City Creates Commissions to Replace Study Groups

The city’s recently disbanded residents study groups will be replaced by four new commissions that will make recommendations to the City Council on a variety of issues, officials said.

The council voted 3 to 2 Monday to adopt an ordinance establishing commissions of public works, public safety, telecommunications, and parks and recreation.

The five council members will each appoint one Malibu resident to each commission. Commissioners will serve four-year terms.

The city will accept applications for commission appointments until Oct. 28, and appointments will probably be made at the Nov. 9 council meeting, said Deputy City Clerk Virginia Bloom.

A resolution adopted in August dissolved the Business Round Table and the study groups on emergency preparedness, Native American cultural resources, parks and recreation, public safety, transportation and waste water.

The same resolution also established a Native American Cultural Resources Advisory Committee and a Waste Water Advisory Board, each composed of the former study groups’ appointed members.

Since the city’s incorporation in 1991, study groups provided a forum for discussion and generated recommendations for presentation to the council, and were essentially open to all residents.

Advocates of the commissions say the appointed members will represent the city better than study groups did, and that city staff will be able to support the streamlined commissions better than the often large study groups.

But those who opposed forming the commissions, such as Mayor Joan House, said most of the study groups worked effectively and provided residents with a chance to get involved in the city without having any political connections.

Mary Lou Blackwood, executive vice president of the Malibu Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Business Round Table, said the group did not request to become a commission, and will keep meeting independently to support the interests of Malibu businesses.