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Haylynn Conrad Newsletter — August 28, 2026
🌊 The Malibu Current with Councilmember Haylynn Conrad
📅 August 28, 2026
Good morning, Malibu,
Tomorrow morning, Surfrider Beach gets some extra love, and I hope you'll be part of it. The Love Malibu Clean Up runs from 9:30 to 11:30 AM, and I'll be out on the sand with The Malibu Project and Heal the Bay, picking up everything the summer crowds left behind.
That is the happy headline in a week that covered a lot of ground: the PCH speed cameras took a major step toward going live, the Farmers Market spent its first Sunday in a temporary home, and Monday's Council meeting brought both encouraging crime-fighting news and a commendation for one remarkable volunteer. Here's the rundown.
🌊 Environment: Tomorrow, We Clean Surfrider Together
🔹 The Love Malibu Clean Up is tomorrow, Saturday, August 29, from 9:30 to 11:30 AM at Surfrider Beach: I'm teaming up with The Malibu Project and Heal the Bay for a family-friendly morning of caring for the coastline that defines this town. Bring a friend, bring your kids, bring a reusable water bottle; hydration is provided. Every piece of trash we pull off that sand protects our ocean, our wildlife, and the beach we all love.
→ 💙 Why this one is personal: The Malibu Project showed up for this community when we needed it most after the fires, and now they're pouring that same energy into the ocean. I shared their new video with Laird Hamilton and Gabby Reece this week because it captures exactly what true community looks like. Watch it, then come put it into practice with us.
👉 View cleanup details and registration
🛣️ PCH Safety: The Speed Cameras Are Almost Here
🔹 Malibu's PCH Speed Safety System is nearing completion: The City announced on August 18 that construction is wrapping up, and an education and outreach campaign is now underway through September. The system will use up to 10 cameras at five locations along our 21 miles of PCH to identify vehicles traveling at least 11 mph over the limit. A 60-day warning period is expected to begin in late September, with full enforcement starting in late November. Penalties begin at $50, are civil rather than criminal, and add no points to a license.
→ 📊 By the numbers: More than 60 people have been killed on Malibu's stretch of PCH since 2010, and it took the loss of four Pepperdine students in 2023 to finally unlock the state law that made these cameras possible.
→ 🎯 My take: Slowing traffic on PCH is one of the reasons I ran for this seat, and this is the most significant enforcement tool we have ever put on that highway. Cameras alone will not finish the job, but they will change behavior, and behavior is what kills. My ask is simple: do not wait for the warning notices. Slow down now.
👉 Learn how the Speed Safety System works
👉 Read the Malibu Times report
🥕 Community Engagement: The Farmers Market Finds a Temporary Home
🔹 The Malibu Farmers Market has moved to City Hall for now: On Friday, August 21, the City ordered the market to stop operating at Legacy Park, where restrictions on the property prohibit commercial activity and the market's permit was never updated to cover its stay there. Last Sunday, the market set up instead at Malibu City Hall, 23825 Stuart Ranch Road, from 10 AM to 3 PM, and the tents, produce, and familiar faces were all there.
→ 💡 What this means: The City, the County, and the Cornucopia Foundation, which has run the market for more than 25 years, all agree on the goal: keep the market going and return it to its longtime County-owned home near the library. The pieces of that move have been coming together for weeks, and I want to see it finished quickly.
→ 🎯 My take: A quarter century of Sunday mornings is not something this town takes lightly, and I know the uncertainty is hardest on the farmers and vendors who depend on a predictable spot. My commitment to you is to push for a durable, permanent solution. Yours can be even simpler: keep showing up wherever the farmer's market tents are.
🌳 Community Lands: Three Days Left, and a Legacy Park Question
🔹 The Community Lands survey closes Monday, August 31: This is the last weekend to weigh in on the preliminary design concepts for the Ioki, Heathercliff, and Triangle Lot properties, part of the more than 61 acres of City-owned land whose future we are shaping together. The survey takes about ten minutes, and it is the single most direct way to influence what gets built.
🔹 And I want to hear from you about Legacy Park: As part of the ad hoc committee looking at our community land, I asked on Instagram this week: how often do you visit Legacy Park, and what would make you want to spend more time there? After the week this park just had, that conversation feels more urgent, not less. Your answers genuinely shape what comes next.
