Pierson Defends Letter Mocked By McConnell

MALIBU, CA — Mayor Mikke Pierson defended his decision to send Congress a letter requesting $500 billion in additional funding for small cities across the country.

Pierson’s Aug. 4 letter asked Congress to support “direct and flexible federal assistance to local governments of all sizes to sustain core services for our residents and to support public health and economic recovery in our communities.”

The letter detailed a number of city programs that have had to be indefinitely suspended during the pandemic, including “critical City environmental projects intended to improve our environment while reducing City costs, including a solar energy project, conversion to an all-electric city fleet, streetlight upgrades, and resiliency projects related to earthquake and fire preparation.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell seized on this section during a Fox News interview, citing it as an example of wealthy cities using the money for frivolous ends.

"Yesterday, I received an urgent letter from the city of Malibu, California," McConnell said in the interview the day after the letter was sent. "And – I promise I am not making this up – they asked Congress for hundreds of billions of dollars for state and local governments because they have had to delay conversion to an all-electric city fleet.' I guess that's an emergency in Malibu: when they can't keep buying brand-new electric cars as quickly as they'd like."

McConnell also tweeted that, “Our country is facing bigger problems than whether Malibu gets to upgrade its street-sweepers.”

During a City Council meeting last Monday, Pierson said that McConnell was taking his remarks out of context to politicize the letter.

“Basically, Mitch and his staff decided to politicize the issue and decided to go after Malibu to do it,” he said.

“That is a gross mischaracterization or complete lie of what I wrote in the letter. At no time did I even ask for money for Malibu. All I did was advocate for small cities. And point out (about) some of the council-approved projects that we were having to modify them or cancel them due to the pandemic.”

Pierson noted McConnell ignored his letter’s focus on helping to ensure COVID testing, fire rebuilding and prevention, and helping small businesses.

Public reaction to Pierson’s letter has been mixed. At the council meeting, Malibu resident Lance Simmens, a candidate for a council seat, said that he “applauded” Pierson’s letter and asked the council to adopt a resolution in support of the request. Simmens also said it was ironic for McConnell to criticize Pierson when he has “steered nearly $1 billion of the form of corporate tax breaks, military construction, and other projects of interest to his campaign donors and constituents.”

Andy Lyons, another council candidate, criticized Pierson for not putting the letter on the agenda.

“You didn’t go through the process of putting the letter on the agenda and getting the proper vote to do so. We have the money to get electric cars. We don’t need to poach on to the stimulus package,” he said.

Pierson said that while he would have normally waited, the letter was time-sensitive, and he was joining other cities in urging the League of California Cities to advocate for small cities in the next round of stimulus funds being considered.