Zeitsoff Wins Malibu Council Seat by 4 Votes : Election: Victory makes a clean sweep for slow-growth candidates in the future city.

By a four-vote margin, slow-growth advocate Missy Zeitsoff has edged retired Judge John Merrick to claim the contested fifth seat on Malibu’s future City Council.

“I’m relieved it’s finally over,” Zeitsoff said, after Los Angeles County election officials this week proclaimed her the apparent winner. The outcome had been delayed until all the absentee and write-in ballots from the June 5 incorporation election were counted.

Zeitsoff’s victory represents a clean sweep for slow-growth activists on the five-member council chosen by Malibu voters at the same time they overwhelmingly approved cityhood.

Meanwhile, a state appeals court has indicated that it may, as early as this week, consider written opinions from lawyers for cityhood supporters and the county in the legal battle over when Malibu will be allowed to incorporate.

County officials are attempting to delay incorporation until next March in order to start work on a $43-million regional sewer system there before a new city government has the chance to block it.

A three-judge panel in Los Angeles has set a hearing for July 18 to consider whether the county Board of Supervisors acted properly in imposing the incorporation delay when they obeyed a judge’s order to stop stalling and set the cityhood election. However, the panel left open the possibility of allowing incorporation to go forward by late June or early July, pending the written opinions.

Zeitsoff, 43, former secretary of the Malibu Township Council, a pro-cityhood group, called the election results “the best news I could have possibly had.”

The outcome ended nearly two weeks of suspense during which periodic updates of the vote count showed Zeitsoff’s lead over Merrick had slipped from 21 votes to only one vote before the final results were announced.

County election officials attributed the delay to the need to count absentee and write-in ballots separately and by hand. There were about 70,000 such ballots countywide, and officials said they had no way of immediately separating the Malibu ballots from the others.

In addition to the uncertainty caused by the delay, the 71-year-old Merrick suffered a mild stroke three days after the election.

Merrick, who was hospitalized briefly and is said to be resting comfortably at home, was under a doctor’s orders this week not to grant interviews or talk on the telephone, his wife, Marge, said.

“I think it’s great,” she said, upon learning that Zeitsoff had narrowly defeated her husband. “I voted for John, but it’s no secret I was never enthusiastic about his running. And now, with (the stroke), I think it’s time he concentrate on taking care of himself for a while.”

Zeitsoff is a retired schoolteacher and a single mother of four children. Besides her work on behalf of cityhood, she has been active in environmental issues. She was endorsed by the Sierra Club and the Los Angeles League of Conservation Voters.

“For the last 11 years, since my twins were born, I’ve not really had a career to call my own,” she said. “I plan to put my energy into helping make sure that, as a new city, Malibu gets off to a sound start.”

Her victory gives Malibu Township Council representatives three of the five future City Council seats. Larry Wan was president of the group for two years before resigning to run for office, and Mike Caggiano has long been associated with the group.

The other two council members, top vote-getter Walt Keller, and Carolyn Van Horn, co-chaired the Malibu Committee for Incorporation, another pro-cityhood group, before stepping down to enter the council race.

The groups have frequently clashed, with MCI having taken a tougher stance in opposition to development of the seaside community. In their fight against county officials on behalf of cityhood, however, they have cooperated closely, and many of their rank-and-file members belong to both groups.

Merrick entered the campaign as perhaps the best-known of the 30 candidates, having served as a Municipal Court judge in Malibu for 22 years before he retired in 1986. But with 84% of voters in favor of incorporation, he may have been hurt by his previous opposition to cityhood.

Merrick ran for the City Council in the failed 1964 attempt at incorporation and received enough votes to be elected had cityhood passed. At that time he opposed Malibu’s incorporation, expressing concern about the way the boundaries were drawn and whether Malibu would be able to support itself financially.

Cityhood backers questioned his support for cityhood this time, even though he campaigned in favor of it. Of the 30 candidates, Merrick was the only one among the top nine vote-getters not affiliated with either of the two pro-cityhood groups.