Cityhood for Malibu Heading for Victory : Local elections: Early returns show Redondo Beach voters supporting a new pier. A $4.5-million Beverly Hills school tax measure trails.

Malibu, the famed seaside home to celebrities and the super rich, was expected to become Los Angeles County’s newest city after more than 2 1/2 years of battling county officials over future development of the coastal community.

Early returns showed Malibu’s incorporation bid winning by a comfortable margin.

Malibu’s apparent victory in its quest for independence means that the community will get local control over a slew of civic problems, including traffic congestion along Pacific Coast Highway, that have emerged over the years.

But beyond the practical benefits, the victory was viewed emotionally by many as a referendum against Los Angeles County supervisors’ plans for an extensive sewer system there and a clincher in the battle over whether Malibu remains a semi-rural enclave or becomes a booming resort area like Miami Beach.

“It’s a great day for Malibu,” said Randall Barnett, a 10-year resident who gathered with numerous cityhood supporters at a beachside restaurant Tuesday night. “If we had lost, I think a lot of people here would be in favor of using (Supervisor) Deane Dana for fish bait.”

The cityhood issue topped a list of community elections that included Beverly Hills’ attempt to get voters to approve a $4.5-million school tax and an opportunity for Redondo Beach voters to have a say in whether the city’s shattered pier should be rebuilt. Rebuilding the pier appeared to be winning, but the Beverly Hills schools tax, which needed a two-thirds approval, was slightly behind in early returns.

In Pomona, a councilman with a penchant for controversial remarks appeared headed for a recall, while Long Beach voters were rejecting a proposal to hire 75 more police officers with funds from a new property tax. Also in Long Beach, preliminary vote counts showed incumbent Ernie Kell leading Councilman Tom Clark in a runoff for the mayor’s seat.

The majority of Malibu’s residents had hoped to break away from the county’s control so they could decide local planning, transportation and liability issues. Battles with supervisors over growth in Malibu go back nearly 30 years and spurred two previous incorporation drives, the last one failing in 1976 by less than 100 votes.

Thirty city council candidates fought over five seats in a campaign marked not only by political dissension but personality clashes. Two candidates even launched anti-cityhood drives, warning that Malibu was headed for financial collapse.

However, as incorporation appeared more and more certain, most of the council candidates put their bickering aside and united behind cityhood, which they saw as their best chance to stop the county from installing a regional sewer system in Malibu.

The 20-square-mile city of Malibu will stretch from Topanga Canyon to Leo Carrillo State Beach and about one mile inland. It will have a population of about 25,000, and about 8,500 registered voters.

Though county supervisors had tried to delay the election, a judge last month sided with cityhood backers. Unless the supervisors succeed in their appeal, Malibu will become a city after election results are certified, probably in late June or early July.

As Malibu voters were marching to the polls, the supervisors defiantly moved a step closer Tuesday to installing their sewer system in the community, which currently relies on septic tanks. The supervisors approved using six acres near Pepperdine University as the site of a sewer treatment facility.

Beverly Hills voters, meanwhile, were asked to approve a tax to raise about $4.5 million annually for the Beverly Hills Unified School District. Supporters of the tax said that the quality of education was at stake. Without it, the district planned to sacrifice dozens of teachers and assistants, many advanced-placement courses and the high school planetarium. Also on the chopping block was a 3% pay raise for teachers for the coming school year.

In Redondo Beach, voters were being asked in a series of advisory ballot measures whether to rebuild the battered pier--a landmark that was nearly demolished by fire and storms two years ago.

Built in 1929, the Redondo Beach Pier had become an international tourist attraction before a series of storms crashed down on the landmark beginning in January, 1988. The following May, a spectacular electrical fire consumed much of what was left of the beach structure.

The Redondo Beach election was partly overshadowed Tuesday night by former Councilman Archie Snow’s collapse during an impassioned speech in the council’s chambers, prompting the panel to adjourn early. Snow, 70, who was recovering from a heart attack, was stricken as he threatened to launch a new petition drive on police funding.

Pomona voters were deciding by a roughly 2-1 margin Tuesday to recall Councilman C. L. (Clay) Bryant, the most outspoken member of a new council majority elected last year. The city has been embroiled in political turmoil ever since, and eight department heads, including the city administrator and police chief, have been fired or have resigned during the last 13 months.

Bryant called his leading political opponent, Mayor Donna Smith, a “tramp,” described the Latino city administrator as a “beaner,” and labeled the president of the Pomona Police Officers Assn. “a psychiatric case” after revealing at a public meeting that the officer had been seeing a psychiatrist.

About 10,000 registered voters signed recall petitions accusing Bryant, 70, of using his office as a forum for personal attacks. His campaign chairman, Abe Tapia, lamented that Bryant “could never get his story out” to voters.

In Long Beach, supporters of the tax measure to pay for another 75 police officers said the beefed-up force was needed to combat a marked increase in murders, assaults and robberies. However, even Long Beach’s police chief was pessimistic about the measure’s chances.

Last year, Long Beach had the largest jump in serious crime of any of California’s large cities--25% between 1988 and 1989, including a 46% increase in murders, according to a state report. And crime continues to escalate.

Times staff writers Ron Russell, Barbara Koh, Shawn Hubler, Bob Pool, Mike Ward and Roxana Kopetman contributed to this story.