Malibu : Meeting Notice Fee Disputed

Malibu cityhood supporters say they will refuse to reimburse Los Angeles County $6,208 for a legal notice of today’s meeting of the Board of Supervisors, which is expected to set a June 5 cityhood election.

County officials, who had demanded payment by Wednesday, said the dispute will not interfere with the setting of the election.

In a letter to the Malibu Committee for Incorporation, Elwood Lui, a lawyer for the county, said that the board “fully intends to go forward (with the election) irrespective of the processing fee dispute.”

Cityhood backers were angered after the county billed them for the notice, which appeared in the Los Angeles Times on March 14. They had expected the notice to be placed in a weekly Malibu newspaper at a cost of about $600, or in the daily Outlook, in Santa Monica, which would have cost even less.

County officials have said that they were in a rush to comply with a judge’s order, and that in order to meet a required 15-day advance notice deadline, it was too late to get the legal notice in a local publication.