=.   Malibu businesses are told ‘you’re on your own’ to figure out how to comply with the dark skies ordinance. 

=.  City officials say they have no staff to help people design outdoors lights to comply with reeks that take effect in 86 days.

=.  The first possible candidate for Malibu city council this fall has taken out petitions.

=.  No word from the two incumbents … if they’ll run for reelection.

=.  The state is demanding that SCE explain why it is turning off the power so often.

=.  The goats had the right of way in Malibu West last night…. 

====

This is Malibu’s Only Local Daily News … the Thursday edition … I’m Hans Laetz reporting. 

Biz Owners Told ‘Hire An Engineer,’ City Will Not Check Plans Before Enforcing Dark Skies Ordinance In 86 Days

Malibu’s Dark Skies Ordinance takes effect in three months.

Actually … 86 days.

Businesses and homeowners will have to meet the tough restrictions against outdoor lighting. 

For commercial properties in particular … complying with the new rules will not be easy to understand. 

And the city is not going to be much help at all. 

Only a handful of businesses connected in to last night’s seminar run by the city building and safety department. 

And the big question … will the city staff help them design outdoor lighting that will comply?

The answer from the city’s lighting consultant … James Benya … hire an engineer.

NEWSCART A73484 BENYA CONTRACTOR

“The types of lighting calculations that are going to be required for non res properties are the type that need to be provided by somebody who knows how to do these type of calculations. 

“You can always turn most electrical engineers or electrical contractors will have these skills. Commercial contractors commercial engineers. So don’t hesitate to ask professionals to do this. But this isn’t something you can do on the back of an napkin.”

In fact ….don’t ask the city staff to approve outdoor lighting redesigns in advance.

City building official Yolanda Bundy answered the question about that yesterday… and said basically that city staff will respond to complaints of violations… it will not inspect the property or review plans in advance.

NEWSCART A73483 BUNDY CONTRACTOR

“The city does not have an inspector who can go and inspect your property and tell you where you’re in violation. That is why are lighting engineer Jim Ben you mentioned that. The best part is too we recommend is that you hire an engineer or an electrical contractor to go out there and help you with this.”

Although not mentioned yesterday… A similar problem exists for private homeowners. City officials have said that private homeowners will need to hire electricians if they replace any lighting fixtures covered by the new outdoor lighting code. Under existing building codes… It is illegal for a private homeowner to replace a lighting fixture… They’re supposed to hire a licensed electrician for that.

With the outdoor lighting ordinance taking effect on October 15 for all property in Malibu… The city is trying to make it as easy as possible. But last nights public forum for commercial property owners shows that messing with electricity is serious stuff… And experts may need to be brought in by property owners of all types here in Malibu.

First Possible Candidate Emerges To Run For City Council, As Incumbents So Far Silent

One person has taken out nominating petitions to run for city council … so far this year.

Bill Sampson has pulled the packet … indicating at least interest in running for city council.

Neither incumbent … Karen Farrer or Mikke Pierson … has definitively said they are not running for re-election. 

But neither Farrer nor Pierson have pulled the packet.

Nominations need 20 valid signatures from Malibu city residents to get the candidate certified for the ballot. 

But nominating petitions may have no more than 30 names on them.

The Nomination Period ends on August 12.

But if either Ferrer or Pierson decide not to run … the nomination period will be extended to August 17th.

Support for KBUU Radio also comes the the Malibu Association of Realtors.

When choosing someone to represent you when you buy … sell or rent a house … local knowledge is very important.

Malibu zoning rules … Coastal Commission rules …

Members of the Malibu Association of Realtors are local experts.

The Malibu Association of Realtors …  supporters of our local community … and supporters of local radio 99.1 KBUU.

===

Malibu Will Get 2 Hours To Drill County Supervisor Board Candidates On Sunday July 31

CORRECTION:  The forum is Sunday July 31, not this Sunday.

Malibu voters will get a rare chance to grill candidates for the open Board of Supervisors seat.

Democrats Bob Hertzberg and Lindsey Horvath are in the fall election against each other. 

On Sunday afternoon in 10 days  … the Malibu Democratic Club will have the forum … scheduled from 2 to 4 July 31st.

It is open to the public …. you have to pre-register … it will also be streamed on the Internet. Hertzberg … a current state senator … actually a big shot in Sacramento … he is the Senate majority leader.

Herzberg has made major news in Malibu by coming out early and publicly … against public camping in the hills just above Malibu.

Current supervisor Sheila Kuehl has been strongly in favor of that.

She has endorsed Lindsay Horvath for the race to replace her.

Horvath is a city council member from West Hollywood.

She has not been any public comment yet on camping in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Of course that’s a laser hot issue for Malibu.

But other issues that will be coming up at the forum on Sunday afternoon certainly will include the MRCA.

The Mountain Resource Conservation Authority is a local government agency that is not run by any Malibu people at all.

It’s board of directors are primarily parks departments in Simi Valley and the Thousands Oaks area. 

MRCA has been in constant legal conflict with Malibu.

Its actions have been endorsed by Sheila Kuehl … the current board of supervisors member who represents Malibu.

It will doubtlessly be a very informative session when the two candidates pair up against each other here in Malibu on Sunday afternoon.

[email protected] .

Support for KBUU Radio comes from the Malibu Brewing Company.

Malibu Brewing Company is a locally owned craft brewery, proudly supporting our community, and local public radio. 

Just released: a limited, holiday-spiced Winter Ale …  a perfect fireside companion.

It makes a special gift for the beer-lovers on your list.

