As the Nov. 5 election approaches, the five City Council candidates share their reasons for running and the issues important to their campaign.
The five city council candidates running for three open seats this season are Bruce Silverstein, Steve Uhring, Paul Grisanti, Haylynn Conrad and Channing Frykman. Silverstein, Uhring and Grisanti are incumbent candidates seeking re-election. Conrad and Frykman are newcomers to the City Council scene.
“Recently I realized how important local politics are because where I live is what I come in contact with everyday,” Conrad said.
Each candidate discussed why running for City Council is important to them and the issues they want to focus on if elected. Some of which include public safety, relationships with outside organizations and school board issues.
Haylynn Conrad
Conrad’s reasons for running include setting a good example for her children and wanting the opportunity to make a difference, she said.
“The ‘why’ is, why not? The why is because I can and because I want to,” Conrad said. “I want to effect change and help my neighborhood.”
One of the various issues that Conrad would like to fix is the divided community within Malibu, she said.
“There’s a lot of fighting within residents and different people,” Conrad said.
Another important issue is the current situation with the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH), Conrad said.
“I think PCH is pretty criminal in the way in which it’s been governed and maintained and operated,” Conrad said. “I think that unfortunately we can — we haven’t changed it but we could change it.”
This issue hits home for Conrad she said as her kids are approaching driving age.
Conrad is friends with Michel Shane, whose daughter died on PCH in 2010, making the issue all the more important to her, she said.
“If we can reimagine and redesign the physicality of PCH, I hope that people, my kids’ kids can go to each other and say to ‘Grandma, could you imagine that people used to die on this road?'” Conrad said.
Conrad also touched on the issues of homelessness in Malibu, the RVs parked along PCH, the Malibu school separation and the preservation of Malibu’s natural beauty.
By the end of Conrad’s potential term in City Council she hopes to see palpable change with PCH, to help improve the building department and to unite a fragmented community, she said.
“I hope I can help the city unite with each other and to stop so much fighting,” Conrad said.
Paul Grisanti
Paul Grisanti has lived in Malibu for 46 years and has seen his fair share of mistakes, he said. He hopes he can use his knowledge to prevent us from repeating history.
“I met my wife here, I did — I raised my kids here — all of those things make me want to, at this stage of my life, to work hard on trying to fix some things that obviously need to be fixed,” Grisanti said.
One of the issues Grisanti feels needs to be resolved is the school district split between Malibu and Santa Monica, Grisanti said.
Grisanti also wants to improve Malibu’s relationship with the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA), he said.
“We’ve been working on trying to fix that relationship for years,” Grisanti said. “So we hope that soon we will have some kind of a breakthrough.”
Grisanti predicts the fix in this relationship will occur if not before the election, then shortly thereafter, he said.
Grisanti touched on the issue of PCH safety as well.
“Unfortunately those people [the four Pepperdine women] were killed and there was another person injured,” Grisanti said. “That actually was horrendous enough that the state finally got behind us on changing Pacific Coast Highway to make it safer.”
After the accident almost a year ago, more highway patrol officers were hired to assist with traffic and speed control, Grisanti said.
“That has been successful,” Grisanti said. “We’ve had over a 30% reduction in accidents after they started enforcing the law more diligently.”
However, the Pepperdine community does not need to wait for new initiatives to start making PCH safer.
“I need Pepperdine students’ help and I need them to help by reducing their speed on PCH,” Grisanti said.
Steve Uhring
Steve Uhring has been active in the Malibu community for over 30 years, Uhring said.
Uhring’s activism began when a former Malibu City Council provided a permit for a shopping center on Legacy Park, Uhring said.
“We thought that was a bad idea,” Uhring said. “So myself and a couple of other friends got together, we put a ballot initiative together, we got the voters to vote against it and then we went out and raised a half a million dollars to help them buy the property.”
Uhring believes City Council members should be custodians of natural resources for current and future generations, he said.
“I believe that,” Uhring said. “And I think if we can do that, we’re doing not only ourselves a favor but whoever’s coming behind me.”
Through Uhring’s campaign he is continuing to advocate for public safety, he said.
“Whether it’s safety on PCH, whether it’s fire safety, I mean I think the primary goal of the City Council is to protect the residents,” Uhring said.
