the current

Tag: city manager

  • Time to Leave the Party: An Open Letter to Council Urging the Termination of the City Manager’s Contract

    Time to Leave the Party: An Open Letter to Council Urging the Termination of the City Manager’s Contract

    Editor’s Note – This is an open letter to Malibu City Council written by resident, Emmy award winning documentary filmmaker, and contributing journalist Paul Taublieb regarding the City Manager’s review taking place tomorrow at City Hall at 10 a.m.
    Resident participation is vitally important and if you cannot attend in person to participate in public comment, please send your correspondence to city council by 12 pm tomorrow, November 12th, 2019. Email: mpierson@malibucity.org,
    kfarrer@malibucity.org, jwagner@malibucity.org, speak@malibucity.org, rmullen@malibucity.org
    Dear Malibu City Council,
    Regrettably, I am not able to attend the meeting in person (late season south swell – in Mex!). I am not sure, btw, who felt 10 a.m. after a holiday weekend was the optimum time? Along with coinciding roughly with the open-ore of our one year-anniversary of the Woolsey Fire, but both items feel, anyway, to echo the city’s and in particular, the city manager’s disconnect from the community.  And while I asked the city attorney to confirm it was the city manager who picked this both inopportune and insensitive timing, I have not heard back (Christi, you listening? Any reason you didn’t respond to my email with this question?), but I am told by a councilperson it was Reva who selected the date and time.
    But I do want to echo resident and local journalist Sam Hall-Kaplan’s highly-qualified analysis. As he notes, he knows whereof he speaks as a truly knowledgeable person in the sphere of city government, along with being a treasure to a community which he has been kind enough to shine his light of insight.
    “And beyond her indefensible failures as City Manager during the disaster, has been her muddled management in the year since. This has included the city’s plodding rebuild efforts, the contradictory handling of the Airbnb quandary, the questionable leasing of land in the Civic Center to the SCE, the absolving of any responsibility for a dangerous PCH, and the questionable use of consultants in the face of a bloated bureaucracy that continues to be padded.” –Sam Hall Kaplan to City Council on November 10th, 2019
    I will, however, add a few comments which hopefully you will take into consideration.  If the past is prelude, then most likely decisions have been made in private deliberation, but one can hope.  And perhaps the council people will come out of whatever grip or thrall they are being held in, with the knowledge they are going against the desires of many. This will most certainly reflect on their standing in the community, and when they run for re-election. They may get pats on the head from certain interests, but I suspect not from the rank and file who are their neighbors.
    As most of you know, unlike Sam, I have no background or expertise in the ways of city governance.  I do, however, have a small knack of gathering data and learning, hopefully modulated by common sense and some old fashioned journalistic instincts and experience.  Whatever opinions I have they are the result of what I’ve learned and personally experienced, not coming from any per-conceived notions as I can confess that prior to the fire and all that followed, I barely knew where city hall was, let alone grappling with who ran or city, or what obligations or expectations the citizenry could reasonably expect.
    But I can say now, that given our form of government is a “weak mayor/strong city manager”. It’s clear there have been dramatic shortcomings in performance, and given this form of government, the only logical conclusion is the “strong city manager” has failed in her duties and meeting the expectations of the community. (There is a discussion to be had on another day on changing this to a “strong mayor,” but that will have to wait).
    But let me digress (I am wordy, if anything, I confess).  In order to solve any problem, as all of you know, the first and maybe most important step is acknowledging the problem.  And the problem we have, from the mouth of the city manager herself, is that she thinks and apparently believes she did a “great” and “fantastic” job during and after the fire.  She even put herself up for, and received, an award – albeit one from a group on which she serves on the board of, which kind of tells you a lot.
    So while our city manager considers the 5+ hours to evacuate the city a “great success,” — again her words —  while someone more knowledeable than her or I, veteran LA Fire Chief Tony Imbrenda called it “A near disaster, total mismanagement and very nearly a highway of death.”  As someone who stood on PCH and saw a wall of flames descending over the hill above Zumirez, and traffic locked heading south. In many places, cars up against rows of trees seeming poised to catch fire and engulf the stranded motorists, all the while two northbound lanes lay quiet, empty, unused. Only by the grace of a last-minute wind change was a fiery holocaust avoided. My own eyes and thoughts find themselves agreeing with Chief Imprenda, not a City Manager trying to paint a rosy, successful picture.  Or as she might put it, don’t believe your lying eyes. (If you need a reminder of how the city manager tried to explain the problems of the city’s response by saying she had a very busy week the week leading int other the fire – yes, that was the cornerstone of her excuse – you can read about that and a lot more
    The Woolsey Fire evacuation on PCH. Residents fleeing were in gridlock for 5 hours.
    But you’ve already very, very likely read it.  And most likely, almost a handful of you five are willing to look past it all and vote yea.
    You see the core of the problem?  See, she can’t admit it was a near disaster as that would be disastrous to how she sees herself and her job performance.  And I empathize with her – no doubt she does many managerial things quite well – but one is tested when one is tested, and it is in the hot furnace that we must be judged.  Not when things are easy, but when they are hard.  And when things were hard, she failed us – and worse, now, either won’t publicly admit it, or even worse, isn’t even being honest with herself.
    And then the other rub.  The horrendous mismanagement of the re-population.  Again, her words: “The city had no obligation to anyone who stayed behind,” which was echoed in my interview, I need to add, by council member Sklyar Peak.  As far as both of them were concerned, doing anything for the thousand or so people who stayed and fought and per the latest, non-governmental report, should be treated as heroes for the countless homes they saved, were, as has been widely reported and I experienced, were treated like criminals.
    Has there been contrition?  No.  The opposite.  Read her responses the Management Partners report, one she actually was unhappy with, more mealy-mouthed excuses and no self culpability.  There were 53 recommendations in that report, virtually all of them should have — and could have — been addressed before the fire.  They weren’t then, and despite her attempt to amend the document after the “final” was submitted (to no fanfare, as it remained critical of her), most aren’t now.
    You see, if you’re determined to believe you did a great job, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that is not the case, then how can you effectively change things so the past is not prelude the next time fire (or other disaster) visits Malibu.  If the CERT containers weren’t filled with the proper supplies, and the CERT volunteers weren’t able to even activate, who if not the City Manager is responsible?  The buck has to stop somewhere, and in our “strong city manager” form of government, there is no ambiguity here.
    I would also like to share most recent article with you.  but here’s all you need to know:  the sheriff said the city could and should have responded to the recent blackout in the Heathercliff/Paradise Cove/Latigo area.  But instead, the public servant was both incompetent in not fulfilling her duties as well as being.  I would happily take competent and snide, but in the case of this individual, we net neither competency or civilized manners or acting in a respectful, professional manner.

