March 4, 2008 - Daily Brief
Written by Jeff on March 4th, 2008Hart breaking budget cuts, deputies open fire and hit a target this time, Barack cleans up in the SCV, a city meeting about old town Newhall, and The Mighty Signal’s mighty mea culpa? You know the score; it’s the Daily Brief, as fresh as that cup of coffee in your hand.
News
- Hart cuts detailed: With the state budget some $14-16b in the hole and education facing some $4b in cuts, local school districts are facing a belt-tightening period in which just about everything is on the table. In today’s Signal, Sharon Cotal has a detailed article outlining some of the $10 million in cuts at the Hart District, should the Governor’s proposed budget pass. Among them: closing The Learning Post, an alternative high school located at Placerita Junior High, reducing custodial & IT staff, and asking district employees who “don’t have a connection to students” to take a day off sometime this year for a savings of $160k. There’s much more on the possible cutting board, be sure to check out Cotal’s article or have your say at a Hart meeting on Wednesday at 4:30pm at the District office.
- CHP recommends felony charges against bus driver: The police agency recommends that the DA file”felony vehicular manslaughter” charges against David Delape, 49, the Santa Clarita Transit bus driver involved in a January 18 fatal traffic collision with a motorist in Stevenson Ranch. Janine Doughlin, 25, was killed when the bus broadsided her at the intersection of the Old Road and Constitution Avenue. Parimal Rohit reports that the DA hasn’t made its decision yet. Link
- CHP tracks attempted murder suspect with GPS, finds him in SCV: Diego Rangel-Garcia of Kern County allegedly stabbed his girlfriend and his girlfriend’s mother in the head and throat and then fled south. The Bakersfield Californian picks it up from there: “With the help of Rangel-Garcia’s cell phone provider, he was found by GPS on Interstate 5 near Pyramid Lake.” The Chippies then spotted him on Interstate 5 near Highway 126 where they arrested him. *Note: they probably mean cell phone tower triangulation, not GPS. Link
- Deputy shoots, kills dog during domestic violence call: In the third Deputy involved shooting in two weeks, a detective investigating a domestic battery call in Val Verde shot and killed a German Shepard dog that reportedly broke loose from its restraint and lunged at the officer. The owner of the dog, John Ryan, 49, was arrested for the battery call and stacked on additional charges when he kicked the rear window of the sheriff’s cruiser. SCV Sheriff’s spokeswoman Lt. Brenda Cambra on the shooting of the dog: “It’s sad it had to happen. Yet when a dog attacks a deputy, sometimes quick decisions have to be made.” Parimal Rohit reports in today’s Signal.
- Are you 80+ years old? Did you live in SCV or Ventura in 1928? If you answered yes, then the Ventura County Star wants to talk with you. You see, next week marks the 80th anniversary of the catastrophic collapse of the St. Francis Dam, located in what is now San Francisquito Canyon. The dam, built by Mulholland himself during the heady days when Los Angeles was
stealingacquiring water from other areas, collapsed on March 12, 1928. Flood waters ravaged parts of the SCV and carried bodies and debris out to the Pacifc Ocean via the Santa Clara River Valley. The Star is going to publish an anniversary article on the disaster which claimed 450+ lives. Locally, Frank Rock will host a St. Francis Dam Lecture/Tour on March 8 and March 9 with a multimedia presentation and a driving/hiking tour of the dam site. Details here. - Thief targets iPods:A man with tattoos apparently mugged two teen skateboarders in Canyon Country on Sunday. The unknown suspect stopped the two youths and asked, then demanded, that they had over their personal mp3 players. “He asked me for my headet, and I refused at first. Then he raised his voice and asked for it again. I just gave it to him,” on eof the teens told Parimal Rohit. The suspect is a Latino male, approximately 5′8 and has an LA tattoo on his neck. He allegedly stole an iPod and Zune mp3 player.
