Calabasas Mayor to Address Meeting

Calabasas Mayor Lesley Devine will explain how her background as an environmentalist attracted a bipartisan coalition in her bid for reelection to the City Council when she speaks to the Sherman Oaks Democratic Club today.

Calabasas voters are concerned about clean air, water conservation and controlled development, regardless of their political persuasions, the Democratic councilwoman said in a telephone interview Wednesday.

“Those are not partisan issues, they are community issues,” said Devine, who was recently named mayor by her fellow council members. “We have to go beyond partisan politics and get into the issues people want addressed.”

Another topic Devine plans to discuss is a need among area residents to feel a sense of community.

“There is a difference between a neighborhood and a community,” she said. “A neighborhood is place where one lives, a community is a place that one is a part of.”

Because people in Los Angeles live isolated lives, Devine said, they don’t know their neighbors and consequently are less likely to become involved in community affairs. “Creating a community means being there to communicate with people,” she said.

The former Sherman Oaks resident also plans to give the group an insider’s look at the vast difference between politics in a small municipality and a metropolitan city like Los Angeles.

Calabasas was part of unincorporated Los Angeles County until 1991, when it broke away and incorporated as an independent city.

The luncheon meeting, open to the public, will begin at 2 p.m. at Barone’s restaurant, 14151 Ventura Blvd.