Letters to the Editor: Don’t scapegoat Malibu for L.A. County’s bad water supply planning

To the editor: L.A. County Public Works chief Mark Pestrella attempts to deflect the failures of his office onto the city of Malibu, saying county water projects have failed to move forward because the city does not want them, and charging that the city has at times used insufficient water access as an excuse to restrict new construction. (“Officials were warned of failing water system before Palisades fire. Fixes never happened,” Jan. 24)

I was intimately involved in Malibu city government from 1994 to 2024 as either mayor, city council member or planning commissioner. No sane person would accuse the city of being pro-development, but the city never discouraged the county from developing water infrastructure and never restricted new development based on water access.

The agency that did sometimes impose water-based restrictions was the L.A. County Fire Department, an agency that the city government is powerless to control or even influence.

Jeffrey D. Jennings, Malibu

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To the editor: Of course, problems that happen could have been avoided if this or that was done. We call that kind of rearview thinking “Monday morning quarterbacking.”

A subtle message in your article on water fixes that were delayed or never happened is that the fires were someone’s fault because of a lack of planning.

Much of the discussion is about budgeting. Oh, if we only all had as much money as we need to plan for any possible problem, then we’d be all set!

Dan Hennessy, Arcadia