And The New City Manager Is … We Still Have No Explanation For Delay

Malibu does not have a city manager … and the city council is not saying why.

Ten days ago … the city council emerges form days and days of s]closed door interviews add meetings.

The city is lawyer announced a unanimous, five to nothing vote to higher a former city manager of Palmdale, Ronda Perez, to be Malibu’s day-to-day, chief executive officer.

The city council announced that her vote would be ratified at the next regular city Council meeting, which was Monday night.

But something has gone wrong… And we don’t know what… And we don’t know why no vote was taken that night.

During public comment… One of the boosters of Rhonda Perez said she had driven all the way down from Palmdale to Malibu to endorse Perez … and urge her appointment.

PEREZ BOOSTER 

“In times like this, strong, compassionate and capable leadership is essential.

“Ronda Perez brings exactly that.

“In the role as city manager of Palmdale, Ronda led with vision and purpose.

“She managed complex city operations, guided us through emergency planning and recovery, and always did so with the needs of residents at the center of every decisIon.

:She’s not just a skilled administrator, she is a community-minded leader, who listens, collaborates and acts with empathy and professionalism.”

There have been no public speakers… Internet attacks or any other outward science of dissatisfaction with the appointment of Rhonda Perez to be the city manager.

City Council members and the attorney who represents the city are saying nothing.

No announcements about a future city council meeting have been made.

The entire city council inaction … a complete mystery.

As for Candace Bond … the long-time Malibu resident who is a former ambassador to Caribbean nations for President Joe Biden… she remains running Malibu City Hall on a day to day … fill-in basis.

There’s no immediate word from the city council on what they will do next about the city manager vacancy …  or what is the ultimate fate of Ronda Perez…their candidate with unanimous support.

Sewer Loses Support From Some City Council Members, But Study Of Costs Will Continue

Malibu city Council last night voted to cautiously… But quickly… Continue to study and planned for a sewer along Pacific Coast Highway in the fire area.

But city council members said they doubt they will vote for the sewer … which is intended to speed up reconstruction of oceanfront housing that burned during the Palisades fire a half year ago.

And a split has developed between residents who live on the beach … 

Some say they should be allowed to use new high-tech septic tanks … rather than wait, five years for completion of the PCH sewer … 

Which by the way may take much longer than that… And may cost a lot more than the quarter million dollars per lot that is the current estimate.

And some city council members last night said they will not vote for the sewer if it means a type of assistance that other fire victims will not get.

Last night … it became a parent that two different factions are developing along the ocean… politely, but diametrically opposed.

On one side, I residents like Dean Wenner … who say early cost estimates for individual… do it themselves onsite sewage treatment plants were way overblown. 

Wenner says the costs for the sewer may far exceed the current 124 million dollar city estimated guess.

And he says the early estimates for high tech septic systems … going it alone and putting individual onsite wastewater treatment on each lot … they were wildly too big.

Dean Wenner. 

WENNER COSTS

“We don’t want to cause uproar … we want to be neighborly … we want to get unity. 

“But its is not going to be a one size fits all.

“And we need to hone in in the costs and the duration for getting it done, but also we need to understand that the costs that were discussed for septic and seawalls are coming down … a lot.

”Its going to come down to between 70 to 90 (thousand dollars) for an advanced system.

“And when groups of owners come together, it’s going to come down even more.”

But some neighbors disagreed.

One Big Rock area beachfront owner said last night … his little 33 foot long beachfront lot will cost 660 thousand dollars to protect with a seawall,

He predicted the overall cost for advanced septic systems protected by seawalls …  will easily exceed twice the expense of the proposed sewer.

SEWER EXPENSIVE

“Im going say that Dean is not correct, The costs are not going down. 

“Material escalation is going to go up, construction escalation is going to go up. 

“The logistics of building PCH are always going to be difficult. It doesn’t matter if you neighbor is not there. Or if they are there. 

“Contractors are going to have to be next to PCH, but not on anybody else’s property and not on PCH.

“So it is always going to be expensive.”

City engineer Rob DuBoux is negotiating with the City of Los Angeles … the City of Santa Monica … LA County and the Regional Water Quality control Board on hooking there fire destroyed lots Into the Hyperion Treatment Center near LAX.

State officials are pushing for that.

The Water Board may prohibit septic tanks in the fire rebuild waterfront area. 

And the sewer would have to be a tax district … charging every single lot owner about 269 thousand dollars to hook up.

DuBoux is looking into allowing homeowners to build septic tanks to use until the sewer is finished .. it if is finished … in 2030. 

Maybe even allowing oceanfront homeowners to build sewage holding tanks and pumping it out via trucks … until the sewer pipes are connected. 

Next up … a preliminary design report by this fall. 

Malibu Fire Danger Is Taking Upwards, But Recent Fires Have Removed Major Fire Heat Sources

Malibu is still in the typical summertime fire danger right now … with a fairly typical amount of dryness in the bush.

The fuel moisture content in the Santa Monica Mountains is at about 67 percent right now.

Not too dry … the extreme fire danger threshold is below 60 percent. 

But it is low enough for fires to break out in the Santa Monica Mountains.

