New Council Members Take Office Monday

BY BILL KOENEKER

Newly elected Malibu City Council members Jefferson Wagner and John Sibert and reelected member Pamela Conley Ulich will be made official at a special meeting Monday night at City Hall at 6 p.m.
The session, traditionally called the city council reorganization meeting, involves taking the oath of office, determination of the posts of mayor and mayor pro tem, farewell remarks by outgoing members and comments from incoming members.
Outgoing Mayor Jeff Jennings and Councilmember Ken Kearsley, who are both termed out of office, will be on the dais for the last time when their replacements take their seats.
As soon as the ballots were tallied Tuesday night, rumors started flying about possible changes in policy for the rotation of the largely ceremonial post of mayor.
Although city officials say there is an official written policy on the seating arrangements for the five members of the council, they indicate that there does not appear to be an official policy regarding mayoral rotation.
The current mayor pro tem, Pamela Conley Ulich, who was the top vote-getter in Tuesday’s election, would be next in line for the mayor’s post if a straight rotation system applies. But she will be passed over, if Malibu’s “unofficial” policy that each election cycle is a new beginning prevails. Conley Ulich was not available for comment.
Instead City Hall watchers say the gavel will be passed to one of the sitting council members, Andy Stern. “I assumed I was going to be mayor,” Stern told the Malibu Surfside News. He said he believes the tradition for Malibu is to change the rotation at each election cycle.
Municipal history on this is murky. The mayoral selection process in the first few years of Malibu incorporation was shaky.
In the original cityhood election in April 1991, Walt Keller, the top vote-getter, was selected by the council for the post. Then seven months later, a reorganization proposal was offered by Councilmember Missy Zeitsoff to change the selection process. In September 1991, a three-vote majority on the city council ousted Keller and the gavel was turned over to Mayor Pro Tem Larry Wan.
Upon being elected mayor by the council, Wan said he would serve a seven-month term and turn the gavel over after the April 1992 election, thereby putting the council on an annual timetable for the mayoral post.
However, seven months later, Keller again assumed the post when Wan nominated incumbent Carolyn Van Horn—the top vote-getter and the only incumbent to win reelection—but she declined and nominated Keller. Two newly sworn-in members also supported Keller.
Starting with this latest Keller term, the council agreed to rotate the mayor post on an annual basis as recommended by Wan the previous year.
The option of a separately elected mayor was overruled in favor a system based on a council of five citywide representatives at the start of the incorporation effort.