Pierson to lead council as city defers ballot measure on elected mayor
by Michele Willer-Allred
Staff Reporter
9:35 am PDT July 14, 2020
Mikke Pierson took over as mayor of Malibu on Monday, succeeding Karen Farrer in the largely ceremonial role on the five-member City Council.
During the same meeting, held via Zoom under pandemic protocols, the council decided against asking voters in November whether they’d like to elect a mayor as opposed to sticking with the rotating method now used.
This form of government is referred to as “weak mayor,” since a hired city manager holds the decision-making power.
Farrer, first elected to the council in 2018, served as mayor since September 2019.
This is Pierson’s first round as mayor; Skylar Peak, who previously served in the post, was tapped by the council as mayor pro tem.
Pierson, first elected to the council in 2018, praised Farrer for everything she’s done to help the city through some significant and difficult issues and for her many roles representing the city, including on the public safety and library subcommittees, the Woolsey Fire Task Force, and the Council of Governments.
“Before our campaigns, I did not know Karen, but I can now say I feel I now have a partner on trying to figure out the many of the difficult issues Malibu faces,” Pierson said. “We don’t always agree 100 percent, but we do work very well together.”
Farrer said it’s been an extreme honor to serve as mayor.
“It has not been boring, I can say that,” she said. “Just when I felt like things were normalizing with the fire and rebuilding and with our flash flood, we have come into this global pandemic and some interesting times with our budget and plenty other challenges. But I do really appreciate the teamwork that I’ve seen.”
“I see a lot of people trying to row the boat in the same direction, and that’s very encouraging,” she added.
Pierson said that while he’s impressed with all the items the council has been able to get done during this “unending emergency mode,” there’s still a great deal to do, including getting the city and residents through the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said that the city needs to support students, parents and teachers “in what looks to be a very challenging school year,” and rally around small businesses, which, because of COVID-19, are facing truly overwhelming challenges.
“We need to deal with a constant threat of wildfire, rising sea levels, and daunting challenges in keeping the city financially healthy as well,” he continued. “I believe the homeless issue will only get worse until we make important and hard decisions as a community.”
In November, Malibu voters will choose at least two new council members as Peak and Jefferson Wagner will be termed out of office.
At the beginning of Monday’s meeting, City Attorney Christi Hogin noted that the city won’t be moving forward with a ballot measure in November regarding district-based elections.
Hogin said a California Court of Appeals decision last week in Santa Monica changed the legal landscape and “it certainly invites a reassessment of the legal risks posed by the threat of litigation against the city.”
Hogin was referencing the threat of litigation challenging the city’s at-large voting system, which the city responded to by hiring a demographer and holding public hearings to consider proposed district maps until the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted that process.
“We can revisit all of this when the law settles a little bit and after the census information comes out, and hopefully we won’t be dragged into court in the meantime,” Hogin said.
During the meeting, the council considered whether to put a measure on the ballot having voters directly elect the mayor.
As a general law city, Malibu can continue with five equal council members and a rotating mayor or have a directly elected mayor, who appoints all commissions and boards.
Malibu would have to become a charter city in order to look into a “strong mayor” option, where the mayor holds a separate office and has hiring and firing over the city manager and other department heads.
“At this point we don’t have enough time to put a charter on the ballot for this year, but it is something that could be looked at down the road,” said Trevor Rusin, assistant city attorney.
During public comment, Malibu resident Jo Drummond said she hoped the city would place the strong mayor option on the ballot.
“Malibu needs the expertise and the experience of a long-term mayor, who can be the face and voice of the city. To have things go through their office and not just the city manager’s is crucial for the proper management of the city,” she said.
“A strong mayor will represent the voice of all Malibu residents, not just a few. If we break down into districts, this will even be more significant.”
Malibu resident Lance Simmens, who has served as assistant executive director of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, said there are “far-reaching logistical issues” as well as substantial financial considerations with changing the form of local government to a strong mayor.
“At this particular time, I’m not sure we have enough information as a community to adequately assess these issues on the November ballot. Plus, we will have two or maybe three new city council persons elected in November. I believe it is best left to new elected leadership to tackle this issue after the November election,” Simmens said.
Malibu resident Kraig Hill suggested the council opt to elect a charter commission to propose a new charter, which outgoing council member Wagner agreed. An election must be held to create the charter commission.
“If you drafted a commission, you would allow the people to actually structure the future the way they see it,” Wagner said.
To overlook this issue and cast it aside, Wagner added, “you’re going to make a number of people aggravated that they didn’t even get the chance to vote on a charter city. My proposal is to allow a committee to be formed to make the assessment for a charter city and for an elected mayor.”
Council member Rick Mullen said he didn’t think it was the appropriate time to be contemplating the issue.
“If we’re going to do it, let’s do it later and not in the middle of our second major disaster and emergency that constrained the budget and reduced the resources,” Mullen said.
The strong-mayor system is in place in just five California cities, the smallest being Oakland (population 390,000), the largest being Los Angeles (population nearly 12.5 million). The others, in ascending order of population: Fresno, San Francisco and San Diego.
Malibu’s population is about 13,000.
Farrer said pursuing the strong-mayor system “a further drain on (Malibu’s) already hugely-impacted resources.”
Pierson agreed that changing the city’s form of government right now doesn’t make sense.
“How are we going to focus on that? How are we going to do the robust public meetings we need to do to do this correctly? We don’t have the ability (right now via Zoom meetings),” said Pierson, noting what he believed a lack of interest in the matter based on the number of speakers during the meeting and not many people contacting him via email or calls.
Mullen added that if people want the strong-mayor option, they should initiate it via petition like those who wanted to get a marijuana store in town and eventually got one.
He believes there was “a lot more interest in a pot store in town than a strong mayor.”
“I think if the strong mayor people really feel the call to do that, then they need to build more of a groundswell (in the matter),” Mullen said.