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Haylynn Conrad Newsletter — July 30, 2026
🌊 The Malibu Current with Councilmember Haylynn Conrad
📅 July 31, 2026
Good morning, Malibu,
I hope your summer days in Malibu so far have been filled with as many views of the ocean as possible.
Some weeks the ocean is the backdrop. This week it moved to the front of the agenda. On Monday, City staff and Caltrans engineers assessed stretches of PCH in the Palisades Fire burn area where high tides and surf have been carving away at the coastline, and the City acted the same day. That work, and what comes next, leads today's newsletter.
You will also find a wildfire preparedness milestone worth celebrating, a nudge to carry Plastic Free July into August, and one deadline that arrives next Friday for anyone still weighing a run for City Council. Here is where things stand.
🌊 Environment and Safety: Holding the Line on PCH
🔹 The City and Caltrans are confronting coastal erosion in the burn area: On Monday, July 27, City staff met with Caltrans engineers to assess erosion affecting several beachfront properties destroyed in the Palisades Fire along PCH. Recent high tides and high surf have accelerated the damage in places where seawalls no longer stand, and in several locations the erosion has advanced close to the roadway. Based on Monday's inspections, the City red-tagged several parcels as an immediate public safety measure to keep people out of unsafe areas along the deteriorating embankment.
→ ⚡ Why the urgency: The National Weather Service is forecasting a strong El Niño this winter, and intense rain could accelerate the erosion even further. The goal is simple: get protective measures in place before the first storms arrive, not after.
→ 🎯 Where this goes next: City officials were set to meet with Governor Newsom's Office on Tuesday to elevate the issue, and staff are working with Caltrans, SoCalGas, and Waterworks District 29 on temporary measures to protect the roadway, nearby properties, and public safety. Community Development Director Yolanda Bundy is briefing the City Manager and the Council as conditions evolve, and I will share updates with you as we receive them. PCH is our lifeline. Protecting it cannot wait for winter, and I am glad to see our team treating it that way.
👉 Read the City's coastal erosion update
🚧 Getting Around: A New Week of Lane Closures
🔹 Caltrans fire-repair work continues on PCH and Topanga Canyon through Sunday, August 2: A fresh weekly closure schedule took effect Monday as Palisades Fire recovery work moves along the coast. Expect delays, slow down, and watch for workers and work vehicles, and remember that fines may be doubled in construction zones. Every repaired stretch brings us closer to a safer, sturdier highway, so please give the crews the room they need.
👉 See this week's closure schedule
🔥 Environment: Fifteen Firewise Neighborhoods, and Counting
🔹 Malibu now has 15 recognized Firewise communities: On Saturday, the City put out the word on the Firewise USA program, which helps neighborhoods cut wildfire risk through community action: creating defensible space, hardening homes, improving emergency access, and planning ahead. Becoming Firewise means organizing your neighborhood, mapping it with support from the City and NFPA, completing a wildfire risk assessment, building an action plan, and hosting at least one Firewise activity a year. The City and the LA County Fire Department will guide you through every step.
→ 💡 Why this matters: Community-level prevention is exactly the kind of work that helped earn Malibu its state fire risk reduction recognition this summer, and it is the work insurers are increasingly required to consider. Every home we prepare and every neighbor we involve makes Malibu stronger and safer. Fifteen neighborhoods is a real achievement. Let's make it twenty.
🔹 Weed abatement season is underway too: Public Works and Community Services have started their annual collaborative weed abatement on City-owned properties and public rights-of-way across Malibu, clearing dry grasses and combustible vegetation before it can become fuel. It is unglamorous, essential work that also improves emergency access and protects public infrastructure. Thank you to the crews doing it.
👉 Learn how to become Firewise
♻️ Environment: Finish Plastic Free July Strong, Then Keep Going
🔹 One month down, a habit worth keeping: All July, the City has been promoting Plastic Free July as part of its commitment to protecting our watersheds, beaches, and ocean. The scale of the problem is staggering: more than 430 million tons of plastic are produced globally each year, much of it designed to be used once and thrown away. The City's ten easy steps include carrying a reusable water bottle, bringing your own bags and coffee cup, choosing refillable products, and skipping plastic straws, which rank among the ten most commonly collected items at beach cleanups. Malibu was ahead of the curve here, banning single-use plastic straws, stirrers, and cutlery back in 2018.
→ 💙 The easiest next step: August does not need to undo July's progress. Pick one or two swaps to keep, and if you want to do something hands-on for the coastline we all share, join a beach cleanup. Few things change your relationship with a place like picking litter off its sand.
👉 Explore the City's environmental programs
👉 Volunteer for a beach cleanup
🗳️ Community Engagement: One Week Left to Make It Official
🔹 Nomination papers are due Friday, August 7: The filing window for the two City Council seats on the November 3 ballot closes at the end of next week. If an incumbent does not file, the period extends to August 12 for all other candidates. To schedule an appointment to complete your paperwork, email City Clerk Kelsey Pettijohn at KPettijohn@MalibuCity.org or call 310-456-2489, ext. 228.
→ 💡 One honest word of encouragement: Serving this city is demanding, humbling, and worth it. If you have been circling this decision all summer, you have seven days to turn a maybe into a name on the ballot. Make the appointment.
🏛️ 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
🔹 Through Sunday, August 2: Caltrans lane closures on PCH and Topanga Canyon Boulevard for Palisades Fire repairs. Expect delays.
🔹 Monday, August 3, 6:30 PM: Regular Planning Commission Meeting, Malibu City Hall.
🔹 Wednesday, August 5, 5:00 PM: Public Safety Commission Regular Meeting, Malibu City Hall, Multi-Purpose Room.
🔹 Friday, August 7: Deadline to file nomination papers for the two City Council seats on the November 3 ballot.
🔹 Monday, August 10, 5:30 PM: Regular City Council Meeting, Malibu City Hall (hybrid).
🔹 Through Friday, August 21: Carving Canvas on view at the Malibu City Gallery at City Hall. Free admission.
👉 Browse the full Malibu city calendar
🐝 One Last Thought
This coastline gives us so much: the morning surf checks, the long summer evenings, the reason most of us came here in the first place. Weeks like this one remind us that the relationship runs both ways. Sometimes taking care of Malibu looks like engineers studying an eroding embankment before winter. Sometimes it looks like a neighborhood developing a Firewise plan, or one person deciding the beach should always stay clean.
Whatever your version is this week, do it once and it gets easier the second time. And if something along PCH or in your neighborhood needs eyes at City Hall, write me at hconrad@malibucity.org. Your notes genuinely shape where my attention goes.
Take care of each other, Malibu. Have a sunny weekend.
