrontation with state agencies representing the public
interest—that pesky concept that the city government
appears loathe to acknowledge. Bridge-building is in order as
Malibu’s name has become associated with irrational
anti-public access policies that could ultimately result
in the imposition of more intensive use than might have been
the case if reason had prevailed.
Overriding even these concerns, however, is
the notion that other communities in the state of California
have been able to say that there are areas where development
capacity has been reached. Malibu politicians refuse to do
this. They allow themselves to be cowed not just by
litigation, but by the threat of it. Until there is the local
political courage, it is imperative that groups such as
Baykeeper and the Natural Resources Defense Counsel serve as
surrogate resource protectors and indirectly stand up to
development interests, as well as be a voice for those in the
community losing their quality of life. There is no denying
that policy would be best made by local residents, but many
residents will not run for office because of the local
election dynamics. Time will tell whether the council now has
at least one voice that will break the cycle of backroom
brokering and bring greater transparency to city
decision-making. If this does not happen, residents could
increasingly be relegated to less importance in the
municipal policy process. Even those who might never put a
Malibu license plate frame on their cars will lament that it is
no longer a “way of life,” but a “place to
pass through.” Who wants PR like that?
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