- Old Town Newhall community meeting: Get the story straight from the horse’s mouth on what’s going on in Old Town Newhall at a Monday March 10 meeting hosted by the City and Newhall Redevelopment Agency. This is a separate meeting from another meeting which will be held March 20 to discuss the proposed Old Town Newhall library. More info
Politics
- McKeon tells Education industry they’ll face job cuts if Democrats win in November: The ranking Republican on the House Education and Labor committee likes to play the fear card, whether in his campaign mailers or in person before an education industry trade group. A blog at Education Week says the eight term Congressman told the Education Industry Association that they “will be laying off people” if the Democrats win Congress and the White House this fall. Link
- Yes we can in Santa Clarita? The FEC has finally posted presidential election fundraising details for the month of January, which coincides with the beginning of the real primary season. These numbers don’t mean much in the bigger picture, but they are interesting none-the-less. According to the spreadsheet I hacked together this morning, SCV voters in the 91321, 81, 55, 51, and 84 zip codes donated more money to Barack Obama than any other candidate by almost 2-1 in January 2008. The Illinois Senator received $8,135 from 31 SCV donors that month for an average of $262 per donation. Next up was John McCain, who received $4,870 from only 6 donors ($811 average.) And just when he needed them most, Mitt Romney only received $4,485 in January 08 from 21 donors. Clinton and Huckabee donors rounded out the pack.
SCV Good Eats:
- Love Sushi & Roll in Newhall: The “Be a Bond Girl” blogger says the tiny Love Sushi restaurant in Newhall is “amazing” and says the gentleman she was with thought it was the “best sushi he’d ever had.” Wow. They must not get out much. Anyway, she’s got an interesting blog post on fellow patrons at the restaurant who couldn’t stop texting even as they were eating. Link
- I Heart encourages you to participate in Trivia Night at Chuy’s: Apparently it’s something of a trend for restaurants around the country to host a trivia night where the prize is a gift certificate. I Heart used to go to one trivia night at the British food place in Newhall, but now he’s trying to get the word out for a trivia night hosted at Chuy’s. Hey, as long as it’s not hosted on the same night as Bike Night, I’m game. Link
Blogs, Opinion, and Miscellaneous:
- Castaic Annexation heats up: Linda Slocum has an excellent post discussing many of the ins-and-outs of annexation of the west side neighborhood of Hasley Hills. She even got a quote from Marlee Lauffer, Newhall Land’s spokesperson, and talks about the “election” of the West Ranch Town Council and the $20 million in surplus revenue from unincorporated areas that left the SCV for good. Oh it feels good to join this fight again, doesn’t it? I think annexation is my favorite local topic, and I’m already feeling my muse return. Anyway, Slocum has today’s must-read article.
- Signal apologizes to Kellar for printing McFarland column: Wow, did the Mayor use his stern cop voice and lean on Creekside or what? Today’s Signal has a rare editorial in it apologizing to Mayor Bob Kellar for printing Bruce McFarland’s column in last Tuesday’s paper that alleged that Kellar hadn’t properly filled out state income disclosure forms. “Whether it’s true or not is not our point. The point is that unsubstantiated accusations have no place in our paper,” the editorialist writes. It continued: “We have a newsroom staff whose job it is to research such accusations, to determine their validity, and always, always to get a response from the accused before the story is complete.” The editorial doesn’t even mention McFarland by name, but the local Democratic organizer penned the column in last Tuesday’s paper then made his accusations before the City Council that night. McFarland’s motivation and timing is suspect, however, as some readers of SCVTalk.com observed last week. He’s running for State Senator George Runner’s seat, and has even built a website with some pictures of an angry Bob Kellar.
- Two from Magazine of SC: City Manager Ken Pulskamp’s March message to resident plus celebrity sightings in Santa Clarita.
- Cal Plankis column in Signal: Don’t miss columnist Cal Planakis’ column in today’s Signal that gives a good run-down of who the City Council candidates are and how they are likely to vote. Not online unfortunately.
