New Policies on Firefighting Announced at Town Hall

• Authorities Emphasize Need for Personal Preparedness and Self-Reliance during Crises

BY BILL KOENEKER

While over a thousand fires burned in North­ern California, Malibu res­idents came together with fire officials, city personnel and other governmental representatives to talk about fire safety in the aftermath of the three local fires last year.
Homeowners learned that some changes have already been implemented while firefighters and authorities prepare for the next probable disaster.
Los Angeles County Chief P. Michael Freeman announced that water-dropping helicopters will now automatically be dispatched at night to fight fires. He ex­plained in the past it was a decision made on a selective basis. Freeman said fixed wing craft would still be relegated to flying only during daylight hours.
The fire chief also announced that there will be increased pre-deployment of firefighters. “Fire­fighting response is much of a race,” he said, as he explained how high winds and exceptionally dry vegetation created flying em­bers that managed to get ahead of the fire line and burn homes.
Freeman showed video clips of the two most recent Malibu fires that demonstrated how flying em­bers sometimes ignited ornamental vegetation, thereby dooming some homes to ashes. “Orna­mental plants can be a major contributor,” he noted.
Besides the emphasis on brush clearing, Freeman said it is equally important to look at structures to determine if there are small openings where embers can lodge during a firestorm.
Freeman, as well as city officials and the sheriff, emphasized that lives are the top priority.
Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich, who had spearheaded the town hall, agreed. “Property can be re­placed, people cannot,” she said.
Conley Ulich was blunt about how residents should respond, “Trust in self reliance, you cannot depend on the government.”
Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca emphasized there were at least four things that needed to be done better. “We must get better at mass communication, re­stricting access in hazardous ar­eas, protection of utilities and have an evacuation plan,” he said.
Baca also talked about mandatory evacuation. “We do not issue orders arbitrarily. What if you stay? We do not have time to make arrests, but we prefer you leave. If you do stay, you will be in a closure. You may need supplies for two to four days. At the end of the closure, shops may still be closed. If you leave, fire and police will not let you back in,” he added.
The city’s emergency prepar­edness coordinator, Brad Davis, said the city began immediately to change things after the lessons learned during the fire.
He said the notification system has been upgraded. The survival guide is finished and mailed out. “We will have more Red Cross shelters,” he added.
Davis introduced a local resident who has spearheaded neighborhood plans. Cindy Vandor of Malibu West spoke about how the canyon subdivision has become cognizant of grants and help that can be obtained from various outside agencies.
She said the neighbors want to make sure the edge of the subdivision that is surrounded by wildlands is clear of vegetation, and that residents understand the need for an adequate water supply.

Sheriff Baca Urges Local EOC Facility But County Has Other Plans

BY BILL KOENEKER

To thunderous applause, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca told the crowd at last week’s town hall meeting that he wants to bring a state-of-the-art emergency operations center training facility and policing station to the old Malibu sheriff’s station.
“It is a very exciting concept,” seconded Captain Tom Martin of the Lost Hills Sheriff’s station. “To have an actual training facility in this area.”
The law enforcement representatives talked about how the training campus proposed for the station closed in 1991 would have access to the radio relay tower, heliport and fuel pumps already in place. It would consist of two classrooms and the EOC.
Martin said the office space might also be used by the Cali­fornia Highway Patrol or the fire department.
Martin made the case that while Malibu is a safe community, more that 43 percent of the ar­rests in the Lost Hills jurisdiction occur in Malibu. He said a local substation would re­duce travel time for officers and the public.
Baca talked about how disaster personnel would benefit from being in a perfect location for training because of the geographic features and the fact that there are 50 percent more disasters than anywhere else in the county.
But what wasn’t discussed is that the building is owned by the county and its use is determined by the board of supervisors. And currently, the board is in negotiations with Santa Monica College to sell the building for its use.
Baca had made it clear months ago that he was displeased with any other county plans for utilizing the station for anything but law en­forcement.
However, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who said he did not want to engage in any war of words with Baca, confirmed that the county owns the building and any disposition of the property is determined by the board of supervisors.
Yaroslavsky indicated that the county is proceeding with sale of the property and negotiations have reached a breakthrough. “We are ac­tively negotiating with the college. I personally have spoken with the president of the college. We are looking at preserving some space for a substation,” said Yaros­lavsky, who added the plans for acquiring the property call for tearing down the building.
The supervisor said the first time anyone in the county heard about the sheriff’s plans for an EOC in the complex is when they read about it in the Malibu Surfside News.
“Nobody was consulted. Neither myself, the chief executive officer, the fire department. The EOC training center came out of left field. It does not make sense to have a fixed EOC in various regions. We have an EOC in East Los Angeles. You have got to be mobile in places liked Malibu and Santa Clarita. You can’t be a prisoner of a fixed asset. That is why we spend thousands of dollars on vans, trucks and other mobile units,” he said.
The supervisor indicated he believes it will be no more than two months before a sales deal is finalized and a term sheet brought back to the board. “The voters have said they wanted a college. The county, the city and the college have been working on this,” he said.

