• The Publisher’s Notebook
•
A Case of Malibu Park and Switch?
The noises reverberating through the halls
of the municipal office complex Monday night were not the usual
clash of political interests. In a way, the section of
the meeting that addressed items not even agendized for council
action may have shed more light on local politics than some of
the traditional special interest battles that follow the usual
proorcon development lines. Before we consider
weighing in on the Trancas Park fray, let’s get one thing
out of the way quickly. I am a fervent soccer fan. This is the
“football” that I grew up with and still cheer. And
I think the youth soccer program is children’s athletics
at its best. In short, we are not talking about substance when
we raise the issue of how park public policy is being made. We
are talking about process. Any number of other public issues
could generate the same questions by residents who are
concerned that their views are not only being ignored but that
they have also been misled by city officials about the plans
for Trancas Park. Opponents of unrestricted use of the
playing fields at the park site in western Malibu contend
that they were given one set of policy parameters to assess by
city officials who had decided to approve alternate
intensive-use plans from the very beginning.
These residents perceive themselves to be
the victims of a municipal shell game. Was there a policy of
purposeful deceit? Are conflicts of interest involved here?
People involved in youth sports are ideal prospects for
recreation panels. Citizens who devote time to these activities
make major contributions to the community, but is it fair to
expect them to subjugate those interests when faced with an
opportunity to add new facilities to the community? Whether
blueprinting a park, or overseeing retail development, there
may be times when decision-making requires a special panel of
objective voices. The decision of a blue ribbon group might
still be that there is such strong community need for more
regulation playing fields that local opposition should be
overruled. But under those circumstances, differences are less
likely to deteriorate into charges of
“bait-and-switch.”
People adapt to change of all kinds but if
any bitterness is created by a perception of the lack of
integrity on the part of representatives of the city, it
won’t go quietly into the night. There is already
reason to be concerned about growing negativity toward local
government in Malibu. All aspects of Trancas Park
decision-making have to be brought out into the open. Malibu
needs as large a pool of citizens willing to participate in
governing as possible, but the rules of fair play have to be
agreed upon in advance.