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Just to clarify on the Castaic annexation… the quotes were from prior published commentaries, not current interviews. I felt they were worth repeating though, since they’re still 100% relevant.
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Well, I was hopeful that the Signal had finally turned the corner and was not longer in the pocket of the City Council, the VIA and the Chamber, but I was wrong. The paper should be so careful before they print those articles that are often favorable to people like Mr. Kellar. The good ole boy network once again has prevailed.
Now lets see what the Signal does if McFarland is accurate in his claim.
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Mr Harn. Well, I was hopeful that the Signal had finally turned the corner and was no longer in the pocket of the City Council, the VIA and the Chamber, but I was wrong. The paper should be so careful before they print such articles that are often favorable to people like Mr. Kellar. The good ole boy network once again has prevailed.
Now let us see what the Signal does if McFarland is accurate in his claim.
Katherine Geyer I want to thank you for running the article on Mr. Kellar. He does not deserve a free pass. Mr. Kellar has lost sight of the wishes of the majority and seems to only cater to the special interest. All the while claiming how wonderful things are in the City of Santa Clarita. Things may be wonderful in his circle, and perhaps yours Mr. Harn, but the reality is that many are feed up with all the talk and no action toward improvements to the quality of life in SCV. For example, traffic is terrible and we now have our own multimillion dollar bridge to no where.
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With so little of their content online, I don’t know if they have, but does the Signal even have an on the record denial from Bob Kellar?
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Also, I want to plug yelp.com. The local restaurant reviews there are much more interesting than the random blog posts or the fawning reviews found on SCV portal sites and mass-mailed magazines.
I’m so down for trivia night.. is it this week? Looks like you have to do teams. SCVtalkers unite!
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Mike @ 8:27 am, I don’t think the Signal has recorded a denial from Kellar, and, to my knowledge, Kellar hasn’t even addressed McFarland’s allegations.
The SFVBJ reported on this last week, as did The Signal’s Katie Geyer.
Geyer had an article that slipped my attention this weekend. City Attorney Carl Newton said he would investigate the state forms McFarland referred to and said there was some ambiguities on legal requirements for those forms. He said he’d take a week to report on it.
But Geyer reports that Newton won’t make that report public; instead it will be presented just to the City Council.
http://newmedia.the-signal.com/news/article/593/
I can kind of see The Signal’s point in issuing an apology. McFarland’s comments were unsubstantiated. But at the same time, Kellar is not a private citizen; he’s an elected public official. If the newspaper is not the environment in which to make such allegations, then, pray tell, what is? Court? Is that the only place?
Would the Signal have reported on McFarland’s comments to the city council even though those allegations were unsubstantiated too?
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Regarding Yelp: Yes, it’s an awesome website, but it sucks for web 2.0 friendliness. I’d love to inline a map of the SCV with restaurant reviews, but it only lets me show restaurants on a map that I have reviewed.
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Oh yeah, and I’m down for Trivia night too. I’ve been meaning to put that cheeky I Heart blogger in his place. Let’s roll.
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I watched Kellar when McFarland made his claim before the Council. Kellar did not react. This is unusual for Kellar. He generally admonishes anyone that comes before the Council with an opposing view. Of course he had plenty of advanced notice as to what Bruce was going to say. Hell, Kellar may have consulted with his attorney before the meeting, who knows. Not to worry, TMS will do an in depth investigation and will report back to us! Sure they will, when Harn unties the hands and fingers of the signal Staff!
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McKeon tells Education industry they’ll face job cuts if Democrats win in November:
I think we’re making progress here — last election the cry was “If the Democrats win we’re all going to die!!!”
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While I may be posting to myself, I must make a retraction. Mr. McKeon does not live in Sand Canyon at this time.
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Re: McKeon
The way I read this is, No Child Left Behind has created a cottage industry of consultants, test tutors, etc. If it isn’t reauthorized, many of these businesses won’t have an angle to work and many federal contracts will dry up. I’m glad the ex-chairman’s priorities are in order.