Young White Shark Drops By Malibu for Six-Day Visit

• Juvenile Male Placed in Point Dume Holding Pen Decided the Menu Wasn’t to His Liking

BY ANNE SOBLE

A juvenile white shark that was accidentally caught by a commercial fisherman last Tuesday spent six days in the Monterey Bay Aquarium holding pen at Paradise Cove before being released into the ocean on Sunday.
The shark, a young-of-the-year shark—that’s a shark less than 12 months old—measured four-foot, nine inches in length.
First described by an MBA spokes­person as navigating well in the pen, the shark was offered food—primarily mackerel caught locally by the field team. White sharks this age are fish-eaters.
Ken Peterson of MBA said the staff usually makes a decision on whether to tag and release a shark from the pen, or bring it to Mon­terey as a candidate for temporary exhibit, within two to three weeks of the time it is put in the pen.
But this shark was not swimming as well in confinement as the MBA staff wanted, and hadn’t eaten any of the fish put out for him. Even though it was possible the shark was eating schools of baitfish swimming in the pen, they could not quantify his intake.
Peterson said, “The evaluation of the folks in the field, supported by our white shark team in Mon­terey and our veterinarian, was it was in the best interests of the animal to tag him and release him back to the wild.”
In addition to the young male released last weekend, MBA re­search colleagues have field-tagged and released three other juvenile white sharks since the Memorial Day weekend.
MBA began the white shark field research program in 2002 and brought three animals to the aquarium for periods up to six months in 2004, 2006 and 2007. All three were tagged and re­turned to the wild.
The tag on the most recent re­lease, in February of this year, just popped off about halfway up the Sea of Cortez. The data from the tag is being analyzed for information about depths and water temperatures during the shark’s travels.
A second tag, that reports only his approximate position, is still on the shark and will transmit for another couple of months until the battery runs out.
Scientists at the aquarium indicate a preference for calling the animals white sharks rather than use the popular term great white shark in order to downplay the sensationalism of the commercial demonization of the species.

