Council rejects changing Woolsey Fire fee waiver residency criteria
Michele Willer-Allred, Staff Reporter12:19 pm PDT June 1, 2020
A change to the requirements qualifying homeowners for waivers of Woolsey Fire rebuild fees was rejected by the Malibu City Council.
The council was asked to amend the list of documents establishing city residency that must be presented with a request for fee relief.
But in a 4-1 vote, the council decided to leave the requirements as is.
The item was brought before the council during a remote meeting May 26 after former Congressman David Dreier, who lost his Malibu home in the fire, couldn’t prove his primary residence as Malibu.
To date, about $2.1 million of fees have been refunded or waived by the city. Staff estimates an additional $1.4 million will be waived in the remainder of the fiscal year.
The projection of refunded and waived fees for the 2019-20 fiscal year was approximately $4.2 million. If the council had revised the criteria, it is unknown how many other properties could request a refund and what that fiscal impact would be, according to a staff report.
The Woolsey Fire, in November 2018, destroyed more than 400 homes in Malibu.
In June 2019, the council adopted a resolution waiving permit fees during 2019-20 for like-for-like and like-for-like plus 10 percent rebuilds of primary residences. The council also approved refunding any of these permit fees paid in the 2018-19 fiscal year.
Earlier this year, the council adopted a resolution that waived permit fees for those applications that meet the existing criteria and are received by June 30, as long as building permits are issued prior to December 31.
Under the resolution, property owners must demonstrate primary residency at the time of the Woolsey Fire “with an active voter registration, a valid driver’s license or other government-issued identification card with the address of the property that was destroyed by the Woolsey Fire acceptable to the city manager and file an affidavit with the city on the form specified by the city manager.”
The council on May 11 asked staff to return with an item that would allow for an exception to the criteria.
Planning Commissioner John Mazza, who spoke during public comment, said the council should never have put city staff in a position of making a personal decision, in this case about Dreier.
“A powerful politician wants to get a waiver. What happens when the next one comes?” Mazza asked.
“I really hope you give your staff a break and let them operate the way they’ve been operating, make it fair on everybody and don’t introduce any variability in the way it’s administered,” Mazza said about the fee waiver.
Mayor Pro Tem Mikke Pierson, the lone vote against the status quo, said he’s never met Dreier, and was just making sure there was a sense of justice in case a resident was excluded.
“My only intent was that we were treating people fairly, not trying to put the staff in a difficult position,” Pierson said.
Council member Rick Mullen said he had a pleasant conversation with Dreier before the meeting, but thought about it and said the council really can’t be opening up the “Pandora’s Box.”
Mullen said Dreier has another residence outside of Malibu.
“Although he is a longtime participant, he hasn’t met the bar we established,” Mullen said. “As much as I respect him for his public service and I’m sympathetic to anyone who has lost their home … I think we have a good policy.”
He added that if a homeowner doesn’t have documents establishing Malibu residency, “it’s kind of tough for us to say we’ll bend the rules for you but not all those other people who have similar gray area issues.”
Both Mullen and Mayor Karen Farrer emphasized that Malibu is the only city and government entity that has waived fees.
“I express my deepest sympathy to anyone who lost their home in the fire, possessions that can’t be replaced. We all have too many friends and neighbors who’ve been through that and we feel for all of them,” Farrer said. “We really did try to help out the community by doing (waiving fees) and I believe we have been doing that.”
Pierson thanked the council for at least exploring the item and being sensitive to people who lost their homes.
“There’s no good vote here, so I’ll vote no,” Pierson said.
City Manager Reva Feldman said the council could consider looking into extending the date when residents can apply for the fee waiver, but since it wasn’t on the agenda it could be discussed as part of a budget report that will be presented to the council on June 8.