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By Lookout Staff

April 9 -- School Board member Kathy Wisnicki failed to win a seat on the Malibu City Council Tuesday, finishing fourth in the race for three open seats.

With all but 17 of the 2901 ballots cast in Tuesday’s municipal election counted, Wisnicki finished with 1,392 votes, just 27 votes behind third-place finisher John Sibert, a planning commissioner who garnered 1,419 votes.

Incumbent Conley Ulich was the top vote-getter with 2115 votes, followed by Jefferson “Zuma Jay” Wagner, who finished second with 1,686 votes.

Wisnicki’s campaign had been dogged by controversy in the days leading up to the election.

She dismissed her campaign consultant after an ad appeared in the Malibu Times that incorrectly quoted environmental activist Kelly Meyer and misidentified Malibu Foundation for Youth and Families founder Laure Stern as the group’s president.

Wisnicki also distanced herself from at least three flyers mailed to Malibu homes Friday and Saturday from a group calling itself "Bu-ites for Wisnicki."

Wisnicki failed to attend the two final candidate forums last week due to the flu and a high fever, she said.

A former PTA president, Wisnicki was elected to the School Board in 2004 and faces reelection in November.