Conservancy Plans for LCP Override to Be Aired July 14

• Overnight Camping in Three Areas Is Key to Package

BY BILL KOENEKER

To the apparent chagrin and surprise of Malibu city of­ficials, the executive di­rec­­tor of the Cal­ifornia Coastal Com­mission has determined that the controversial plan of the San­­ta Monica Moun­tains Con­ser­vancy that in­cludes overnight camping can be treated as a Lo­cal Coastal Pro­gram amendment override.
The Malibu City Council has scheduled a public hearing on Monday, July 14, on the matter.
City planners had submitted an LCP amendment to the commission that did not include overnight camping and other changes that were bitterly opposed by SMMC head Joe Edmiston, who had threatened to proceed with an override.
The city’s position is that because SMMC and the Moun­tains Re­creation Conser­vation Auth­ority invoked the LCP override provision, it allows the Coas­tal Com­mission to consider whe­th­er to amend the city’s LCP “outside the usual procedures and ap­prove the ‘Malibu Parks Pub­lic Access Enhancement Plan Ov­erlay District’ proposed by the SMMC and MRCA.”
That plan calls for overnight campsite facilities within park boundaries at Ramirez Canyon Park, Escondido Canyon Park and Corral Canyon Park, a comprehensive program for acquiring and improving the Coastal Slope Trail and extensive uses at Ramirez Canyon Park at the SMMC’s headquarters.
City Attorney Christi Hogin has indicated that according to the com­mission’s regulations, the city may make its own determination whether the LCP override provisions apply and wheth­er to amend the LCP to approve the proposal or otherwise make recommendations to the com­mis­sion on the proposal. She has indicated that is the purpose of the city council meeting.
The overnight camping provisions, a former compromise that included overnight camping at Charmlee Park brokered by municipal officials, inflamed the public, who subsequently de­mand­ed in packed council chambers that council members drop any references, policies or provisions to overnight camping and battle it out with the SMMC and CCC over the issue.
The council reluctantly did so with some council members predicting the battle was just beginning rather than ending.

• The Publisher’s Notebook •

Safety First on the Fourth in Malibu

BY ANNE SOBLE

Despite some Southland cities’ unwillingness to crack down on local groups that are so short-sighted as to be willing to put lives and property in danger by continuing to sell the so-called, and anything but, safe-and-sane fireworks, clearer heads in­creasingly prevail. Until these sales are completely curbed, however, for the few dollars that could just as easily be raised other ways, the Fourth of July week­end will result in num­erous injuries to people and animals and the potential threat of starting a major conflagration when close to 1500 uncontained wildfires rage throughout the rest of the state. Any adverse effects from the use of these “unsafe-and-insane” fireworks rest squarely on the shoulders of the organizations that persist in this irresponsibility.
Fireworks of any kind, even seemingly in­noc­uous ones, are illegal in the City of Malibu and unincorporated Malibu. This ban covers all public property, including the beaches, as well as all private property. The fire danger is currently so high that officials are urging that incidents of fireworks use be reported to law enforcement authorities. Because of the tinder dry conditions, all other outdoor fires, such as barbecues, should also be closely monitored at all times, even if wind conditions remain peaceful.
Those needing pyrotechnic fixes can find them in the form of offshore fireworks displays set for Friday. Permits have been issued for two 9 p.m. shows—one from a barge off the Malibu Colony, the other off 27900 Pacific Coast Highway. A third may yet be slated for the west end. Whether or not your Fourth of July comes with the noise, smoke and smell of explosives, have a wonderful holiday.

