CHP Is Wanted Back on Highway Patrol : Law enforcement: City officials lobby the Legislature for Pacific Coast Highway service.

Malibu officials have quietly begun to organize a legislative effort aimed at forcing the California Highway Patrol to resume patrolling Pacific Coast Highway within the city’s borders.

The CHP ceased operations in Malibu after it became a city in March, in keeping with the agency’s long-established role of providing traffic enforcement for the state’s expressways and on state routes in unincorporated areas.

Malibu’s police services are provided by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, at a cost of $3.3 million a year, including $1.6 million for traffic enforcement, the bulk of which is along the busy coastal highway.

In an effort to trim those costs, Malibu officials have asked state Sen. Gary Hart (D-Santa Barbara) to sponsor a measure early next year that would require the CHP to patrol the 20 miles of Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.

Malibu’s leaders have also asked for help from Santa Monica, Los Angeles and Los Angeles County governments to persuade lawmakers to assign the CHP responsibility for the entire stretch of the coastal highway between I-10 in Santa Monica and the Ventura County line.

City Manager Ray Taylor said last week that the effort is intended both to save Malibu money and increase the efficiency of traffic enforcement along the coastal corridor.

Taylor said he was encouraged that CHP officials had indicated they would not oppose such a measure as long as sufficient funds were made available to provide the service.

Drew Liebert, an aide to Hart, said the senator had not decided whether to sponsor such a measure, adding that he needed more information about it.

“Right now he is still exploring the realm of what is possible,” Liebert said. “He is certainly sympathetic to what Malibu wants to do.”

Malibu’s proposal is patterned after a measure enacted in 1988 on behalf of San Jose and three other cities in Santa Clara County. The measure directed the CHP to patrol a county-owned expressway within those cities in return for the revenue it collects from traffic tickets there.

“Given the city’s precarious financial condition, we think an arrangement such as the one in Santa Clara County has the potential to save Malibu a lot of money,” said Marlene Matlow, a member of a City Council-appointed study group that came up with the proposal.

Although precise figures are hard to come by, Taylor said an educated guess is that there is between $150,000 and $200,000 collected annually from fines and forfeitures along Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu.

The city would gladly let go of its share of ticket revenue in exchange for having the CHP perform largely the same function Malibu now pays the Sheriff’s Department much more to accomplish, he said.

But CHP officials have given no indication that the agency could afford--or would be willing--to offer its services for less than the Sheriff’s Department, now that the CHP is no longer obligated by law to maintain a presence in Malibu.

To further complicate matters, the Sheriff’s Department, which has already stated its opposition to any plan that would reduce its role, has hinted that it might be forced to close its Malibu substation, and serve Malibu from its Lost Hills sheriff’s station, as a way of making a scaled-down operation more feasible.

“We are not supportive of a bifurcated traffic program,” said Lt. Mike Moore, who heads the Malibu substation. “I’m sure we would have to take a look at the fiscal implications of the loss of any contract revenue.”

Although the CHP no longer patrols in Malibu, it has about 25 personnel assigned to an office there. The office is scheduled to close at the end of the year. Most of the personnel have already been reassigned. Since incorporation, CHP officers have confined their patrols mostly to nearby state routes between Malibu and the San Fernando Valley.

“Malibu has been a great community for the Highway Patrol,” said Lt. Rob Parris, commander of the Malibu office. “We’ve all enjoyed working here. I’m sure everyone would have loved to stay if we had had a say in the matter.”