👉 Take the Community Lands survey
👉 Share your Legacy Park thoughts
🚓 Public Safety: Good Police Work, and One Outstanding Volunteer
🔹 Monday's Council meeting opened with updates from LASD and CHP: Sheriff's Sgt. Chris Soderlund reported that license plate reader technology helped crack a string of five vehicle burglaries in Malibu involving roughly $50,000 in losses, with three suspects apprehended. Deputies also used a drone to locate an encampment inside Legacy Park, which outreach deputies then removed, a real concern in peak fire season. On the traffic side, CHP wrote 334 citations here in July, 230 of them for speeding, and reported no citations over 100 mph that month. The seasonal beach patrol continues through Labor Day.
→ ⚡ Why this matters: With 17 million visitors a year, our deputies cannot be everywhere at once. Smart technology and regional coordination multiply what the Lost Hills Station can do for us, and these results show the investment paying off.
🔹 A commendation for Bill Melcher: The Council honored this Volunteer on Patrol, a Pepperdine law student who somehow logs 50 to 100 unpaid patrol hours a month, after his quick thinking led to two suspected DUI arrests on PCH this summer. Every one of those stops is potentially a life saved. Bill, this whole town is grateful for you.
👉 Read the full public safety briefing
🛍️ Support for Small Business: Saying Aloha to Kristy's
🔹 After 15 years, Kristy's will close on September 9: Kristy Apana opened her wood oven restaurant in 2011 overlooking Zuma, moved it to Trancas Country Market in 2017, and turned it into the room where Malibu celebrated birthdays, anniversaries, and ordinary Tuesdays alike. The Malibu Times published a lovely tribute this week to her signature aloha spirit.
→ 💙 One ask before the ovens cool: If Kristy's has ever fed your family, stop in before September 9 and say thank you. And in a construction summer that has been brutal on every business along the highway, let this be a reminder that our shops and restaurants need us at their tables now, not just in our memories later.
👉 Read the tribute in The Malibu Times
👉 Explore City business resources
📚 Education: A Strong Start, With Strong Backup
🔹 The Malibu Education Foundation is entering its third year of expanded support: As our students settled back into classrooms after the August 20 start, The Malibu Times highlighted how MEF is funding expanded academic, athletic, and arts programs across our campuses. I was raised by a schoolteacher, so I never take for granted the people, paid and volunteer, who decide our kids deserve more than the minimum. Thank you to every donor, parent, and educator behind that effort.
👉 Read about the back-to-school support
🏛️ Get Involved: Malibu's Commissions
🔹 Want to plug into one of Malibus commissions? Planning, Parks and Recreation, Public Safety, Public Works, Arts, and the Harry Barovsky Memorial Youth Commission all meet monthly at City Hall, and every one welcomes public comment. So much of our local policy actually starts in these rooms, and if serving on one has ever crossed your mind, the application is open year-round.
👉 Browse upcoming commission meetings and agendas
👉 Apply to serve on a commission or committee
📅 Dates to Know
🔹 Tomorrow, Saturday, August 29, 9:30 to 11:30 AM: Love Malibu Clean Up at Surfrider Beach with The Malibu Project and Heal the Bay.
🔹 Through Saturday morning, August 29: Overnight one-way traffic control on Topanga Canyon Boulevard between PCH and Entrado Drive for guardrail work, nightly from 10 PM to 6 AM.
🔹 Sunday, August 30, 10 AM to 3 PM: Malibu Farmers Market, expected at its temporary Malibu City Hall location, 23825 Stuart Ranch Road, while the relocation is worked out.
🔹 Monday, August 31: Last day to complete the Community Lands survey.
🔹 Saturday, September 5, 10 AM to 2 PM: Waves of Flags installation, Alumni Park, Pepperdine University. Volunteers welcome for the 25th anniversary display.
🔹 Monday, September 7: Labor Day. City Hall is closed.
🔹 Monday, September 14, 5:30 PM: Regular City Council Meeting, Malibu City Hall (hybrid).
🔹 Ongoing: Westward Beach Road and the Point Dume Beach parking lot remain closed; the beach is still open on foot from the Zuma side. PCH work zones continue, with reduced speeds and doubled fines.
👉 Browse the full Malibu city calendar
🐝 One Last Thought
Stewardship showed up in a lot of ways this week: cameras that will slow the highway, a drone that protected a park, a volunteer blocking traffic to reach an unresponsive driver, a foundation quietly funding our classrooms. None of it is glamorous. All of it is love for this place, made practical.
So spend this weekend the same way. Grab a bucket at Surfrider tomorrow, take the survey before Monday's deadline, and get one more meal at Kristy's while you can. And if something in your corner of Malibu needs a voice at City Hall, write me at hconrad@malibucity.org and tell me what it is. I read every note.
See you on the sand, Malibu.
