By Jorge Casuso

April 8, 2025 -- A County committee's vote last week denying Malibu's split from the School District will need to be taken again, District officials confirmed Monday.

"We have been made aware of the County Committee's plan to take a new vote on May 7," said District spokesperson Gail Pinsker. "We are disappointed in this decision to not uphold the vote."

The decison by the LA County Office of Education's (LACOE) Committee on School District Organization comes after the parlimentary procedures used to guide last Wednesday's 6 to 5 vote were mired in confusion.

The controversy centered on a substitute motion made by Committee member Ralph Mechur, a former member of the School Board, to deny Malibu's petition.

The maker of the original motion to appove the petition, Committee member Charles Davis, repeatedly argued that the Committee needed to first vote on whether to take up the substitute motion.

"I am thoroughly confused. You are going to take a vote on a substitute motion?" Davis said before the vote. "How can you do that when you have a primary motion?

"The only thing you can do on a substitute motion is consider do you want to take that. Do a vote to consider taking a substitute motion."

Board Chair Suzan Solomon decided to follow the advice of Committee member Donald LaPlante, who had served "for many, many years" as parlimentarian for the California School Board Association, and vote on Mechur's substitute motion.

"I'm taking his word," Solomon said, noting that LaPlante had been both a School Board member and City Councilman and that she would "rely on his experience."

After further efforts to explain the procedure led to more confusion, a representative from the office of the County Counsel stepped in.

"Davis brought forth a motion with a second, then a substitute motion was made by Mechur," Counsel said. "There was a second on that motion, and that motion was then voted on.

"Had that motion failed, then the original motion would have been considered. That motion passed. Is that correct?" Several committee members said yes.

"Accordingly there is no need to reconsider the original motion because the substitute motion superceded the original motion under Robert's Rules of Order," the Counsel said.

Mechur noted after the meeting that the Santa Monica City Council and School District follow that same procedure.

He said that regardless of the outcome of the upcoming vote, the issue will in all likelihood go before the State Board of Education (SBE) ("Malibu Fails to Meet Criteria for District Split, Study Finds," April 1, 2025).

If the Committee supports Malibu's petition, "it goes to the state board," Mechur said. "If denied, it can be appealed to the state board."

LACOE did not return a call for comment on the reason for its Committee's decision to take a new vote.