Zuma Jay : photo Ben Marcus

Surf Culture

Surfer Runs a Kelp Roots Campaign to Preserve Malibu

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 26 March, 2008 : - - Jefferson 'Zuma Jay' Wagner runs a very traditional surf shop in Malibu. He sells all you need to go to the beach and go surfing, but that’s it. No magazines, no surf videos, just the basics: trunks, bikinis, wetsuits, surfboards, wax, leashes, sun hats. And he rents kayaks.

Jay opened Zuma Jay Surf Shop in 1975, but over the years he has been a County Sheriff, a Marlboro Man and one of the top explosive effects and gun specialists in Hollywood – he wrote the Movie Industry Firearms Safety manual for the Screen Actor’s Guild. Jay has worn many hats in his time, and now he is sizing up wearing the powdered wig of a politician, as he campaigns for one of five seats on the Malibu City Council election, to be held April 8th

Malibu is a small town of only 13,000 people, but it’s hard to imagine a small town that has more going on. Politically, Malibu is similar to the North Shore of Oahu in that the city and its citizens very often line up on opposite sides of issues involving traffic, development, clean water and quality of life.

As a lifelong surfer and Malibu resident since 1975, Zuma Jay is running on that side of the line that will preserve Malibu as it is and as it has been – one of the last best places in Southern California, and one that has resisted the creeping fungus of condominium, strip mall mania and development that infests almost every other coastal city from Imperial Beach to Goleta.

This could be a very long conversation about all the issues Malibu faces, and where you stand on them, but what would you say are the foundation planks in your campaign for City Council?

The Pier, water quality and density.

Jay rinsing off after fighting the Malibu fires : photo Bill Parr

It seems to me the city of Malibu has done a lot for water quality. They have raised tens of millions of dollars to buy the Chili Cookoff area in the middle of town. They built the storm water runoff treatment facility and they just did a big renovation to the parking lot at Third Point.

Well the Third Point parking lot renovation is a State project.

My point is, any other city would have developed the Chili Cook Off property and put a CostCo on that big lot, or built the SurfRider Pointe condos and collected property taxes. Malibu seems dedicated to water quality.

And yet we still get failing grades at Surfrider Beach, all year around at different times depending on the tides and the water flow from upstream contributing, the local housing in the area also contributing and no one willing to identify the local housing as a source.

I wonder if it’s possible to determine how much of the pollution in Malibu Lagoon is from storm water runoff, how much is from septic tanks and how much of the septic tank pollution is from homes and how much from businesses.

They have done water testing to see how much of the fecal pollution is animal and which is human. You would have to take core samples but that can be done. I saw them doing exactly that at Camp Pendleton when the fight over the Toll Road was going on. They drill down 60 to 70 feet, and they can tell you exactly where the water is coming from, and where the pollution is coming from.

You could do that at the Lagoon and in the Civic Center area and find out where the pollutants are coming from and who is contributing the greatest amount. There are a couple of malls over there and we know they are contributing the greatest amount because there is no one else there. Look into what the new tenant of the old lumber yard, Richard Weintraub, is going through to remodel the city’s property.

And what did they just do at the Third Point parking lot? Did they tear that all up to put in a treatment facility?

No they did that to reduce the size of the human footprint there, and increase the size of the lagoon. You’d have to do the research but I think they reduced the size of the parking lot by anywhere from 10 to 25 per cent, and left more room for the lagoon. They also reduced the encroachment of non-indigenous plants, including the ficus tree I planted during the 1984 Olympics.

Well that’s a positive thing. That must have cost millions to do all that work.

I think it is a positive thing. It might not be visitor serving but guess what, the animals that live in the lagoon are also visitors. But you have to understand that was the California State Parks that did that.

Jay with Clint Eastwood on the set of 'Flags of Our Fathers'

So you still don’t think Malibu does enough to protect the water quality? The way I understand it is Malibu incorporated in 1991, partially to block a sewage system. Because all of Malibu is on septic, that limits to the amount of growth, but those septic systems pollute Malibu Creek, and the ocean.

The City has done some things but I don’t think it’s done enough and it’s always so little so late.

Currently all homes in Malibu must have their septic systems inspected and replaced when a house is sold. If you were on the council would you push for inspecting all septic systems and replacing the faulty ones?

