Original City Council Member Eyes a Return

Nearly 20 years after she was voted off the , Missy Zeitsoff is starting a political comeback. A member of the original council that was elected in 1990, she has been attending nearly every Malibu government meeting since moving back to the city in August—getting back into the fold and possibly preparing for a return to Malibu's top government body.

Zeitsoff, 65, has lived an interesting and at times tragic life. She said she now lives for the present and the future, and believes she has "another 20 productive years in her."

"When I left the council in 1992, I left with a lot of unfinished business," Zeitsoff said. "I still have a lot to offer this city."

She said there is about a 75 percent chance she will enter the 2012 campaign for three seats on the council. Whether she runs (Zeitsoff called it a "walk," saying she is too calm and relaxed these days to be involved in anything hectic) will depend on who else enters, but whether she thinks she could win would not be a factor in the decision.

"I have nothing to lose," said Zeitsoff, who will begin courses in mediation next month at . "As long as I think it could be a pleasant experience, I'll do it. My philosophy is 'present and future.' I am going to give amnesty and forgiveness to everybody from the past."

However the 2012 campaign turns out, Zeitsoff said it could not be worse than her failed re-election bid in 1992, which she called "the worst nightmare." Not only was she fighting an opposition that painted her as pro-development in a city that had recently been formed in an effort to limit development, Zeitsoff was also dealing with the death of her son Justin, who was murdered in the middle of the campaign.

"I was grieving, trying to raise three children and a grandchild, and I kept thinking, 'Why are these people lying about me?'" Zeitsoff said.

Malibu in 1992 was a city going through growing pains. The residents had approved cityhood two years earlier by a margin of more than 8-to-1 in an election in which nearly 70 percent of the registered voters participated. The driving force was a fear of the county's plan to build a sewer, which many Malibu residents believed would lead to an overdeveloped area looking more like Miami Beach than the rural paradise they wanted to maintain.

The spirit of a united community that created a city soon fell apart. By March 1991, when cityhood became official, there was a clear division on the council. On one side were Walt Keller and Carolyn Van Horn, on the other were Zeitsoff, Larry Wan and Mike Caggiano. Zeitsoff said most of the differences were more imagined than real, but opponents portrayed her side as being in the hands of the developers.

The 1992 election for three seats included Zeitsoff, Caggiano and Van Horn as well as 17 other candidates, including Jeff Kramer and Joan House, who joined Van Horn on the slate known as Malibu Grassroots Movement, or MGM. Zeitsoff said the MGM campaign turned many people against her.

"There were lots of people who thought that maybe I changed, and that maybe Larry was a developer lover," she said. "This whole story was concocted. Everybody who paid attention knew it was a bunch of lies, but the uninvolved people thought, 'Well, this is Malibu, nobody is going to tell lies about people, so it must be true.'"

Combatting the MGM campaign was difficult, and it became more challenging in February, two months before Election Day, when her son Justin was murdered. At age 17, he had "gotten himself into a stupid mess," she said, and became involved in gun dealing. Justin had angered the head of the operation, who hired another person to kill him.

"You can come from the best background or the worst background, and you can get hooked up in bad stuff," she said.  

Zeitsoff did not actively campaign for several weeks, and when Election Day finally came, she hoped for the best. It did not happen. Zeitsoff placed ninth in the 20-person field, 1,619 votes behind House, who picked up the third seat. Van Horn and Kramer were also elected. Caggiano also lost. And when the new council was installed, Wan resigned.

After the defeat, Zeitsoff turned away from city politics. For a year, she was involved with the case against her son's killers. The two men—Ian Duncan and Jude DeJesus—were sentenced in June 1993 to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Then she joined and became a leader of various groups against guns and violence and for victims' rights. Then-Malibu state Assemblymember Sheila Kuehl named Zeitsoff "Woman of the Year" in 1995.

"That is what happens often when people lose a child," she said. "You get involved in groups dedicated to issues that caused your child's death. I had just switched gears from city politics into something new. I felt it was a lot more useful and productive."

She began working as a teacher in 1996 at a juvenile correction facility in Ventura County, and later worked at one in Santa Barbara. The purpose of these jobs, she said, was to help troubled young people early and take them off the wrong path.

Zeitsoff left Malibu in 2003, and lived the past three years in Santa Barbara. But she remained in love with this city, which she said has "the most beautiful ocean views and the most beautiful mountain views."

"I used to drive through Malibu crying, because I know every square inch of it," Zeitsoff said. "It is the place where I have many of my memories and it is where I raised all my children, including my son who died."

She had always wanted to return to Malibu, and , at which the current and former council members were honored, got her thinking that she really needed to make the move back home.  

Zeitsoff has not spoken publicly at a meeting since she started attending them again a few months ago, but she is observing closely. She praised the current council for being respectful and having a good tone, but Zeitsoff said they appear to be too staff-driven.

"I don't care to criticize or judge," she said. "If I am elected, I would like to make sure with my new colleagues that we get more inquisitive and ask for more details, and that we don't just let staff do the work that we should be doing."

Zeitsoff said some of her major issues as a council member would be taking another look at , public safety, Los Angeles County Waterworks 29 and "why our water rates are so high, and always have been," protection of local businesses, the city budget and limiting future development.

"I think I have a lot to offer," Zeitsoff said. "I have an institutional memory as well as mediation and environmental skills ... and getting back into this, it is a lot of fun."