Council Candidate: Hans Laetz

Editor's Note: Malibu Patch sent a questionnaire to the seven City Council candidates. The questions come from Malibu Patch readers and Malibu Patch staff. All candidates received the same questions. Be sure to find out the candidates' views on more Malibu issues by watching the Great Malibu Debate .

What is your name, birth date and how many years have you lived in Malibu (if there are any gaps, mention them and explain them)? Who are your immediate family members? Feel free to mention names and ages.
I am Hans Laetz, born April 14, 1957, by the beach in San Diego. I have lived in Malibu continuously for 15 years, and lived near Marina del Rey before that. My schoolteacher wife of 31 years, Diane, and I rebuilt a shabby fixer-upper with our hands on the hill above Trancas. We didn't inherit our piece of Malibu, we worked damn hard to get here.

I am so proud of my three daughters and the education they got at Malibu High School. Elise, 24, is taking her marine science expertise from Mr. Perry and is getting a master's degree in Marine Biology at the State University of Bonn in Germany. Emily, 23, graduated from the University of Virginia and just got hired by an urban planning consultant in Santa Monica. Erin, 19, is studying music at Humboldt State. The house is kind of quiet and sad.

What is your education and work history?
I have a B.A. in journalism from the University of Arizona (1982), a Master of Arts degree from Cal State Northridge (1995) and a Juris Doctorate from Ventura College of Law (2009).

I have worked as a professional journalist for 40 years, including 25 years in Los Angeles television news wars. I was an Emmy-Winning news editor at KTLA, CBS News, and CBS2, then news operations manager at KTLA and ABC7. I left TV to become a journalism professor via studying law, but journalism is nowadays a terrible career choice. I now work as weekend news editor at City News Service and take freelance assignments from LA TV stations, and I work on freelance environmental law issues. Seven-day workweeks are my thing.

Why are you qualified to be on the City Council?
I am an independent person, not a part of the current power structure, and not a person with a narrow, emotional preoccupation with just one part of town. I have covered Malibu as a reporter for 15 years. I have volunteered on numerous, individual efforts to improve our city. And I have seen City Council after City Council ignore the biggest problems facing our city, confronting vital issues only when forced to. And frankly, I am weary of all the concentration on the Civic Center, when 70 percent of Malibuites live west of Geoffrey's. Malibu is so much more than "Civic Center this" and "Civic Center that."

Who are you voting for in this election?
I am an independent, and I am voting for me and only casting one vote. A vote for a weak opponent takes away a vote from the best candidate. This is not a matter of pride or vanity, it is very important that my voice be added to the council.

What is your favorite book? Movie? Why?
The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White is the book that took me from a college student in Tucson with $2 and no gas in the car to a house in Malibu. Literally, that book got me here. I cannot ever glide by The Grapes of Wrath on the tube. I worked my way through some very lean years, and learned compassion to see the world through the eyes of less-fortunate brothers and sisters.

Why do you live in Malibu?
Walking down to bodysurf. Possibly spotting cougar P-1 in the canyon behind my house one twilight. Great schools. The hawk buzzing me, twice now, as I wash the sunroof. My sailboat is 20 minutes up the coast. Guacamole at the Corral. One day after Little League, the girls and I saw two whales scratching their bellies on the rocks at Latigo. The Feast at Tony's. Seeing San Clemente Island peek out behind Catalina from the top of Kanan-Dume. I think I just handed a campaign brochure to a muy-famoso '70s rocker from Jersey. Anawalt. Seeing stars (astronomical ones) better than I ever did in Arizona.

Who was Malibu's best City Council member? Why do you choose that person?
A long time ago, Walt Keller told me the most important thing he was able to accomplish was the Vision and Mission Statement in the Malibu General Plan. I didn't get it at the time, I thought it was kind of hokey. I was wrong. Every single smart move or mistake that various city councils have made can be traced back at either success or failure in following that statement. Walt, hands down.