Condor Chicks Evacuated as Wildfire Advances on Sanctuary

• Thousands of Northern California Blazes Move Southward with No End in Sight

BY REBECCA DMYTRYK

It was pretty amazing. We were watching last week’s lightning storm roll into Monterey Bay. It had been a brutally hot day until high clouds moved in from the West. Within minutes it turned cool and breezy. We hiked to the top of our hill where we have a panoramic view of the bay. The clouds were wild—one dark formation looked like a creepy cob­web. Lightning, thun­der, wind, and a few drops of rain. Sand devils rose from the dunes at Moss Landing.
A branched strike of light­ning ignited the Corral de Tierra fire in Carmel Valley. While small grass fires flared up all around the Monterey Bay area, farther south, along the coast of Big Sur, lightning ignited heavy brush in a small rugged canyon. That fire became know as the Gallery Fire. Since June 21, the Gallery Fire merged with the Basin Fire in the Ventana Wilderness. Firefighters have predicted that it will merge with the Indians Fire—a blaze start­ed by a campfire June 8.
Nearly 90,000 acres of wil­derness have been de­stroyed. In the early stages of the Gallery Fire it was not clear whether a group of captive California con­dors should be disturbed and moved from their flight pens in a remote area, just south of Big Sur. The eight birds, one adult male mentor and seven juveniles, are part of a re­in­troduction program ad­ministrated by the Ventana Wildlife Society.
Their secluded condor re­­lease site is used to pre­pare captive-born con­dors for life in the wild—ac­cli­mating them to their sur­roundings and allowing them to socialize with wild condors that visit the fac­ility. Hoi, the adult condor, mentors the youngsters, teaching them social eti­quette and survival skills. With only 315 California con­dors in existence, fewer than half living in the wild, these birds are inval­uable to the species’ fu­ture.
By Sunday morn­ing, the fire was shifting direc­tions and gaining ground. The call was made to evac­uate the condors. By that time however, Highway 1 had been closed and all road ac­cess to the condor sanc­tuary was shut down. The on­ly way they could be res­cued was by helicop­ter. Fire resources were spread thin tending to the near 1100 blazes in California.
Having called upon the Coast Guard once before for a sea lion rescue off Point Dume, I decided to give them a jingle. Just as I’d thought, they were eager to help if only they could find an available air crew and get approval for the mission. I went ahead and doubled my chances by also calling the state Office of Emer­gen­cy Ser­vices as the Coast Guard suggested. I found that they too were willing to look into allocating re­sources to help the birds. By early afternoon we received the word. It was a go. A Coast Guard unit had been assigned to the mission, and the Gover­nor’s Office called with in­structions to rescue the birds from danger.
The race was on—a race against the fire, the weath­er, and daylight. By 3:45 p.m., the first leg of the opera­tion was underway. A team of three biologists from Ventana Wildlife So­ciety boarded the Coast Guard helicopter at Mon­terey Jet Center air­field. They were going to be dropped off as close to the facility as possible, hike in, confine the birds into dog crates, and use their one ATV to transport the ani­mals back to the landing pad. They had four and a half hours of daylight left.
Joe Burnett, senior wildlife biologist for the condor program led the rescue team. Joining him was Mike Tyner and Henry Bonifas. In over 90-degree temperature, the young men made their way down the dirt road toward the condors—a 2.5-mile trek. Ash floated down like snow. The air was still and an eerie silence gripped the canyon. The team worked quickly to capture and cage each of the nearly 20-pound birds.
It was not easy work as the birds, with their 9-foot wing span, could easi­ly fly from one end of their flight pen to the next. Once in their German shep­herd-size dog crates, the birds were carted up the wind­ing, craggy dirt road to the rendezvous point, two at a time. Over three hours passed before the first group of five condors was airlifted out of danger. They were quickly off­loaded to an awaiting vehi­­cle that would take them to Pinnacles National Monument to be housed in condor enclosures there. The Wildlife Society and Pinnacles have collabor­ated on condor recovery since 2003.
At day’s end, the re­main­ing condors and their weary rescuers landed safe­ly out of harm’s way, thanks to the tremendous effort by the U.S. Coast Guard. The fire swept across the canyon two days after the evacuation. It is still not known what, if anything, remains of the society’s condor flight pens and research cabin.
While the rescued con­dors are safely housed at Pin­nacles, attention has turned to the fate of the wild-flying condors, in­cluding three chicks. The condors are fitted with rad­io transmitters. Joe and his team are tracking the birds daily, hoping to con­firm that all forty or so birds are still alive. At this point, one female, Condor 222, is unaccounted for. She is the mother of one of the chicks. Joe spotted her in a snag near the facility as the last of the birds were evacuated. Condors, like most diurnal birds, do not fly at night. She may have stayed roosting as the fire advanced. As for the three chicks, we know that two are safe in their nests. The third—its condition is un­known. The fire burned everything around its red­wood home. We hope its old growth home pro­tected it from the fire and heat.
As for the facility, with luck, it survived. If not, it will mean starting over to rebuild the enclosures and research facility. Anyone in­terested in getting in­volved or helping to sup­port this program, can con­tact Ventana Wildlife Soci­ety’s executive director, Kelly Sorenson, at 831-455-9514.