    And to think that right now we STILL don’t have an evacuation plan in place?  Really.

    BTW, Jefferson Wagner and an associate actually wrote up the beginning of a plan and submitted it to the city where it was discarded, and nothing final has been generated and shared with the public.  Fire chief Imprenda (not me, not editor-in-chief Cece Woods, not Sam Hall Kaplan) said it was an egregious failing of the city and the system as a whole that the northbound lanes of PCH were not opened to fleeing southbound traffic, or least one lane.  There still is no plan for this today, at least as far has been publicly disseminated.
    Council members – here is where you say amongst yourselves that I’m naive and don’t understand the complexities of inter agency planning. You probably murmur to each other that I don’t know all that’s going on behind-the-scenes, and maybe even how much Reva is doing to solve this.  But while I may be ignorant, ok, maybe naive, I nonetheless find it entirely, wholly and totally unacceptable that a plan is not in place as we dance around another red flag warning few days.  At the very least, where is our city manager and YOU GUYS screaming from the rooftops this needs to happen NOW?
    In conclusion, let me put it this way.  Have you ever stayed too long at a party?  You know, people are still there but you realize it’s just a tad past the time go to?  I think that’s where we are.  If one doesn’t learn from their past mistakes — which starts by admitting and owning them – then you are doomed to repeat them.  Sometimes it’s just best to leave the party, move on, go to next.  Not only a contract extension but also a raise?  Huh? Really? Asking for it when you know it will be difficult for the community you say you serve and love to come and comment? Doing it in the shadow of dark anniversary?
    Leadership requires people to believe in you, and shows you understand people.  And while yes, she may have the support of some, by most accounts, it’s clearly not the majority of locals.  (Didn’t something like 4000 people sign a petition to remove her right after the fire?)  So it’s time to move on.  Yes, a pain to find someone new, yes, no doubt.  But at $300k a year, plus benefits, somewhere out there there is a person who will take the job and if nothing else, at a bare minimum, approach things with a fresh start.
    A fire cleanses the earth.  We need that in City Hall.  No hard feelings.  Time to move on – best for all involved.
    Warm Regards,
    Paul Taublieb
  • The Ultimate Shameless Plug (for Feldman), Primes Peak for Recall

    The Ultimate Shameless Plug (for Feldman), Primes Peak for Recall

    By Sam Hall Kaplan

    FIRST THE BULLSHIT: The California City Management Foundation, a self aggrandizing bureaucratic boondoggle of which Malibu City Manager, Reva Feldman is an officer, has named her “City Manager of the Year”.