Preserving the quality of life for the community is also important, Uhring said.
“People moved here for a way of life,” Uhring said. “I think doing what we can to try and preserve that, I think, is a very important component of what we should be doing.”
Code enforcement is another issue that Uhring would like to bring attention to, he said.
“We’ve got to find a better way to make our code enforcement more effective and make sure that, you know, the penalties that we have are — can measure with the crime being committed,” Uhring said.
Uhring connected the issue of code enforcement to the fine imposed on Nobu in July.
Uhring also wants to find ways to make the planning department more effective, he said.
“If I can get those things done, I’ll be very happy,” Uhring said.
Channing Frykman
Channing Frykman has lived in Malibu for around 10 years and her husband grew up in California, she said.
As a mother, pediatrician, PCH victim, community advocate and service leader, she felt called to run for City Council, Frykman said.
“I feel called to serve and protect our community,” Frykman said.
Frykman’s family has been involved in a number of PCH accidents, making PCH safety close to Frykman’s heart, she said.
“As I had just recovered from my pedestrian versus vehicle incident in 2020, my husband had a cycling crash in July of this year and that coincided with the nomination for City Council,” Frykman said. “And it was just instantaneous. I knew that that was my assignment.”
Frykman’s mission is to make our main street in Malibu feel safe again, she said.
Another issue that Frykman finds important is restoring the spirit of love to the Malibu community, she said.
“So much has changed over these ten years,” Frykman said. “The Malibu, when we moved here, was united. There was this spirit of love your neighbor.”
Frykman feels that by working together, this love between neighbors can be restored, she said.
“If we can work together, these things can happen,” Frykman said. “But with fighting and with toxicity, were gonna just be creating barriers.”
Frykman feels that her campaign stands for the importance of disaster and emergency preparedness, she said.
“There’s no physician or healthcare professional on the City Council,” Frykman said.
Given all of the natural disasters, safety issues and emergency issues, Frykman feels that a physician’s advice would be an important contribution to City Council, she said.
“That is something I’ve been doing for over 30 years and I could offer that expertise and that perspective,” Frykman said.
Frykman also wants to focus on the school board split between Santa Monica and Malibu, environmental stewardship, reviving the planning department and smart growth without commercialization within Malibu, she said.
“The overarching theme of — of the campaign is — is this: the one mission,” Frykman said. “Health, safety and commUNITY, with an emphasis on unity. That really captures my heart and prayer for Malibu.”
Bruce Lee Silverstein
Bruce Lee Silverstein has lived in the Malibu area for 13 years and believes that his perspective as a lawyer is necessary for the Malibu City Council, he said.
“If I didn’t have that additional value [as a lawyer] added, I wouldn’t be running,” Silverstein said.
Silverstein has worked as a lawyer for 37 years, he said.
Surrounding areas have lawyers on their respective City Council’s, making Malibu’s lack of lawyers, outside of Silverstein, unusual for the City Council scene, Silverstein said.
Silverstein was recruited to run for City Council four years ago by Jefferson Wagner, a former City Council member.
“I reluctantly agreed to run, viewing it as a civic responsibility,” Silverstein said. “And I’m running again basically for the same reason.”
The issues that are important to Silverstein are public safety, protecting and preserving Malibu’s fragile environment, the public school separation, appropriately using the vacant land throughout Malibu, transparency in Government and fiscal responsibility.
“I view my role as currently on city council and if re-elected as to be to help the balance of the city council achieve our collective objectives, whatever they might be,” Silverstein said.
Silverstein relies on those who have lived in Malibu longer, both City Council members and normal residents, to identify important issues to Malibu so that he can advocate for them, Silverstein said.
“I act as if they are my — as if the residents are my client and I do what I am best able to do to prosecute their cause,” Silverstein said.
Bottom Line
All five candidates hope to address issues that they feel are important through their campaigns. Some of these issues include public safety, PCH improvement, the public school separation and restoring the kindhearted nature of Malibu.
For those wanting to get involved, the closest voting center location to the Malibu area is located at Malibu City Hall, according to the LA County Vote Centers webpage.
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Contact Mackenzie Krause via email: mackenzie.krause@pepperdine.edu
