Harrison seeks second council term
By Michael Picarella
pic@theacorn.com

Michael Harrison

He admits that some of his decisions may have been controversial, but Calabasas Mayor Michael Harrison, a lawyer and an arbitrator vying for his second city council term, said he always puts the city’s best interests first.

The 53-year-old Harrison, who was elected to the council in 2001, was the first chair of the Calabasas Environmental Commission and a founding member of the Calabasas Tree Board. A former planning commissioner, Harrison also helped established the Calabasas Business Roundtable.

"I do things that I think are for the benefit of the entire city," Harrison said. "That’s how I act. That’s how I make decisions . . . I go out on a limb. I take stands that cost me votes because I do what I think is in the best interest of the city. I don’t follow the philosophy that Arianna Huffington described as trying to offend the least number of people. I just try to do what’s in the best interest of the city."

During recent council candidate forums the current city council was criticized for its lack of civil behavior. According to Harrison, council members don’t always need to get along or agree on every vote, they just have to show results—something he believes he has done.

The mayor wrote the city’s landmark Green Building Ordinance and he conceived the Calabasas Education Commission and the Calabasas Education Fund, which has contributed city’s public schools.

Harrison also devised free after-school playground use at Bay Laurel Elementary School and he initiated the new Parks Master Plan, increasing the number of new parks and recreational opportunities in the city.

The mayor has played a key role in the Calabasas Civic Center project as a civic center liaison for the council. Critics say the civic center has taken too long to be built.

"These projects aren’t in the same league," Harrison responded. "We’re building a city hall, a public library, an amphitheater, an assembly hall, public gardens.

"(Agoura Hills and Westlake Village) just built a couple of municipal buildings and plopped them on lots in a business park. We’re going to be finished with our town center when we’re only 16 years old, younger than (those other cities)."

During Harrison’s leadership as mayor, the council rallied for a second preschool to be built on the west side of Calabasas and for passage of a school bond in November to provide funding to build Elementary School Number Nine. The city also committed $850,000 to help the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy buy the Soka University of America campus in Calabasas for the purposes of open space preservation.

If reelected, Harrison said he hopes to expand the city’s urban forestry program, develop community gardens in the city’s schools, retain a professional fundraiser for the Calabasas Education Fund, provide affordable housing programs for seniors and public service employees, and establish a teen center.

"I’d encourage habitat restoration, especially for front yards, and provide city grants to create demonstration gardens like those in Santa Monica and Westlake Village."

During his recent state of the city speech, Harrison expressed interest in establishing a small children’s museum in the new city library like the one in San Luis Obispo. He’d like to replay high school and middle school performances on the city’s cable access channel, CTV. And he hopes to build new bike lanes similar to the "Paseos" in Valencia.

"My first term will soon be over, but my mission is not," Harrison said.