Community Profile: Malibu

After decades of battling for more local control, Malibu broke away from Los Angeles County and became a city in 1991. The aim at the time was to limit development. But Malibu is building its own bureaucracy , and the issue today is what curbs the city can place on the rights of property owners, many of whom are still rebuilding after floods, fire and mudslides. Another point of dispute is city approval of a center for hiring day laborers. Jane Spiller talked with elected officials and residents.

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JEFFREY KRAMER

Attorney, city councilman since 1992

We’ve hired a number of additional employees lately. It sounds like expansion of city government, but it’s not. It’s simply a transfer from contract services to hiring employees, which so far has resulted in cost savings. The debate really is this: Is it better to hire employees or hire outside firms? The fear is always that if demand for the services decreases, it’s harder to get rid of employees. We have an enormous workload. With fire rebuilds, people have been screaming for us to hire more people so we can process applications more quickly.

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MONA LOO

Board member, Malibu Community Labor Exchange

From my point of view--I’m not a developer, my house didn’t burn down, and I haven’t had to go through the building or remodeling process--we probably have enough government. It’s not affecting me, but I understand other people are very concerned about restrictions on land use. I wouldn’t want to “de-citify” and go back to “Mother County” as some people would. There’s a different answer if you’re talking to me about running a project like the Labor Exchange. The city identified the problem of day laborers on street corners and decided it would be a good idea to have an organized center, but they did not want to run the program. They needed an outside nonprofit group [like ours].

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MARTIN SHEEN

Activist, actor I’m not really involved with the city on a political level. I keep asking myself, why was I honorary mayor? I told them not to dump that honor on me but they insisted, so my first act was to declare Malibu a nuclear-free zone. I declared it a safe spot for all living creatures, animals and people, and I was run out of town, figuratively. Malibu is very elitist. People come here to isolate themselves from the rest of the world. There are very few black people living here, and the brown people are the women who take care of the white children, and the brown men who tend the gardens and help construct the houses. There’s not enough diversity here for us to be a real community.