$50 Mask Fine Gets First Approval In Malibu

MALIBU, CA — The Malibu City Council voted Oct. 12 to introduce on first reading a revised face covering ordinance that will cite violators $50 if they do not immediately comply.

The revised ordinance also bans face coverings open at the chin, and makes exceptions for people in their car or in a residential zone where they are more than six feet away from the nearest person. It also exempts those with medical conditions, under two years old, or with the need to communicate with the hearing impaired.

City Attorney Christi Hogin noted that a county health order already requires masks in public, but the current ordinance will add an enforcement clause.

The previous urgency ordinance, which won a 3-2 majority approval in September but failed to pass because an urgency ordinance requires a supermajority, did not make these specifications, and was criticized as overly broad.

One of those critics was current Council candidate Bruce Silverstein, who called in to the meeting to say that the ordinance should have been passed in April or May at the latest, and that they ignored his advice for how to make the ordinance clearer.

“The proposed urgency ordinance also was overly broad and sloppily drafted, as I explained four weeks ago,” he said. “Within days after the urgency ordinance failed, I wrote to City Council and urged you to propose an ordinary ordinance and one that is properly drafted. I even offered my services in drafting the ordinance … nobody spoke to me about my offer of assistance.”

Still, Silverstein said he was pleased with the changes, and said that the ordinance he feels was delayed is “better late than never, I suppose.”

He also objected to Hogin’s assertion that masks are already required in the county, because they are only part of a health order, rather than a law. According to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, a health order is enforceable.

“Public Health trusts that residents will voluntarily follow the Order to protect loved ones, other residents, and our community. However, if you don’t follow the Order, you can be fined, imprisoned, or both,” according to the frequently asked questions section of the Safer at Home Order.

Silverstein praised the proposed ordinance for being an enforceable law.

There was almost no discussion of the ordinance from councilmembers, except from Rick Mullen, who voted against the urgency ordinance on the grounds that people were already wearing face coverings in the public. Mullen asked when the order would expire, and Hogin replied that it is coterminous with the state and county’s state of emergency.

Mayor Mikke Pierson and Councilmembers Karen Farrer, Jefferson Wagner, and Skylar Peak - who voted against the urgency ordinance, and said yes after pausing for a second or two - and was rejected by Councilmember Rick Mullen.

The motion will go before the Council for a second reading next Monday.