Cityhood Vote Set for June 5 in Malibu : Election: Supervisors set date but would put off incorporation until March 28, 1991. Residents vow to fight delay.

After more than two years of efforts, Malibu residents who want their coastal community to become a city got their wish Thursday to put the matter before voters, but it came with a heavy string attached.

Complying with a judge’s order, Los Angeles County supervisors set a June 5 election date but voted to delay the actual incorporation until March 28, 1991, if residents vote in favor of cityhood.

Lawyers for cityhood backers vowed to fight the condition put on their election.

The delay imposed by the supervisors is designed to give the county time to get a sewer system under way that it has long wanted for Malibu before a new city council has the chance to block it.

“They (the supervisors) did everything they had to do and a little bit more, and that was to get indirectly what they couldn’t get directly by continuing to stall the election,” said Graham Ritchie, a lawyer for cityhood backers.

Those lawyers immediately asked the judge who had ordered setting the election to nullify the delay, contending the supervisors did not have the authority to impose it. However, Superior Court Judge Dzintra Janavs refused, saying the delay is a “separate matter” that she did not wish to address on an emergency basis.

Cityhood backers said they will return to court as soon as possible to challenge the legality of delaying the incorporation date.

County officials acknowledged the maneuver is unprecedented in the history of Los Angeles County. Ordinarily, once voters approve, incorporation occurs on the date results are certified, usually about a month after an election.

Left unchallenged, the delay means that, should Malibu residents approve cityhood and select a five-member city council on June 5, the newly elected city officials will be without a city to govern for nine months.

As proposed, the 20-square-mile city would stretch from Topanga Canyon to Leo Carrillo State Beach along Pacific Coast Highway and nearly one mile inland. It would have a population of about 25,000 with about 8,300 registered voters.

Within an hour after the supervisors’ vote, at least seven potential candidates took out papers to run for City Council. Candidates have until Monday to file the papers with the county registrar.

A majority of supervisors have opposed Malibu’s becoming a city for years, saying the sewer system needs to be under construction before the city is formed.

Many residents, fearing that development will spread through the seaside community, have opposed the sewer system.

The vote to impose the delay was 4 to 1, with Supervisor Ed Edelman dissenting. “We’ve been over this so many times, and I understand what your positions are, but I just think it’s time to let go,” he told his colleagues.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich expressed concern that unless the incorporation is delayed, Pepperdine University’s expansion plans might be “held hostage” by a new local government determined to block the sewer system.

The state Coastal Commission last year approved a long-range development plan that would enable the university to double its enrollment to more than 5,000 students. But the plan depends on the increased sewer capacity the county’s system will provide, even though the university is outside the proposed city’s limits.

Other supervisors, including Deane Dana, whose district includes Malibu, cited the need for a sewer system for both environmental reasons and to protect the county from future liability as a result of landslides that some experts have blamed on leaking septic tanks.

Last November, the state Coastal Commission approved a plan that calls for a sewer system 25% to 40% smaller than what the county had insisted upon.

But the construction must still be approved by the Coastal Commission, and the county must get the approval of several other agencies before the work can begin. On Thursday, a county official predicted that “at best” it will be April, 1991, before the approvals are obtained and next June before the first pipe is laid.

“The road to installing sewers in Malibu has been long and rough, and we expect there to be plenty of potholes ahead,” said Harry Stone, the county’s deputy director of Public Works.

State law allows for incorporation to occur up to a year after votes are certified. But there is disagreement over whether the supervisors can impose a delay or whether that authority rests solely with the Local Agency Formation Commission, charged with overseeing the transition of communities to cities.

Lawyers for cityhood backers insist the supervisors acted illegally. County lawyers are just as adamant the supervisors acted within the law.