No because that would never get through. You have a number of people who are on fixed incomes in Malibu. Not everyone is a rich movie star so those fixed income people who are living in these homes with failing septic system could not handle a bill between $25,000 and 50,000.

Which some could easily afford, and some couldn’t.

So what you would need to do is perform the work and levy a lien on the property so when it’s sold or changes hands to the sons and daughters of the owners, that lien can be paid. But charging interest would make it even more expensive so you have to put a flat one-time fee on those people who are on a fixed income or who are a certain age so it’s fair to them but also fair to people using the ocean. So we have to weigh those concerns out with fiscal viability.

I have seen what happens when cities throw in the towel and I would hate to see that here. I grew up in Santa Cruz in the 70s and they fought that fight for a long time, but I guess during the Silicon Rush they gave up and now every empty lot in town is being developed. Traffic there is unbelievable and they just tore down the Skyview Drive Inn.  One thing that amazes me about Malibu is all those empty lots in the middle of town. That land must be worth a fortune if you built condos there, or strip malls, or anything. But it’s still empty. Is that because of the septic limitations?

That property is worth a fortune if you can build on it, but you can’t build on it if you can’t get water service to it. District 29 recently came to town with their attorneys and said they can’t deliver any more water to Malibu.

Who is District 29?

Los Angeles Municipal Water District. It’s out of LA. Las Virgenes Water District feeds the hillside homes from Calabasas and Los Angeles District 29 feeds PCH,. But there’s a 30 inch main, and can you imagine what it would cost to replace a 30 inch main on PCH?

So you’re saying they’re at capacity.

They can’t put any more pressure in that pipe or they will blow it out again. It blows out once every 13 to 14 months. That’s 10 times in 12 years.

And that makes traffic and construction costs and headaches. But like the septic tanks, that’s another limiter built right in. I always wondered why the coast between Santa Cruz and San Francisco has stayed so pristine, and it’s the same thing: There is no water there and no one wants to build a pipeline.

It’s cheaper to build a desalinization plant and run it and pay for the power costs than to build a pipeline.

You are a busy man. You have a surf shop to run and your phone is ringing off the hook, which I assume is Hollywood calling. If you get elected to the City Council, how much of a time commitment is it?

About what I gave to the pier, and now that the pier is open I will have that time.

Are you part of a regime change for the City Council?  Is there a fairly conservative, pro-development City council now and are you part of an anti-development wave?

I don’t think the term “conservative City Council leaning toward development” is the proper use there. I think this City Council has attempted to pursue the right course in development. I have to give them a fair shake on that. They have attempted to keep development at a pace that seems fair but in essence and reality if you’ve watched this coast for the last five years and seen how many homes have gone up, and how many large homes have gone up…

Like that fortress going up between Dume and Corral. What is that thing?

That is a private home, a spec house, which they are well within their rights to build. But to mow, to cut down a hillside like that. Hello? That’s in the city.

That’s going to be like a 15,000 square foot…

Seventeen thousand.

I’ll take a monster home every one or two or three acres over urban density.

Well they tried changing the zoning and that is why my homeowners association sued the city and won. The City tried to change the zoning in Latigo from one house per 20 acres to one house per five acres. Which is a serious zoning change.

That’s still pretty spread out.

Yes but when these people bought their properties they understood that the zoning was one house for every 20 acres. They knew what they were buying into. And that was fine for many years, but now because that might not be as profitable, let’s make this zoning one house per five and now I can have four houses on my 20 acres and not one house. The density increases and the profitability increases.

And the traffic increases, and the pollution increases and we get closer to looking like Laguna Niguel.

And nobody wants that.

So do you think you have a chance of getting elected, or are you too anti-growth?

I would say my chances are not as good as the council-supported candidates.

I have seen mailers and other materials from some of the other candidates and it looks like you are running a kelp-roots campaign against pros.

I have raised about $10,000 and some of the other campaigns are running on $30,000 - $40,000+.

How much does a City Council position pay?

Three thousand dollars a year.

“Righteous bucks!” as Spicoli would say.

But money isn’t the point. Protecting and preserving Malibu is the point.

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Ben Marcus

Surf Culture - Surfersvillage