Rumors aside, Independence Day beach closures to be enforced in Malibu
Michele Willer-Allred, Staff Reporter
11:32 am PDT July 2, 2020
City officials are reassuring the public that, despite rumors to the contrary, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department will be enforcing an emergency order closing beaches in Malibu over the July 4th weekend.
Per orders from the county Board of Supervisors, all Los Angeles County beaches, piers, beach bike paths and beach access points will be closed Friday morning to Monday morning.
“They will definitely be enforcing it (in Malibu),” Malibu Public Safety Director Susan Duenas said about the department during the Public Safety Commission meeting held via video conference on Wednesday. It was the first Public Safety Commission held since March when all meetings in Malibu other than the City Council and Planning Commission were canceled because of COVID-19.
Much of the discussion centered around public safety concerns, as well as fire safety, over the holiday weekend.
During the meeting, Commissioner Keegan Gibbs said he was getting “very mixed reports” about whether deputies from Malibu-Lost Hills Station would be enforcing the closure.
Duenas said that via her conversations with department officials, about 40 deputies would be assigned to the Malibu area over the weekend.
The department also issued a statement saying that the sheriff’s Beach Team would be patrolling county beaches to ensure public safety, and violators could be subject to a $1,000 fine.
Duenas said the department indicated that deputies will first ask people nicely and educate them if rules are broken at the beach.
“But if it becomes problematic, if it comes down to it, they will cite people as the last resort,” she said. “But they will be out there enforcing the rules, We’ve been assured by Lost Hills.”
Malibu Public Works Director Rob DuBoux said his department has been putting up no parking signs along beach areas on PCH ahead of this weekend’s beach closures.
Commissioner Doug Stewart said he expected that sightseers and people testing whether the beaches truly are closed will make PCH a “parking lot” this weekend.
“I’m very concerned that we’ve got people shooting off illegal fireworks,” he added. “We’ve got a southwest wind for most of the weekend, which means if you fire something off on the beach, it’s going to blow back toward the town and we’ve got dry brush all over the place.”
“I just hope we do everything we can to keep ourselves safe. It’s going to be a tough weekend,” said Stewart.
Saying that Malibu Bluffs Park is one place that people might try to launch fireworks, Stewart asked if the park would be closed.
City Manager Reva Feldman responded by saying Bluffs Park will be closed at dusk like it usually is every day, and she has asked for additional enforcement from deputies to make sure nobody is there after hours.
Los Angeles County Fire Department Battalion Chief Drew Smith said there is already a “high suspicion” there’s going to be a lot of illegal firework activity out in Malibu and the surrounding area because of what fire officials have seen these past two week, including in the Santa Monica Mountains.
Because of that, Smith said his department plans to work with Arson Watch and other groups to have a “robust response.”
Commission Chair Chris Frost said he has talked with Sgt. Jim Braden of the Malibu-Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station, as well as Feldman, and he felt confident that Malibu was in good hands for the weekend.
“I feel very good about it,” Frost said. “I do agree that we’re going to have gridlock on the road because people are going to drive out here and test the waters anyways, no pun intended.”
Frost commended the hard work of the Malibu Volunteers On Patrol.
“Unfortunately, we have a lot of people in society that are a little impatient with the system, and (the unpaid volunteers) get yelled at, they get spit at. They get literally threatened and they still do their job,” Frost said. “So, I’m hoping the general public … thank them when they see them.”
Frost also had thoughts about Gov. Gavin Newsom’s order on June 18 requiring all Californians to wear face masks in response to concerns about a surge of COVID-19 cases in the state.
Frost said he gets impatient listening to people’s opinions about it because he feels that people who wear them are just trying to create a safer environment and slow the spread.
“I’m encouraging people, just wear your darn masks,” Frost said. “There’s no downside to it. It’s not civil rights, it’s common sense and a bit of good responsibility.”
Malibu, he added, gets “a lot of people from the outside … and those people, a lot of them, don’t wear masks and we don’t know where they’ve been.”
Stewart had his own thoughts about new orders announced by Newsom on Wednesday that halts indoor seating in restaurants and other establishments for at least three weeks.
Stewart said he was in an unnamed restaurant when the announcement was made and the owner was dismayed with the news, saying he just got his staff back and things were starting to get back to normal.
“I thought he was going to slit his wrist,” Stewart said. “As I’ve said before, we’ve got physical health and economic health, and this is just devastating for another round here. It’s not going to be easy.”