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Haylynn Conrad Newsletter — June 4, 2026
🌊 The Malibu Current with Councilmember Haylynn Conrad
📅 June 5, 2026
Hi friends,
Today is World Environment Day. A lot of places will mark it with a hashtag. Malibu marks it with work. This week alone, a local crew pulled more than six tons of dried-out brush off our hillsides ahead of fire season, the recap of a meeting on our open spaces went online, and a small farm spent its morning teaching neighbors how to grow food the slow, careful way. Out here, protecting the environment and protecting our homes are the same job.
Inside this edition: what is coming up at City Hall, a wildfire-readiness evening built for our seniors, the latest on our roads, and a few good ways to get involved around town. Let's dig in.
💼 Economic Development: Growing Something Local
🔹 A hands-on farm class at Malibu Fig Ranch, Tuesdays from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM: Malibu Fig Ranch is running a weekly biodynamic farming class called Soil, Season, Spirit, a hands-on morning in regenerative practices, seasonal living, and what it actually takes to work the land out here. The next session lands Tuesday, June 9.
→ 🎯 Why I love this: Supporting our local economy is not only about storefronts and restaurants. It is also about the small farms and makers who give this town its character and keep more of our food and learning close to home. A class like this is the kind of quiet investment in place I want to see more of.
🌿 Environment, Open Spaces, and Getting Ready for Fire Season
🔹 More than six tons of brush cleared, thanks to people who showed up: A local crew spent a full day hauling out roughly 6.2 tons of dead, dried-out, non-native brush from our hillsides. It is the unglamorous work that quietly makes this community safer the moment conditions turn.
→ ⚡ Why this matters: Brush clearance is not the topic that makes a flyer, but in Malibu it is one of the things that keeps neighborhoods standing through a hard fire year. It is part of the larger MRCA fuel-reduction work I have been following across our hillsides, and I am grateful to every person who spent that day out there so the rest of us are a little safer.
🔹 Watch the recap of the May 18 Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy meeting: The full recap of the Conservancy's May 18 meeting is posted now, covering what is happening across the open spaces and natural lands around Malibu. If you have wanted to track decisions about the hills and trails we all use, this is a low-effort way to stay in the loop.
→ 💡 Why I am sharing it: So much of what shapes our open spaces gets decided in rooms most of us never sit in. The more residents who actually watch these meetings, the sharper our conversations about fire safety and land use become. Give it a few minutes when you can.
👉 Watch the May 18 meeting recap
🔹 A wildfire-readiness evening built for our seniors, Sunday, June 14: The Malibu Community Long-Term Recovery Group is hosting a Senior Wildfire Preparedness Event on Sunday, June 14, from 4:00 to 6:00 PM at Duke's Malibu. The evening brings free expert resources, guest speakers, United Policyholders on hand for insurance questions, and local brigade members sharing preparedness tips, plus light bites and giveaways. It is free, but they are asking folks to RSVP by emailing info@malibucommunityltrg.org or calling 1-805-253-3467.
→ 💙 Why this one matters to me: Our seniors are often the most exposed when an evacuation order comes down, and the most overlooked by plans built for everyone else. An evening aimed squarely at them is exactly the kind of preparedness this community should rally around. If you have an older neighbor, please pass this one along.
👉 RSVP for the Senior Wildfire Preparedness Event
🏛️ Coming Up at City Hall
🔹 The next Regular City Council Meeting is Monday, June 8 at 5:30 PM: Council is back in Chambers at City Hall this coming Monday for our regular second-Monday meeting. It runs in hybrid format, so you can join in person or follow along from home, and the agenda posts a few days ahead.
→ 🎯 Why I flag this every time: Public comment is the part of this job I value most, and the record genuinely moves when residents show up or write in. If a topic matters to you, this is the room where it gets decided.
👉 View the City Council agenda and meeting detail
🚧 Getting Around and Staying Safe on the Road
🔹 Still pushing for real protection on our canyon roads: Our canyon roads are some of the most beautiful drives anywhere, and some of the most dangerous. I keep coming back to one question: other canyon communities have continuous guardrails, K-rails, and barriers along their most exposed stretches, so why not ours? I have raised this with the County and our safety partners, and I am not letting it go.