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City staffers held a meeting last night at the Valencia Summit clubhouse regarding the proposed Landscape Management District (LMD) changes currently out for vote. Not sure about you, but Summit residents are assessed about $500 in property taxes for the LMD and many were concerned that the ballot issue would terminate maintenance in certain landscaped areas presently covered in the district. The meeting was held to clarify the issues.
First of all, after an initial attempt to limit participation in what should have been a public meeting, staffers did in fact let all who were interested attend. Most of the questions were answered satisfactorily, with two items worth mentioning:
Deputy City Manager Darren Hernandez agreed that there could have/should have been more transparency on the issues. He said that he would advise staff to recommend approval of the item (assuming voters approve) on 3/11 with an amended Engineer Report that will include additional specific language to on included landscaped areas that were left out of the original proposal. Because this report is very similar to a contract for what is proposed, without these clarifications the HOAs and individual homeowners would have no protection in the future should the city change its desire to cover these areas.
The loudest complaints had to do with the timing of the vote and the “weighted vote” it applied. The district will include nearly 52,000 parcels spread throughout SCV but only about 18,000 parcels are currently paying into it. The remaining parcels are owned by developers who get “weighted votes” on the assessment, many of whom have parcels that remain undeveloped - in fact, some are not yet even subdivided. Golden Valley Ranch, for example, has so many votes that their vote alone will outnumber all of the Valencia voters. There didn’t really appear to be any good reasons why staff would recommend this proposal now when they could easily have changed LMD assessment methodologies without annexing these other areas until a more suitable time. This “weighted vote” allowance raised similar complaints on the Open Space issue and while it may be technically legal, staff’s wisdom in the timing of such votes is questionable. Developers can largely control such votes to their own benefit and, as in the Open Space district, you can be sure that many have useless land they would love to sell to the city.
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Is there a Mayor Fleming in the future? Mayor of the City of West Ranch!
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Hey now, don’t sell yourself too short in the sushi department — wish I could say that we hadn’t gotten out much, but my husband and my wallets and hips prove it. Ya’ll have certainly beat out (in price/performance) any of the fancy spots up here in San Francisco, such as Sushi Ran, etc. Keep it up!
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On the Old Town Newhall Community Meeting: Does it really matter what “new mid-block crossings, antique street lights, and paved crosswalks” they’re planning on installing if there isn’t a believable plan that they’ll actually have thriving (or at least surviving) businesses in that area? Seems they’re chasing everyone out before having a plan in place that can actually bring new businesses to the area.
With no anchor store and with the expansion of the Valencia Mall as well as the upcoming Bridgeport Marketplace and the proposed development at Smiser Ranch, will Downtown Newhall be able to attract any of the boutique stores that the City Council has been promising for that area? Likely not! What we’ll end up with in Faux Town Newhall is a brand new high-priced streetscape highlighting a brand new Ghost Town.
Honestly, I’d rather see the dollars being thrown at this project being used elsewhere in the City where they can really be a benefit to the Santa Clarita population overall.
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It’s time to bite the bullet and make San Fernando Road a thoroughfare again, remove the stop signs and get traffic in front of the businesses again. The last I heard, the successful and oft-compared-to shopping areas of Colorado Blvd in Pasadena and Honolulu Ave in Montrose seem to flourish without the closure to through traffic. And of course I NEVER get confused by those street names…not once did i think i was in either Denver or Hawaii. I wonder why the old town newhall planners think we’re a bunch of idiots…that we’ll be confused by the name San Fernando Road??
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Oh, drat! Vince just burst my bubble… and here I thought I was actually visiting Hawaii every time I went to Montrose’s Honolulu Ave… Guess I’ll have to put those luau shirts in storage again!
Vince says, “I wonder why the old town newhall planners think we’re a bunch of idiots”… perhaps they’re looking in the mirror?
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Bob Spiers (sp) is the head of the idiots looking in the mirror. I think he has demonstrated is leadership skills. Even his cop background did not offer the judgment to stop the back in parking fiasco!