Do you think the agencies involved in lobbying for sewers have any connection to the developers that will profit from them in our community?
No agencies are "lobbying" for a sewer. The Water Quality Control Board has ordered that Malibu follow state law that requires us to eliminate all human excretions into Malibu Creek and lagoon. We have to deal with that fact and cut out the wacky conspiracy theories. The problem is that the state order is based on a deal with the City of Malibu that assumes we will inject the reclaimed water underground. The Malibu Coastal Fault bisects the injection area. No geologist in the world can 100 percent guarantee that a quake cannot be triggered by the pressurized injection of water into the top of a fault that USGS says has a 35 percent chance of unleashing a 6.5 quake within 30 years. So, the real question to ask each candidate is "what specifically will you do to fight this dangerous, stupid sewer order?" My answer: let the MOU die, and offer a new plan that requires (a) advanced onsite treatment systems, and (b) removing every drop of surplus water from both Malibu and Tapia out of the lagoon groundwater system.

How will you help Malibu retain its beautiful rural charm?
Our city council can retain our rural charm by radically changing course, and actually enforcing our city's General Plan and its Civic Vision and Mission Statement. That would be a radical departure for our current council. They gave the Trancas shopping center enlargement project every single variance, exemption and loophole that the owner, at the time a Chicago bank, wanted.

Some of the candidates seem to have hung their hats on being born here or living here a long time. What's more important, being a long-time resident in Malibu or having a track record of showing up at City Council meetings and volunteering in Malibu organizations?
It cracks me up that the "Malibu natives" make a big deal about being here since Juan Cabrillo sailed in. I didn't see them with me:

-- at the big effort to block the LNG terminal,

-- at the fight the state water board's ridiculous sewage mandate,

-- winning changes from the county transportation commission on the dangerous signs on Kanan,

-- helping to win $12 million in fines from the utility companies that overloaded the wooden canyon poles,

-- demanding that LA County give us a priority list for water line improvements,

-- appearing before Legislative panels to demand that PCH be made safer,

-- nicely asking the SMMUSD board to give Malibu a voice,

-- saving 7.6 acres at the old Riders and Ropers site from commercial buildings to open space,

-- attending dozens of Public Safety Commission meetings,

-- speaking at dozens of City Council meetings over the years --- not just in election season – and winning key changes.

What is important is a track record of action and results. Mine is listed.

The Tapia sewage treatment facility was built without Malibu community input and has caused grievous harm to Malibu's main watershed. It is set up to get worse as it processes more than 10 million gallons of sewage a day. Will you support an effort to hold the Army Corp of Engineers accountable for coming up with a plan to reroute that processed sewage to the Valley for irrigation purposes? 
The Army Corps of Engineers is not the problem, they have almost no jurisdiction on the crime that is Tapia. None of the other candidates seems to know that Tapia already has built an outlet pipe to the L.A. River in the San Fernando Valley. The Calabasas people prefer not to use it, because (quoting their web site) "alternatives to creek discharge for 7 months cost over $1/2 million annually." The problem is that the penny-pinchers in Calabasas take advantage of loopholes in the law and flood us with their damaging water, to save a few bucks, rather than pay to clean up their mess. That's the outrage.

Do you support a livable wage for City Council Members, such as $2,000 per month or more, plus benefits?
No. Marshall Thompson makes good arguments for it. But the city cannot afford it right now. I would rather repave roads.

A voter-approved city law restricts candidates to serving two terms on the City Council. But terms served before 2000 do not count toward that total. Is it appropriate for a candidate to use this loophole to run for three or more terms?
It is astonishing that an accomplished, nice person would sully her record and seek higher office in direct violation of the stated will of the people. Of course, she has every right to disagree with the concept of term limits. But term limits have been found to be fully constitutional, Malibu overwhelmingly voted for them, and no candidate has any right whatsoever to thumb their nose at the legitimate decision of the people.

How do you feel about the Malibu Bay Co. Development Agreement (Measure M) that voters rejected in 2003?
I opposed it because it was wrong to link development plans 8 miles apart, at Trancas, Point Dume and the Chili Cook-Off sites. Each site had its plusses and minuses, but it was totally unfair and terrible land use policy for the developer and the city council to agree to link them together. That said, the sitting city council endorsed the deal, got shot down by the voters, and then the council members opposed it. Amazing flip-flop.

