Triathlon Seeks to Become Two-Day Event in Malibu

• West Malibu Residents Experience Major Disruptions

BY BILL KOENEKER

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.