    BAD TIMING ONCE AGAIN: This comes fresh upon Feldman’s return from a two week vacation in Paris while Malibu struggled to launch rebuild, and is a reminder that when the fire was at its peak she closed down the city’s Emergency Operations Center for 16 hours.

    SIT DOWN TO READ THIS: As did the phony foundation’s members at an expense tab dinner paid to hear Reva talk about how city managers have been dealing with the unfair criticism sparked by the fires across the state.

    TRY NOT TO LAUGH: Especially the thousands of Malibu residents whose homes were ravaged by the Woolsey Fire, that was aggravated by the myriad failures of an inept City Hall and a blundering Reva: the lack of preparedness, the collapse of communications, a confused mandatory evacuation, and no aid for those who stayed behind. And for this she congratulated herself and staff on the great job they did. 

    CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS? Obviously, pathetically, Reva is feeling the heat of the petition demanding her ouster from her sinecure $300,000 plus job a year, and is calling in the favors, rallying the suck ups,  churning out the press releases, and who knows what other questionable acts come to mind?

    PERHAPS ASK SKYLAR PEAK: The often out-of-town, and out-of-step councilperson, who has been banging the drum for Reva for who knows why?  That she signs his travel expense accounts? And probably signs her own to go pick up a phony award, and for who knows what else?

    ENOUGH ALREADY.  SIGN THE PETITION. BE SMART MALIBU.

     

  • The City Observed: Reva Must Resign for Rebuild to Succeed

    The City Observed: Reva Must Resign for Rebuild to Succeed

     By Sam Hall Kaplan

     When the Woolsey Fire ravaged a significant slice of Malibu, it also laid bare the city’s collective innocence, exposing a failed leadership and a flawed first response, and is now faced with the daunting challenge to rebuild while also preparing for the next inevitable disaster.

    From my perspective, the innocence was frankly ingenuous, having become crusted over the years by Malibu’s desirable, seaside location, increasingly prohibitive real estate prices, bad planning and a privileged population of presumed entitlements, inexorably edging out persevering residents.

    It is a thin crust, labeled by its imperfect leadership as 21 miles of scenic beauty, cheered by avaricious realtors, rapacious high end retailers, and a supercilious entertainment industry, its fattened elite rolling dice on a monopoly board cluttered with trophy houses. Even the car named after it is spurious.

    Now a fractured, fire ravaged municipality, one wonders what it will take for Malibu to come to the sad awakening that it has been poorly served by selfsatisfied bureaucrats who presumably are sworn to protect us?

    Whether the latest exploit of City Manager Reva Feldman going to Paris for a two-week vacation as a devastated Malibu stumbles trying to launch a rebuild is just another indication of her dereliction of duties, to be forgiven by a fledgling City Council, and a naïve, status quo conscious citizenry?

    Or whether the ill timed vacation will be that additional insult, that final straw that broke the camel’s back, to prompt a reasoned recall for her resignation. This coming as it does after the city’s lack of preparedness for the fire, its mishandling of the mandatory evacuation, and its witless failure to assist besieged residents during the height of the tragedy and after.

    All of these debacles and their disastrous consequences can be laid at the feet of Feldman, who actually at first had the temerity of praising her staff and herself for their efforts during the fire, and conspiring with then Mayor Rick Mullen to blandly bullshit a sorry undiscerning media of half baked journalists (though immodestly not us).

    But when Feldman was exposed as actually abandoning City Hall and the Emergency Operations Center there during the 16 hours when the fire was ravaging western Malibu and Point Dune, she pleaded she was just following the mandatory evacuation and really had no authority over the questioned response of the Fire and Sheriff’s departments. More bullshit.

    Yes, her puppets will cite the state laws and codes concerning a declared state of emergency that limit the authority of a city manager and all local government officials.  And no doubt this will be echoed in the flow of excuses mouthed by officialdom in the upcoming repetitive reviews of the Woolsey Fire.