Malibu shopping centers in recent years have started to resemble Rodeo Drive, especially in the Cross Creek area. Many shops and services used by local shoppers have closed due to high rents. What do you think of Preserve Malibu's proposal for a diversification ordinance that would require a broader offering of services, or do you have a better solution?
I support a free market, with landlords and tenants able to freely contract with each other unfettered by government regulation. But – and it's a big but – our city drastically upended the free market when it built the Lumberyard Municipal Mall. Our own city council became a market participant, and cloned Rodeo-By-The-Sea. The upward pressure on rents was tempered by the recession, but the Calabasification of Malibu can be blamed directly on the city council's decision to demolish our small beach town ambience. Now the situation is reeling out of control. Enter Preserve Malibu, which is asking for modest zoning adjustments -- a tempered and measured response to a drastic change in the character of our community caused by past city council actions.

How do you propose working with other council members with whom you might disagree on contentious issues?
We will not have contentious disagreements if we see all agree to listen to the public and each other, learn the facts together, and make sure all questions are asked and answered. The city council too often rushes to decision. Facts will win the day if they are presented in clear, fair and respectful manners.

How would you change city government (larger, smaller, different emphasis)?
I propose major, but not costly, changes:

-- Remove every card key access lock at City Hall. That is OUR building and it us offensive to lock us out.

-- End the current city rule that every e-mail must be deleted and destroyed once it is read by a city employee. Our City Attorney and City Council are directly violating state laws by ordering the destruction of public documents.

-- Restructure major city commissions (planning, public safety, finance) so that no fewer than two city council members actually sit on those commissions.

-- Restructure other city commissions (parks, telecommunications, etc.) so that at least city councilmember also sits on the commission. Communication and accountability is important.

-- End the bizarre tyranny of Roberts Rules of Order, a stupid relic from England that is a great way to run high school debate clubs but a lousy way to fully hear out residents' concerns and comments. The mayor and commission chairs should use modern hearing rules to allow colloquial exchanges until all issues and questions are resolved.

-- Shorten meeting agendas, and have more frequent meetings. No more than one major issue per meeting. So rude to the public.

-- Post agenda items for council and commissions 7 days in advance for each meeting, allow people to publicly post specific questions or comments directly onto the agenda items for 4 days, and then require staff to publicly post answers to each specific question 3 days in advance of each meeting.

-- No more late agenda material.

-- Require detailed minutes and official action summaries to be publicly posted by city staff within two days after meetings, for immediate public review. We have a smart public information officer, let's see some public information.

-- Add cameras in other city rooms so every commission meeting is webcast.

-- Improve streaming capabilities and add additional cameras to the city council chambers. We are the media capital of the world and our city council meeting webcasts look like Bozeman, Montana.

-- Give up on Channel 3, which can be seen by less than a quarter of the city. Replace it with the web.

Do you support the acquisition of land for additional parks and recreation facilities? If so, how would you finance this?
In 1999, the city conducted a parks needs survey, and it said we had a deficit of 11 fields back then. There is a demonstrated need for more athletic facilities: my daughter and her chums from Malibu High days all have to drive to Pacific Palisades to play in an adult softball league because there is no room here. Bluffs Park is way overcrowded. The city pool is too small.  Some additional fields can be added at the high school for low-impact, non-lit use – if neighbors are protected from noise. It is a shame that the City Hall and Legacy Park bond payments mean that additional playing fields at Point Dume slipped us by. Maybe someday we can work with Donald Stirling, or buy out Trancas Fields, to get a soccer and softball field out west. There are state grants that we have not used to improve parks facilities.

How do you plan to better prepare the citizens of Malibu for the next fire? Do you believe the last fire was handled well, and how will the Corral Canyon Volunteer Fire Department affect the next fire that will be coming soon?
Well, it's not a volunteer fire department, it's a county on-call fire company made up of trained and paid Corral Canyon residents. There's a big difference, and I support such professional efforts, working with the county firefighters, across the city. Malibu had real luck in the last two fires, as outside fire trucks have made in here in time because traffic was light. But at the last fires, critical time was lost when all the fire trucks had to go to the Civic Center for staging and assignment. I watched as crews from Compton and San Diego were given copies of Thomas Brothers maps with Magic Marker assignments. Malibu needs to prepare detailed neighborhood fire maps for arriving crews, showing swimming pools, hydrants, escape routes and handicapped people's houses. And we need a way to hand out those maps to arriving firefighters.