Assistant fire chief Drew Smith painted the picture for the city of Malibu last night … an update on the latest fir conditions. 

And he says … the hills are ripe for small … localized fires … fieres that spread in the terrain … driven by downcoast winds. 

SMITH RIDGELINES

“When you have that hot sun, with a slope alignment and fire energy pushing up canyon and up slope … and that wind alignment pushing it … this is how you get a 40 acre fire.

“We routinely do not have stuff in there Santa Monica Mountains that start along the PCH and go their way north that get over 150 acres, hard to find for that to happen.

“And if it does … we usually have significant opportunities of success … because when when we lose that sunlight … then we lose that alignment figures … we get routine down canyon and downslope winds … we can catch it at ridge lines. 

The recent fires … even those all the way back to Woolsey … have still cut Malibu some slack … in terms of fire danger … according to chief Smith.

He’s known across Southern California as the fire whisper.

And he’s seen summer like this before in Malibu.

CHIEF LIGHT FUELS 

“We’re in the area now when  the City of Malibu … that has had fire frequency since the woolsey Fire in 2018 and now the Palisades Fire … where you can have  the same rate of spread.

But when you have light fields … when it is hot dry and windy … our control efforts are a lot different because the heat energy that comes out of the fuel bed is different” 

So what are Chief Smith’s final words?

Three. 

Ready – set – go.

And when they say go … leave.

City Still Evaluating FM Alarms And Sirens For Wake-up Calls

And the City Council voted last night to bring in a portable… loud siren on a trailer… to test it out.

The city council is still trying to come up with a way to warn people inside their houses… To wake them up if a fire or tsunami come.

The alert, FM system is still favored by some city council members… Using silent FM radios that will sound an alarm if the city sets one off.

The technology has not yet been tested in Malibu’s lousy area coverage area… those test will continue later this summer. 

County Plans Sand Aid To Zuma-Area Beaches

Three projects to help rebuild Malibu’s shrinking beaches were outlined to the Malibu city council Monday night. 

One would add a huge amount of sand to the disappearing beaches from Zuma south to Point Dume.  Another would add sand dunes to provide surge tide control, and help wild birds.  And the third would use surplus sand from future construction projects  up and down the coast.

Details were scant – the projects are in their infancy.

L A County’s beaches are just about the only beaches between Ventura and the Mexican border that do not get regular replenishing of sand.

The county has identified Zuma Beach as a place where stand is desperately needed. 

Emiko Innes is a coastal resilience project manager with L A County Beaches and Harbors … 

And she says Broad Beach … Zuma Beach and Pt Dume Beach have been starved for sand for the past 50 years.

SAND STARVED

“Researchers found that the sand that used to come down form Mugu Canyon up north to this area has been trapped for the last 30 to 50 years.

“This means that we have lost a large sand supply for the Zuma Littoral Cell … adding for reasons for need to find sources of sand from elsewhere … to nourish the beaches that in this area.”

Although the county workers did not mention it … there was major construction decades ago just up the coast from Point Mug more than 50 years ago. 

That would be the construction of the U S Navy artificial harbor … at the navy base at Port Hueneme.

Beaches up at the Navy base there have been completely eroded … by the construction of a huge rock seawall that created a port entrance and dramatically changed the ocean currents.  

Instead of current carrying sand down the coast towards Malibu … the sand gets trapped at the harbor entrances … which get clogged and regularly dredged.

That sand goes to the north … to reconstruct beaches in Ventura county.

For the first time … Los Angeles County says it is trying to come up with a plan to re-create beaches at Zuma. 

But some city council members objected … like Haylynn Conrad … who mentioned that she is a surfer.

SURFER HAYLYNN

“How is this going to affect the surf?

“Zuma has really nice large beaches … probably the biggest that we have here.

“I would say put the money into fixing the bathrooms … and also the buildings that you are hoping to proetect 

“Because they are outdated and nobody can use them.

“I understand the environment is protect is important… but I would think we could use the money to fix the Zuma beach underpass first.”

Russ Budreaux … a beach engineer with the county … answered that protecting surfing is what this project is all about.

ARMOR BEACH RUSS BUDREAUX 

“As beaches narrow, we don’t have a sandy beach. 

“Then the waves will break on the existing infrastructure … sea walls … something like that. 

“When you talk about concerns about surfing I would think the better response would be surfing on a sandy beach … where you don’t have reflected waves coming in and out … 

“A sandy beach would be better in that situation.

“And plus a sandy beach provides more natural protection … as opposed to where you have more armoring …”

Russ Budreaux … from LA County .. was one of the designers of the Malibu Lagoon project 25 years ago.

And that connection was not lost on two surfers … who bitterly fought the Malibu Lagoon makeover back then.

They both called in last night … BEFORE even hearing the plan details … to immediately oppose the county sand project at Zuma Beach. 

There is no money allocated for it … yet. 

And no source of sand … although the county is asking the City of Los Angeles for permission to dig up sand off the end of the LAX runways.

If a sand source can be found … sand can only be placed west of Zuma Creek … due to state regulations.

But the county beaches experts say time is urgent. 

The sand they need every fall … to build the winter storm berms to protect buildings at Zuma Bdea … there is less and less of it every year.