    But whatever regulations there are, in the immediacy of a disaster local governments are not excluded from the manifest chain of command, indeed are a much needed link in the communications that flows up and down the chain in combating the fires.

    The harsh fact is that during the critical hours of the Woolsey fire Feldman failed the city; wasn’t even a self described “messenger” for which she incidentally is paid $300,000 a year, despite her lack of proven supervisory experience. She was challenged by the fire, and was found wanting.

    As for the appeal not to be divisive, and the contention that Feldman as the city manager is vital to the rebuild effort, that is simply answered by her going on a Paris vacation at a parlous time.

    She is really superfluous, and being a bean counter personified tends to bog down the already ponderous bureaucratic process, focusing on why things can’t be done rather how they can be done, There are staff beyond her entourage known to be competent, if not dispirited by her closed door, closed mouth mismanagement.

    Meanwhile, the rebuild effort does not have the luxury of time that the reviews most likely will take, nor the pending recall needed to replace the muddled Mullen and the pathetic Peak with councilpersons who would vote for Feldman’s ouster. If this was the private sector, she would have been shown the door long ago.

    Of course, if it has been listening to the anguish of its constituencies, this present Council could vote to remove her, now.   She could also resign, and save the city a lot of angst, and herself further embarrassment.

  • City Manager Contract Under Review

    The SHAKE-UP RUMORS ARE GETTING LOUDER Could change be in the air at City Hall?

    Over the past year, there has been a continuous cycle of disturbing changes at City Hall, which continues to struggle to get its bearings under the guidance of City Manager Reva Feldman who took over the position last May.

    The growing lack of clarity surrounding the day to day business of running this City is now being scrutinized, at length, as the City Manager’s contract is currently undergoing a review by City Council.

    Now approaching its second month of the process (which is highly unusual), it appears that Feldman could be finally be losing her grip on the “what happens behind closed doors stays behind closed doors” strategy she used to run the City over the last year. Her lack of transparency and inability to be forthcoming is being highlighted as council digs deeper into the discovery process.

    Could they be getting close to finding out where all the bodies are buried?

    Before the new council took to the dais in January, it appears the City manager and staff functioned with no real oversight. Council allowed them to slide on virtually every discrepancy.

    But now that the (presumably) pro-preservation slate,who campaigned on cleaning house at City Hall, has taken office, we’re hopeful Feldman has lost her golden parachute.

    Recently, when speaking with council member Rick Mullen about Feldman’s particularly poor job performance, he said: “Give me an example.”

    Well, here you go.

    Emergency Disservices

    From the moment Feldman stepped into the position as City Manager, the slow motion collapse of City Hall began.

    It’s no secret that Feldman is prone to forcing out and shuffling around her staff which has resulted in long-standing, devoted employees departing their posts with very real and detrimental effects on our City.

    The City’s first big loss under the new Reva regime, was Brad Davis, Emergency Services Coordinator. Davis was in charge of training and certifying resident volunteers as Emergency Responders (C.E.R.T), sending out emergency alerts to residents and other emergency services duties.

    Shortly after Feldman took over the role as City Manager, she put Davis on what was reported to be a forced “medical leave” with no second in command in place for this important public emergency position.

    Six months later, on December 22, 2016, Davis turned that “medical leave” into his official resignation. Immediately after his announcement. Davis landed a plum position in Foster City where they will undoubtedly benefit from Davis’s invaluable experience our city was fortunate to have for well over a decade.

    Unfortunately, Davis’s untimely “medical leave” happened to coincide with Malibu’s most dangerous season for weather conditions, and Feldman, to our knowledge, had no trained replacement for Davis’s position on staff, leaving the city in a very vulnerable position.

    Noticeable deficiencies were evident almost immediately.

    Emergency alerts sent out through the City’s Nixle system were untimely or not sent out at all.

    On November 9, 2016, a fire broke out in Corral Canyon. This was a very hot night and any change in weather could have led to a devastat- ing outcome. Although the re was contained in approximately 20 minutes (thanks to L.A. County Fire Department) no alert was sent to residents from the city. Furious at the complete disregard for the safety of the residents of Corral Canyon, I contacted council member Peak. He assured me he would follow up with Feldman as to why the City alert was not activated. Feldman issued no apology, instead calling the fire “brief,” making the excuse it was “outside the city limits.” In other words, and in Feldman’s mind, the residents in unincorporated 90265 are not her concern, nor did she take into account that Corral Canyon has only one access road that runs through Malibu city proper. This fire was one wind gust away from potential disaster inside the city limits, similar to the 2007 re that destroyed over 50 homes.

