Public commenter accuses council of off‑record talks involving Candace Bond; council stresses standard redaction and legality of agenda reordering

At the start of the July 3 special meeting, public commenter Anne Kaye told the Malibu City Council she had obtained public records showing an email dated March 5 that she said implicated two BBK lawyers, two council members and a volunteer (identified as Candace Bond) in off‑record negotiations about splitting the Santa Monica‑Malibu Unified School District. Kaye said the records she provided to the city contradicted the hiring timeline and asked the council to launch an investigation into the communications.

"It was regarding Candice Bond and any communications between the city and Candice Bond," Anne Kaye said during public comment, and she said a copy of the March 5 email included council members and lawyers on the address list and that some fields were redacted. She urged the council to investigate.

Council members responded that typical public‑records redactions often hide personal email addresses and do not indicate impropriety. One councilmember said there was "no basis for any of these assertions" without legal analysis and asked Ms. Kaye to provide legal reasoning if she believed a violation had occurred.

The city attorney clarified the council's procedural authority during the exchange, saying the council "has the prerogative to reorder the agenda" and that the open‑session/closed‑session sequence used at the meeting was permitted. The city clerk confirmed no items were noticed for a specific time certain, which, the clerk said, allowed flexibility in scheduling agenda items.

Ms. Kaye asked the council to investigate the March email and any related communications; the council did not initiate an investigation during the meeting and moved forward with other agenda business. The matter remains an allegation raised during public comment.