Schabarum Cleared of Conflict Charge : Malibu: State panel says there’s no connection between his investment in a real estate partnership and his vote against incorporation.

County Supervisor Pete Schabarum has been cleared of a conflict-of-interest charge by the California Fair Political Practices Commission, which found no connection between his investment in a real estate partnership and his vote against Malibu’s incorporation.

Critics had complained that Schabarum should have disqualified himself from voting on the cityhood matter in 1988 as a member of the Local Agency Formation Commission. At the time, the supervisor had an investment of between $10,000 and $100,000 in VMS Mortgage Investors L. P. III, according to financial disclosure forms elected officials are required to file. VMS Mortgage Investors, a limited partnership based in Chicago that invests in mortgages, is one of eight publicly traded real estate funds established by and managed by VMS Realty Partners of Chicago.

Since 1987, VMS Realty Partners also has been a general partner, along with Anden Group, in a proposed 18-hole golf course and residential complex on 270 acres in Malibu’s scenic Encinal Canyon.

The issue before the commission was whether the partnership in which Schabarum invested had any financial connection with the VMS/Anden project. The commission concluded earlier this month that no connection existed.

In a letter to Schabarum informing him of its conclusion, the commission said it found no evidence to suggest that there was any shared management and control between VMS Mortgage Investors and VMS/Anden. It noted that VMS Mortgage Investors’ portfolio contained no mortgage investments involving property in the Malibu area.

“Neither entity uses the same office space, resources or employees,” said Melodee A. Anderson, a lawyer in the commission’s enforcement division. She said that the two companies were independent of each other.

Among the five supervisors, Schabarum has been the most outspoken foe of Malibu cityhood. A majority on the board has for years opposed incorporation, insisting that a sewer system be installed there before incorporation takes place.

The supervisors are now under a court order to set a June 5 incorporation election, and the county officials have indicated that they will comply at their March 29 meeting.

The county Regional Planning Commission last May voted to recommend against the golf course, and company officials are believed to be considering scrapping the plan and concentrating instead on building up to 69 expensive homes on the property.

Last month, the supervisors were to have heard an appeal of the Planning Commission’s decision, but, with the agreement of VMS/Anden officials, an appeal hearing was abruptly postponed until April.

Slow-growth advocates, including many cityhood supporters, have argued moving more than 4 million cubic yards of dirt that the company said would be necessary to build the golf course would be an environmental disaster.