Find Malibu Brewing Company premium craft beer in select retailers, or order direct at brew malibu dot com

====

Young Male Mountain Lion Makes It All the Way East To Winnetka On 101 Before Getting Hit And Killed

Another mountain lion from the Santa Monica Mountains has been killed on the 101 Freeway  … but this cat made it way into the San Fernando Valley.

The young male mountain lion was numbered P 89.

He was found dead along the shoulder of the 101 freeway open mile east of the Topanga Canyon interchange. 

Specifically, ,,, P-89 had been in the large brushy area on the hillside between the DeSoto and and Winnetka exits.

He was struck around 2 a.m. Monday. 

P-89 had been outfitted with a radio tracking collar.

He met his demise moire than 10 miles away from the 90 million dollar wildlife overpass … that is about to start construction. 

P-89 was the fourth mountain lion to be killed by vehicles this year in the local area. 

One of them was killed crossing PCH just west of Trancas.

Wildlife crossings are not going to mean an end to the death of wild animals … but a reduction … and a decrease in human injuries in crashes as well… officials hope. 

Support for KBUU Radio comes from the Malibu Foundation.

The Malibu Foundation underwrote the KBUU solar panels and batteries at the transmitter … which keeps KBUU’s FM transmitting on 99.1 during storms and blackouts… 24 seven… on clean renewable Malibu sunshine.

====

CPUC Demands Answers From SCE On Avoiding Intentional Power Outages, As $10 Million Fine Issued

Remember Thanksgiving 2021???  Malibu was in covid lockdown … and Southern California Edison blacked out the Malibu coast because it was forecast to get windy.

Not that it got that windy … it was forecast to get windy. 

Thanksgiving 21 is specifically mentioned by SCE in its lessons learned report … just filed with regulators at the California Public Utilities Commission. 

Edison now says … in order to prevent a replay of Thanksgiving ’21 … it spent last year hardening circuits in Malibu

The company says its 2022 Grid Hardening efforts include fixing the most-impacted circuits from Thanksgiving 2021 event.

And what is this grid hardening????

Edison has just told the California Public Utilities Commission that it plans to install over 150 miles of covered … plastic-insulated power lines … this year … in high fire risk areas.

It has so far managed to install 114 miles of that target.

Edison says it is going to install 8 automatic switches this year.

That’s 150 miles and 8 switches in a power system that stretches 104 thousand miles.

State regulators will demand that Southern California Edison explain what it is doing to reduce wind-driven intentional power blackouts this fall.

This comes just weeks after the state proposed 10 million dollars in fines against the utility … which delivers electricity to most of Southern California under a monopoly delivery franchise. 

Southern California Edison will have two hours or so to explain its new plan for cutting electricity when it gets windy in high fire risk areas … like Malibu. 

As KBUU has uncovered … SCE has set a sustained wind speed forecast … not actually winds … but a forecast … of 28 miles per hour as a trigger to kill the power.

Other triggers go into the decision …. Like the dryness of the air and the condition of the vegetation.

There is no independent measurement as to whether the new insulation covered lines are reducing fires. 

But there is independent measurement as to whether they are reducing the number of outages.

They are not.

The number and the length of power blackouts in Malibu are both increasing,. 

The latest reliability measurements … required by state law to be filed a week ago.

Edison has not posted them … neither has the California Public Utilities Commission. 

The SCE dog and pony show for the CPUC will be on Monday afternoon … August First … at 2 in the afternoon.

It should be pointed out that an independent law enforcement team at the same state agency wants to slap Southern California Edison with more than $22 million in fines for botching power shutoffs meant to reduce the threat of wildfires in 2020.

The proposed fine comes from the CPUC’s safety and enforcement arm.

And it comes just months after the California State Auditor blasted the CPUC for failing to consistently impose penalties when it knows that utilities have committed safety violations.

Specifically … the state auditor general found that the state’s investor owned utilities are hit with nconsistent enforcement of safety violations.

And the auditor said the CPUC fails to make sure utilities prioritize hardening power lines in the highest-risk areas.

Monarch Butterfly Population Is Fluttering But Low, Bug Added To Endangered List

The monarch butterfly was put onto an endangered list by a group of scientists.

A small rebound in population in winter population county this year may only be a blip on the fast dwindling numbers of butterflies across North America.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature added the migrating monarch butterfly for the first time to its “red list” of threatened species and categorized it as “endangered” — two steps from extinct.

The group estimates that the population of monarch butterflies in North America has declined between 22% and 72% over 10 years, depending on the measurement method.

Habitat destruction was an early threat…. But the bigger and newer problem is American farmers using millions of tons of glyphosate, a herbicide that is used in the weed killer Roundup.

“Glyphosate is suddenly sprayed over vast acreage of farm in the Midwest,” Ms. Walker said. “That took out a lot of the milkweed plants that the monarch caterpillars rely on.”

The New York Times today notes that the population count of monarchs is sort of complicated right now. 

summer monarch counts have declined in some areas while they have increasedin others.

This may because warmer weather in northern areas were actually helping monarchs thrive in those regions.
=====

Finally this morning … the herd of several dozen goats brought in to Trancas Canyon is wrapping up its work.

The malibu West homeowners brought in the goats to further remove weeds along the fire breaks,

Yesterday there was a goodbye goats party … and a goat drive up Paseo Canyon Drive.,…

NEWSCART A73485

1:34 NAT SND

=====

 

You can hear the news live every morning until 9:30 on KBUU.

FM 99.1 in western Malibu.  Also: streaming at www.radiomalibu.net

Between 10 and 2 … you can hear the newscast playback loop on KBU2. That’s on FM 99.1 HD2 in your car, or streaming at s7.viastreaming.net/6500

If humanly possible, the KBUU NewsScript is usually published at around midday at www.radiomalibu.net