Peak, Sibert, House Win Council Seats

UPDATED at 6:20 p.m. Wednesday with all but 22 provisional ballot results:

Skylar Peak, John Sibert and Joan House won seats on the Malibu City Council Tuesday.

Peak lead with 1,644 votes, followed by Sibert with 1,288 and House with 1,142, according to the Malibu City website.

The count includes all seven precincts, vote by mail ballots and most provisional ballots, according to City Clerk Lisa Pope.

"There are 22 provisional ballots pending verification by the county," Pope said. "Once the final ballots are counted, the data will be updated and presented to the council for adoption at its April 23 regular meeting and council reorganization."

Pope and several other city employees conducted a manual recount of one precinct that was counted by machine. The manual count matched the machine perfectly, she said.

Three council seats were available because Councilwoman Pamela Conley Ulich was termed-out and Councilman Jefferson Wagner did not run for re-election.

"I think that this [victory] means our community is moving forward in a positive direction," Peak told Patch. "...Hopefully, this means moving our world forward in a positive direction."

In a speech at the Malibu Inn, Peak thanked his family, volunteers on his campaign and his fellow candidates, especially his "two best friends in the world, Andy Lyon and Hamish Patterson."

"All of you in this room, I hope that you show up ... and be involved in the decisions that will affect our future. It starts here and it goes to the county, it goes to the state and it goes to the White House," Peak said.

John Sibert, the only incumbent in the race, and Joan House also thanked supporters and asked for continued involvement in the city.

"There are a lot of things that go on in the city that we need to deal with," Sibert said. "And we need everybody, all the citizens, to be involved."

House said that her phone number is listed in the phone book and that residents could call her at any time.

Runner-ups

Other candidates trailed by several hundred votes, with Hans Laetz getting 740, Hamish Patterson with 702, Andy Lyon with 671, and Missy Zeitsoff with 586.

Hans Laetz, a journalist and community activist, said he was happy with the results, and congratulated his fellow candidates throughout the night.

"This is frankly where I thought I would be ... I'm happy to be behind three solid people and ahead of three solid people," Laetz said, just before the final results were read.

He said that he plans to continue to push for safety on Pacific Coast Highway and to put pressure on Southern California Edison.

Andy Lyon said he was pleased with "sixth place," especially since he did not run a traditional campaign.

"I raised zero dollars and I spent zero dollars," Lyon said. "That's huge. Thank you." 

Lyon told Patch that he felt he achieved his goal of raising awareness about the Malibu Lagoon project, especially with the to come out in opposition to the project.

"A year ago they at City Hall, and last night the sheriff congratulated me on getting the 5-0 vote on the Malibu lagoon issue," Lyon said.

Hamish Patterson, who is known for his YouTube videos, offered congratulations to the top three vote getters.

"I am looking forward to us all making Malibu the best city on planet earth," he said.

Zeitsoff commented that the approach to the campaign taken by the four runner-ups may have been too revolutionary for the Malibu community to get behind.

"The difference with 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th place in the horse race was simply a machine; obscene amounts of money that bought meaningless signs and mindless ads," Zeitsoff said. "Democracy isn't ready to give a voice to money-less candidates. We four revolutionary Malibu candidates simply planted four seeds for change. That is what grass-roots is all about."

Ballot Counting

The first ballots from Duke's Restaurant, Precinct 2, arrived at 8:48 p.m. Tuesday, and ballots from Malibu High School arrived shortly after that.

The counting was held up briefly just before 10 p.m. because the officials at the polling place for Precinct 51 had smudged the ballots.

"They are making duplicates of the same ballot," City Clerk Lisa Pope said, adding that the copies will make sure the machine did not malfunction.

The final count was announced around 10:30 p.m.