Malibu Triathlon Seeks to Become Two-Day
Event
• West Malibu Residents Experience
Major Disruptions
If Nautica Malibu Triathlon organizers can
sway a majority of Malibu city council members next week at
their regular bimonthly session, the annual contest will become
a permanent two-day event in the future.
The triathlon has been held in Malibu for
the past 22 years, with the swimming leg held at Zuma Beach and
the running and cycling legs held on municipal streets and
Pacific Coast Highway.
Event organizers claim to have raised
millions of dollars for charitable causes, including
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Elizabeth Glaser AIDS
Foundation, Children’s Lifesaving
Foundation and the city’s Malibu Legacy Park.
Prior to 2008, the triathlon was a one-day
event. Last year, the council authorized the addition of a
second day to the September contest, which allowed for an
Olympic distance Triathlon on Saturday prior to the traditional
race on Sunday.
Organizers seemed able to sway council
members with a promise of donating some of the proceeds to
Legacy Park’s proposed improvements.
Some west Malibu residents have groused the
one-day event was a nuisance because of road closures and
delays, but bitterly complained the two days is too much to ask
the population center of the community to endure.
Alternate suggestions have included
moving the event further northwest on Pacific Coast
Highway to less populated areas of Ventura County.
In other action, an overbilling of the
state Department of Transportation by Malibu city
officials of over $43,000 will require the council next week to
authorize a reimbursement of the funds.
The city inadvertently overcharged Caltrans
$43,045.73 for portions of work on a traffic information and
emergency radio project that was funded by special traffic
funds. Project expenditures that qualify under guidelines are
reimbursed by Caltrans based on submitted progress payments.
The project was completed in 2002 and the state agency has now
completed a reconciliation of the project costs and submitted
an invoice.
The costs for the project were paid by
Caltrans based on reimbursement requests made to Caltrans by
the city. “Due to several changes in the scope of work
that were not finalized until project completion, the state was
inadvertently overbilled by the city,” a memo to council
members states in explaining the mistake.