→ 🎯 What I am asking of you: If there is a stretch near you that worries you, tell me about it. The specific spots are what make the case to the agencies that share these roads with us. Reply to this newsletter or write to me at hconrad@malibucity.org.
🔹 How a neighboring city is going after loud exhaust: I shared a post this week from the Beverly Hills Police Department about a new loud-exhaust enforcement effort, the first of its kind in Southern California, that trains motor officers to measure and cite vehicles with illegal exhaust noise. One reading on their meter hit 106.4 decibels. To be clear, this is their program and not ours, but I wanted to put it on your radar.
→ 💡 Why I flagged it: Loud, illegal exhaust is one of the most common quality-of-life complaints I hear, and it tends to travel with the same speeding and racing behavior that makes our roads less safe. I am watching how approaches like this perform, because if there is a tool that calms our corridors, I want to understand it.
🔹 Palisades Fire repairs continue on PCH and Topanga Canyon, so plan ahead: Caltrans crews are still at work along the coast and up SR-27, with reduced speed limits and weekday lane closures generally between 9:00 AM and 3:00 PM at points from Carbon Canyon and Las Flores to Big Rock and near the Getty Villa. Conditions shift with weather and emergency work, and fines double in the work zones.
→ ⚡ The practical version: Give yourself extra time, ease off through the cones, and check conditions before you head out. This work is restoring roads our whole community leans on, and a little patience keeps the crews safe too.
👉 Check live road conditions on Caltrans QuickMap
🎨 Around Town
🔹 Celebrating the artists who give Malibu its soul: A thank-you this week to playwright Kerry Knuppe for sharing her work "Morning View Drive" with the Malibu Arts Commission and our wider community. Local artists are a big part of what makes this town feel like itself, and I think that is worth saying out loud.
🔹 Nominations are open for the 2026 Malibu Surf Legend Award: Through July 10, the City is accepting nominations for the Surf Legend Award, which honors the people and groups who have shaped Malibu's surf culture and stayed deeply connected to this community. The Parks and Recreation Commission reviews each nomination and recommends a recipient to the Council.
→ 🏄 Why this one matters: The inaugural award went to the late Randall "Crawdaddy" Miod, who we lost in the Palisades Fire. Honoring the people who give this town its identity is some of the better work we get to do. If a name comes to mind, please put it forward.
👉 Nominate a 2026 Malibu Surf Legend
📅 Mark Your Calendar
🔹 Monday, June 8, 5:30 PM: Regular City Council Meeting, Malibu City Hall (hybrid)
🔹 Tuesdays, 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM (next session June 9): Biodynamic Farm Class, Malibu Fig Ranch
🔹 Thursday, June 11, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM: Community Blood Drive, Malibu City Hall (sponsor code 90265)
🔹 Sunday, June 14, 4:00 to 6:00 PM: Senior Wildfire Preparedness Event, Duke's Malibu
🔹 Friday, June 19: Juneteenth. City Hall is closed for the holiday, a day to reflect on freedom and the work still ahead.
🔹 Through June 26: "Two Points of View" art exhibit, Malibu City Gallery at City Hall
👉 Sign up for the June 11 Blood Drive
🏛️ 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
🐝 One Last Thought
Summer has a way of speeding up out here, so most of this week was really about getting ahead of it. Brush off the hillsides. A recap you can watch on your own time. A class that asks you to slow down. An evening to help our seniors get ready before they need to be. None of it is dramatic, and all of it is the difference between reacting and being prepared.
One small thing while you are out: if you find yourself at City Hall, the mosaic tucked into the building is an easy detail to walk right past, and one of those quiet, good touches this town is full of. Worth thirty seconds.
Have a great World Environment Day, Malibu. If something here sparked a thought, hit reply or write to me at hconrad@malibucity.org. And if you know someone who should be getting these, please forward it their way.
See you out there, Malibu.
