A Malibu Cityhood Founder Remembered

One of Malibu’s stalwart supporters and city founders, Jo Ruggles, was remembered over the weekend at a memorial service at Our Lady of Malibu.

A fervent environmentalist, Ruggles had campaigned mightily for cityhood and served on the committee that drafted the City’s general plan and Vision and Mission statements.

Ruggles died over the Summer a young 85, and, knowing her politics, no doubt regretting among many things not being able to vote in the up coming election “no” on Grisanti and “yes” for Kamala.

To be sure, as a concerned Malibu resident she had looked on in recent years with increasing dismay at the drift of local politics into the manipulating, monied hands of real estate development interests.

At the same time, Ruggles decried what she saw as a parallel drift of Malibu, from an iconic seacoast village of homes of community-minded families to bloated houses and development catering to tourists and the wealthy.

It should be noted that none of the surviving five children, 12 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren live in Malibu.

She later served as one of the City’s first Planning Commissioner, an appointee of then Mayor Caroline Van Horn. Not incidentally, it was Van Horn that also appointed me at the time to the City’s Parks and Recreation Commission.

A former LAPD detective, Jo brought to these intense, if controversial, early years of the City a singular intelligence and a forthright attitude. She was tough, and will be missed.