The Malibu City Council tackled three emergency-related items pulled from its consent calendar last week, extending a highway safety emergency declaration, rejecting bids for a deteriorating storm drain project and terminating a fire-related emergency as conditions improved.
The council unanimously approved extending the local emergency declaration for Pacific Coast Highway, which has been in effect since November 2023 following a series of fatal crashes. The declaration must be renewed every 60 days under state law or it automatically terminates.
"We're going to be in an emergency until Caltrans actually fixes it and we're no longer in an emergency," said Mayor Pro Tem Bruce Silverstein, who initially brought the PCH emergency declaration to the council after the deaths of four Pepperdine University students in October 2023.
The students were killed when a driver allegedly traveling more than 100 mph lost control and crashed into them as they walked along the highway.
According to data from the Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System, 22 deadly crashes occurred on PCH in Malibu between 2018 and 2022, resulting in 23 deaths. The California Highway Patrol reports 49 fatalities along the stretch from 2012 to 2022.
Councilmember Haylynn Conrad questioned whether the city would remain in a perpetual state of emergency regarding the highway.
"At what point do we feel that it's not dangerous anymore?" Conrad asked. "Maybe it's two years without death."
City staff clarified that while the emergency declaration grants additional powers, including expanded spending authority for the city manager, it does not impact development projects related to PCH improvements.
The highway, which serves as Malibu's main thoroughfare, is managed and maintained by the California Department of Transportation. The posted speed limit ranges from 45 to 55 mph through the city.
"Since we don't have the power to fix it ourselves, and since the emergency does continue until it's fixed, and since, unfortunately, the law requires us to reaffirm this every 60 days, it's going to have to just keep appearing on our consent calendar," Silverstein said.
In a separate action, the council voted to reject all bids for the Encinal Canyon Road storm drain repair project after discovering the 60-inch corrugated metal pipe had deteriorated far worse than initially assessed.
Councilmember Doug Stewart pulled the item to question whether the city faced an immediate safety risk.
City staff revealed that preliminary construction inspections found an offset joint approximately 15 feet into the pipe, reducing vertical clearance to about 40 inches. Another section showed severe deformity, leaving only 41 inches of clearance.
"We got a serious problem on Encinal Canyon with this storm drain pipe," Stewart said. "I just want to know what kind of risk are we taking."
Staff assured the council the pipe remains serviceable and should withstand upcoming storms, despite requiring more extensive repairs than originally planned. The deterioration means the city can no longer use the planned spiral-wound polyvinyl chloride liner and will need to excavate and replace sections of the pipe.
Four bids had been received for the project, with apparent low bidder The Adjul Corporation submitting a price of $377,825. The project will now be redesigned and rebid.
"I just want to know if we have a safety issue here," Stewart said. "If we get on it quickly, we can solve it."
The council also voted to allow a fire-related emergency declaration to expire naturally after determining that weather conditions had improved sufficiently to meet termination criteria.
The emergency was declared Sept. 29, 2025, when live fuel moisture dropped to 63% for Santa Monica Mountains chamise vegetation. The declaration allowed expedited removal of homeless encampments in very high fire hazard severity zones.
Silverstein initially questioned whether ending the emergency was premature given the time of year and historical fire patterns, but Public Safety Director Susan Duenas said the city had "far exceeded" the termination criteria.
As of late November, live fuel moisture had risen to 98%, and Malibu had received 7.72 inches of rain, well above the 2-inch minimum threshold. No fire weather watches or red flag warnings were active or forecast.
"The whole point of an emergency is that you don't just declare them for any reason," Duenas said, noting that consistent application of criteria protects the city's credibility and guards against accusations of civil rights violations.
Rather than vote to terminate the declaration, the council opted to take no action, allowing it to lapse on its scheduled expiration date of Jan. 23.
Duenas assured council members that staff would continue daily encampment removal operations and could quickly reinstate the emergency declaration if conditions deteriorated.