Malibu Media Maelstrom Ensues as Paparazzi Dominate News Coverage

• Mainstream Press Legitimizes Edited Video without Investigating Photographers’ Allegations

BY ANNE SOBLE

During a weekend when record-breaking temperatures dominated the news, two Malibu beach brawls made headlines around the world and have many locals scratching their heads and wondering whether the hot weather may have been affecting the media.
Residents have been voicing concern that an erroneous picture of an event has now been repeated so many times by so many media that it has assumed a life of its own. They say this, while in no way condoning what may be construed to be unseemly behavior by people who live here.
Basically the facts for anyone who has had no electronic contact with the world in the last six days is that rowdy donnybrooks occurred on Point Dume beaches on Saturday and Sunday.
The melees have been dubbed by celebrity websites as clashes between “the paparazzi” and “the surfers.” That these sites might favor the paparazzi could have something to do with their dependence on them for content.
The incidents, the first of which ostensibly erupted as actor Matthew McConaughey was surfing off Little Dume, are alleged to have resulted in one broken nose and camera gear damages estimated at over $10,000.
Videos of the skirmishes have been replayed endlessly on these websites and have either been given or sold to nearly every major media outlet, most of which appear to use them without questioning their authenticity.
The Little Dume video appears edited to slur locals who sought to evict the paparazzi from the dry sand at the beach. There has been little play of some photographers doing the filming reportedly urging their comrades to “keep going” as “this is good stuff.”
Some locals are asking whether the paparazzi, knowing that their aggressive behavior has been in the news lately, decided to take the makings of a tense situation and spin them to their advantage.
Several of the people at the beach, a mix of Point Dume residents and visitors, many of whom would hardly fit the notion of the stereotypical surfer, currently decline attribution because there is concern about litigation against individuals and the property owners association that has the private beach easement where the first brawl took place.
The Riviera II Property Owners Association, one of the groups that oversee the beach key access to Little Dume Beach, held a closed meeting Monday night to address some of the legal issues that might have been raised.
A number of the citizens who were involved in the clashes are in the process of filing police reports of their own. At least one of them, a lifelong Malibuite, has brought local attorney Michael Schwimer on board to begin to address what they say is an imbalance in the outside media’s coverage of the event.
Schwimer said, “The real story is still coming out. The rest of the media have taken the paparazzi’s spoon-fed story and run with it. They have done no investigations of what happened.”
He acknowledges that some of the group called the surfers, who should more accurately be described as a group of beachgoers, “may have been pushed so hard that they pushed back.” But he is adamant that “the video is so heavily edited to mischaracterize the situation and portray the Malibu residents as aggressors, when in fact it was the opposite.”
Schwimer said it is damning that mainstream media would take “obviously edited” video “at face value,” even “picking up the same inaccurate labels of paparazzi and surfers” as used by the celebrity websites. The terms repeatedly appear in print headlines and broadcast references.
The Malibu Surfside News has received undisclosed information that a knife was drawn by a paparazzo. A report that one of the residents at the scene had a wound that required five stitches has been confirmed. And tripods were recorded being used as weapons.
The team of investigators from the Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station has been trying to obtain copies of the original videotapes but has been unsuccessful.
Schwimer says what was happening at both beach locations is “a public safety issue.” He says the state paparazzi legislation that is on the books should be enforced, adding that an emphasis on “disturbing the peace and public nuisance” is imperative.
The attorney said he is beginning to question whether there was “an element of purposefulness” in the Little Dume fracas, as “facts suggest an effort to capitalize” on the situation by filming it.
Schwimer said there are currently several Web postings about “another round” to take place at the beach on Saturday, June 28. “There appears to be a real intention to promote violence.”
He added that some of the photographers from the incident have reportedly obtained the telephone numbers of some of the beachgoers and have begun to make “threatening phone calls.”
Mainstream media scorn the paparazzi and differentiate them from professional journalists. Their coverage of the Malibu beach brouhahas demonstrate that the line between them is blurring.
As for McConaughey, he continued to surf unaware of what was happening the first day until he learned about it later. He also hit the waves the next day, albeit some distance from the second clash at Paradise Cove.
His publicist Alan Nierob said the incidents will not dissuade the actor from surfing, and “he will continue to enjoy the beautiful Malibu coastline.”

