One More Prospective Candidate Has Pulled Election Nominating Papers

• The Deadline to Submit Completed Forms Is Jan. 15

BY BILL KOENEKER

Michael Sidley, a Serra Retreat resident, pulled nominating papers for the upcoming Malibu City Council election this week, according to the Malibu City Clerk’s office.

Sidley is the ninth individual who has pulled papers. The action is the first step for campaigning for the April city council election, when two seats are up for grabs. Both Mayor Sharon Barovsky and Councilmember Andy Stern are termed out of office. No one has yet returned nominating papers.

Sidley said he wanted to run because the city, more than ever, needs quality leadership and he finds it lacking. He said he watched in amazement as the city “gave away $1 million to two sophisticated businessmen.”

Sidley is referring to the bailout loan package offered to the two developers of the Malibu Lumberyard.

“We need bright creative minds,” Sidley said. “I grew up here. My children are growing up here. I want to see the community grow in the right direction. We have complicated, potentially expensive issues,” he said.

Sidley, an attorney, is head of his own firm, the Sidley Law Group, which specializes in civil litigation and criminal defense in federal and state courts.

Sidley was a public defender with Los Angeles County for a brief stint before he began private practice. He has worked in various national presidential campaigns for Walter Mondale, Michael Dukakis and Bill Clinton.

He has also been involved in state politics, including acting as chair of the Democratic Party Assembly Committee from 1995 to 1997. according to the firm’s website.

Other potential candidates who have pulled papers include education activist Laura Rosenthal, who has been president of the Santa Monica Malibu PTA Council, and announced her candidacy several weeks ago.

Rosenthal also helped spearhead a recent effort to consider separating Malibu from the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District.

Rosenthal has been vocal supporter of many of the school district’s tax and bond measures. She is active at the Malibu High School campus and has been involved in school board and city council campaign activities. Rosenthal currently serves on the city’s Public Works Commission.

Rosenthal’s campaign manager is Kathy Wisnicki, who unsuccessfully ran for a council seat in 2008. The former UCLA researcher represented Malibu on the SMMUSD board for more than three years.

Another council hopeful is Ed Gillespie, who serves on the city’s planning commission and is a past president of the Malibu Chamber of Commerce. He is a yacht broker. Gillespie pulled papers for the last council race, but was stopped by out-of-state family matters that kept him from running in 2008.

Gillespie ran in 2006 and cited his top priorities as establishing a sheriff station in Malibu, obtaining more funding for schools and ensuring a safe Pacific Coast Highway.

Another individual who has announced his candidacy and pulled papers is Lou La Monte who has served on the  city’s Public Works Commission and the View Preservation Task Force.

La Monte has also been active in his neighborhood,   serving as the president of the Big Rock Mesas Property Owners Association. La Monte became a minority voice on the View Preservation Task Force and was persuasive in having the council endorse the idea of a minority report. La Monte opposed the task force majority approach to view preservation and was seemingly successful in reducing the task force’s impact on the city council.

In an email announcement of his candidacy, La Monte has said he was prepared to support Rosenthal. Former Councilmember Joan House, currently a planning commissioner, has offered to be his campaign manager.

The announcement went on to talk about how outside government agencies have had undue influence on Malibu and that it is important for Malibu’s leaders to have the ability to bring the community together to defend its right of self-determination.

Harold Greene, an attorney, is no stranger to local politics, having run for city council during the early years of incorporation when the race became so heated Greene filed a lawsuit against one of the candidates that went on long past his unsuccessful run for a council seat. 

For years he has played a role in producing Chumash Day and has served as a member of the city’s Native American Cultural Resources Advisory Committee. Greene is said to have been instrumental in shaping that panel’s current policy.

He most recently served on the View Preservation Task Force as a majority member.

A UCLA School of Law graduate, Greene began his career in workers’ compensation and took various roles on committees, commissions and panels involving workers’ comp issues in the state.

Jan Swift may be as best know for some of the headlines he generated after he failed to qualify for running as a city council member during a previous election. His trouble with the law over a civil dispute brought more attention his way, but the city council hopeful met it head on with interviews with the local press laying out his case to the public.

Swift had promised his campaign would be old-school and that he would represent the folks who were getting squeezed out of Malibu. He said he also had developed a sense of how water quality issues impacted Malibu and learned the details of septic systems and sewage treatment.

Regan Schaar was appointed to the planning commission by Councilmember Pamela Conley Ulich. Schaar said she developed a sense of how planning and permitting impacts applicants not only because of her stint on the planning panel, but also because she and her husband built a house, since sold, in Malibu and experienced all of the highs and lows and ins and outs of working with city officials.

Schaar has spoken often of the frustration she has experienced about how the city was proceeding in its buildout of the Civic Center with no specific plan or overriding guidelines for development.

Kofi, who goes by one name only, is more of a mystery and has already generated much speculation. He gave his address to the city clerk, which is the same address of the  Cliffside Drive home that was sold by Cher in the late 1990s. The property is currently on the market. The listing agent was unavailable for comment.

There is no lack of association between Kofi and Cher when surfing the web. The name pops up several times either on Cher’s albums, where she has dedicated the work to a Kofi or apparently possibly other Kofis that have produced Cher’s albums or performed on them, including Kofi Baker, the son of Ginger Baker, a well-known drummer of the ’60s.

Walt Keller, who was elected a member of the first city council and selected by the council to serve as first mayor, said he pulled papers because he wants the city and its leaders to adhere more closely to the original mission statement of the city. He said he would gladly step aside if he could find two candidates who espoused such views.