    Yet Feldman told the community she “had it handled.”

    Instead of hiring an interim replacement for Davis to keep the Emergency Preparedness and CERT programs operational until she could find a permanent replacement, Feldman chose to take care of her needs first. She created a new position placing more burden on the city’s budget, by hiring yet another personal assistant, Assistant to the City Manager. She continued to leave the post of Emergency Services completely unmanned for the last six months.

    That’s right, six months.

    Of all the things a city manager could overlook, none touches in intensity and consequence as much as the absence of an Emergency Services co-ordinator, especially in a disaster-prone community like ours. The disconnect between the City Manager and her responsibility to protect the community was crystal clear with the city’s failure to participate in October 19th’s Great Shake Out exercise. This annual opportunity is for people in homes, schools, and organizations to practice what to do during earthquakes, and to improve preparedness. Shakeout.org reported that 10,667,89 Californians participated in this year’s life-saving drill, yet under Feldman’s rule, Malibu was a no-show.

    Protecting the public is the FIRST responsibility of government and the City Manager and, at this point, there is no question Feldman has been severely derelict in her duties with regard to the public safety of our town. This kind of city managing is undeniably dangerous.

    At press time, The Local learned that Feldman had passed over Malibu-based applicant David Saul for Public Safety Manager (which is now re-placing the Emergency Services Coordinator position). Having a local resident in charge of Emergency Services would have been the best decision for the community. This makes the most sense because of Malibu’s history of becoming isolated by weather-induced landslides ,earthquakes or other natural disasters. Saul received more than 30 letters of recommendation and is well respected in the community. He also intimately understands the local landscape and has close ties to emergency responders. This is not the first time Feldman has passed over a qualified resident in favor of an outsider for a city staff position.

    How long will it take for this department to run at full speed as it did when Brad Davis was at the helm? Only time will tell, but it doesn’t look promising based on Feldman’s track record. It is increasingly important to this community to have it running effectively and increasingly frustrating knowing that Feldman is in control.

    Conflict of Many Interests

    Feldman, who has been with the City since 2005, is no stranger to procedure and protocol. Yet city hall has become increasingly conflict-ridden under her supervision and this decision maker is making decisions that don’t seem to be in the broad public interest.

    Employee Turnover – Along with Brad Davis leaving his post as Emergency Services Coordinator, Barbara Cameron, Grants Acquisition Coordinator, Lisa Pope, City Clerk and Victor Peterson, the City’s longest employee, all suffered a similar fate under Feldman’s rule.

    Selective Code Enforcement – This is a big problem and has resulted in 4 lawsuits, so far, all currently in litigation with potentially disastrous outcomes. As long as the city staff continues to operate as they have under Feldman’s guidance, litigation will be ongoing and the city will be hemorrhaging money on legal fees.

    Failure to Review City Contracted Services – If city staff is enabling the contractor to get the work, how can they effectively audit the work? Where is the oversight by unbiased auditors reviewing outside vendors for performance quality assurances?

    Paying Contractors In their Personal Name – The City’s Warrant Register, the tabulation of payments the City makes twice monthly which is reviewed by and certified by Feldman, with the checks written to the business owner’s personal name (?) instead of the contracted business entity.

    The list of deficiencies is staggering.

    The Holy Grail of Non-Compliance

    Nothing screams derelict of duty more than staff being forced to admit the city hasn’t performed a performance audit for over ten years. In the Agenda posted on March 29, 2017, city staff requested $9,800 for two department performance audits, with no actual admission of lack of fulfilling requirements as per the Council Policy Handbook. At this rate of two performance audits per year can we expect compliance within another 10 years time?

    This issue only came to light after concerned resident, Ryan Embree addressed the Council directly during public comment. Embree exposed the ongoing violation ignored by the City Manager, forcing Feldman to comply.

    For many years, Feldman headed the Finance Department – during which not a single performance audit occurred.

    While most of the performance audits that were not conducted took place under Jim Thorson’s direction, Feldman held the position of assistant City manager and should have been well versed in this policy.

    It is high time that Council admit they have a serious problem employee on their hands. The professional negligence is staggering.

    If Feldman is not replaced, only failure and gridlock await.

    To BE CONTINUED.

    By Cece Woods