Citizen Task Force to Tackle View Law

• Council to Select from Applicants for 12-Person Panel

BY BILL KOENEKER

The Malibu City Council, by unanimous vote with Councilmember John Sibert absent, agreed this week to form a view preservation task force composed of 12 members, with each council member appointing two members, and the whole council tapping two more at-large members—one from the east end of the community and the other from the west end of town.
In April, the voters were asked to give their input on whether the city should undertake a measure and the electorate overwhelmingly advised the council they wanted to see a law on the books.
Some of those citizens came to council chambers to either warn the council of the pitfalls of such a committee, volunteer their services, or inform members of what the panel needed to do.
Marilyn Santman said she did not want to see the task force slow down the process of enacting a new law. “I am afraid it will get bogged down. We need a expediter to help the committee,” she said.
Leon Cooper explained that the City of Palos Verdes currently has a law on the books that has withstood the test of time and the courts, and might be a model for a Malibu ordinance.
Lou Lamont, head of the Big Rock Homeowners Association, told the council it must craft a law that takes into account all of the differences in geography of each neighborhood. “The important issues in Big Rock are different than La Costa, which is different than Carbon Mesa,” he said.
Sam Hall Kaplan, reminding the council of the overwhelming vote, said, “This is not simply a landscaping issue. It is also a construction issue. Also it is a fire issue. It is for the protection of properties and should be expedited.”
The council then discussed how many should be on the committee, how the appointments would be made, how folks could apply and if the panel should have another name.
The council briefly talked about how to reach out to the community for applicants, including contacting all of the homeowners associations. But shied away from that when they were told the staff could come back in September after getting all of the information and mailing it out to the HOAs.
“If the motion is accepted, I want this back for our next meeting to make our appointments,” said Councilmember Sharon Barovsky.
After the April vote, council members made view preservation their top priority and decided to form the blue ribbon panel to get the input of as many individuals as possible in the early formative stages of such a law.
Municipal officials are apparently using the Malibu County Estates process as a guide. After the city declared its intention to creating an ordinance for the neighborhood, city staff and the MCE homeowners association worked closely to craft a measure.
However, in the final days of passage and subsequent enactment critics came forward with numerous objections to how the law was written.
To head that off, city planners suggested that a blue ribbon committee could be very helpful in collecting and evaluating community concerns on a citywide law. The council concurred.
Mayor Pamela Conley Ulich had placed on the agenda a measure to form a blue ribbon committee to discuss potential uses of property at Point Dume that city officials are contemplating acquiring that was discussed later in the evening. It would have the same structure as the view panel.
The city is considering the purchase of the property for a potential site for a city hall, senior center, library, teen center or ball fields.
Several residents from Bonsall Drive, which is downslope of the 10-acre property under discussion, council the property was inappropriate for institutional or recreational use since it is so close to a residential neighborhood. The property is currently zoned rural residential. Most of the speakers said their property lines abut the subject property.
The announcement that the city might acquire the acreage currently operated as a plant nursery located north of the intersection of Heathercliff Road and Pacific Coast Highway has already generated considerable controversy.
Critics contend the rural nature of the property is not conducive to municipal or institutional uses, and that the mayor’s efforts are detracting from the proposed plans for other city projects.
However, supporters, including the Boys and Girls Club, suggest the site would be ideal for a teen center or a satellite library.
The financial realities suggest a library or city hall might be more feasible since there is money already set aside for those two uses in the city coffers, and both uses come with an annual revenue stream.