March 26, 2008 - Daily Brief *
I had a family emergency in the middle of last night’s City Council meeting and this morning I discovered that the recording I made of the webcast had failed in the middle of the Councilmember comments. So, unfortunately, I have no idea what some councilmembers said during their comments, but I’ll do my best to present what I do have.
News
- Mayor Kellar Files Amended Forms: KHTS added the word “Final” to “Amended Forms” in their headline on what might be the last chapter in this month-old story that touched on authentic Santa Clarita themes: real estate and political power and the (according to some) cozy relationship between the two. There’s no mention in either The Signal or KHTS report on the details of the newly filed forms (a who, what, where and how much would have been nice) but Katie Geyer does give us this tidbit: “Kellar filed amendments Tuesday listing names of his individual sources of income of $10,000 or more from 2002 through 2007. He also listed the dates of the transactions.” The Mayor said he was “uncomfortable” disclosing the information because he thinks it violates his responsibility to his real estate clients but even counsel at the California Assocation of Realtors advised him that he should disclose everything. I’m underwhelmed by both reports and may have to look at the amended forms myself, but in the meantime, here’s the reports: KHTS, The Signal
- City Council caves to skaters, gives them $150,000 temp park for their impatience: That’s a deliberately biased headline, but it reflects the truth. At last night’s City Council meeting, members approved a plan to build a $150,000 above-ground temporary skate park for skateboarders who were upset that the City was going to demolish their old skate park while building them a brand new one. Jon Dell at KHTS says the temporary park may actually benefit the City in the future though; the equipment purchased for the temporary park could be leased out or used in special events in the future. No word on the location for the temporary skatepark, though I hear there’s plenty of vacant parking lots in front of SCV furniture stores. Link
- Alleged Gas Station Bandits caught: A male and female team who have allegedly stolen some $230,000 from west coast gas stations, including two in Santa Clarita, have been caught in Washington State, Parimal Rohit reports in today’s Signal. The pair allegedly used tools to steal money directly from PayQuick cash machines near gas pumps. SCV Deputies played a big part in the search for the pair after getting video stills of the suspects at the SCV gas stations. Link
- Do Enterprise Zones actually work? The City of Santa Clarita has made much of the fact that the state has designated a large portion of the SCV a “Business Enterprise Zone” that allows businesses in the zone to take advantage of state tax credits for hiring and equipment purchases. But do the Zones actually work as advertised? The Daily News had a page 1 story yesterday that indicated that even if they do work, it’s hard to judge how effective the politically popular programs are. “But while business leaders and politicians defend the 42 enterprise zones as economic boosters, experts concede there is no definitive way to calculate how many jobs they actually have created or how effective they have been,” Brandon Lowrey at the Daily News writes. A professor of planning at USC told the paper that giant fast food companies like McDonalds often take advantage of the programs. Good article
- CLWA looks to buy water from Yuba County: Water beat reporter Jim Holt writes today that the Castaic Lake Water Agency is expected to approve a plan to buy 850 acre-feet of water from far-away Yuba County in order to “offset any shortage of water in times of drought.” CLWA’s water resources manager explains it this way: “Rather than pulling water out of our bank account, we use their water and save what we have in storage.” Holt says the Agency could spend between $50 and $125 per acre-foot of water (An acre-foot is the amount of water a household typically uses in one year), so by those numbers, the Agency may spend $42,500 and $106,250 for the Yuba County water.
- Preliminary 2007 SCV Crime Statistics Courtesy of Captain LaBerge: Captain Anthony LaBerge has posted a March 2008 message to SCV residents and outlines crime stastistics from 2007. The Captain says the stats were just completed. A cursory glance: In 2007, property crime was up 15% while residential burglaries decreased by 8%. There was a 48% increase in vehicle burglaries and larceny over 2006 numbers, and a 1% increase in violent crime, which the Captain attirbutes to “independent” incidents, not a crime trend. Overall, your SCV Deputies made 6,636 arrests in 2007, 1,000 more than in 2006 under the station’s previous management. Traffic wise- 2,200 collisions in the SCV, 80 involving drunk drivers, and 4 traffic fatalities. Deputies issued some 16,000 traffic citations last year. There were some 57,000 calls for service and 4,300 911 calls. “We are but one agency, we cannot be everywhere, and we cannot do it without you. We need your eyes, ears, and involvement and we realize that,” the Captain concludes in a message rich with impressive (as they are intended to be) numbers. Message to residents
- Smyth bill progresses through Assembly: The freshman Assemblyman representing the SCV and Simi Valley proposed a bill a few months ago that would outlaw posting pictures of high school athletes and cheerleaders on pornographic websites. The bill followed an incident in Orange County where boys water polo players’ pictures ended up on a gay pornography website. The Ventura County Star reports today that Smyth’s bill, AB 2104, received unanimous support in the Assembly Public Safety Committee. It next moves to the Appropriations Committee. LInk
City Council Notes:
- Frank Ferry Committee Mailer: A quote from Dave Gauny who spoke before the City Council on the controversial mailer paid for by Frank Ferry that said Buck McKeon supported Laurie Ender and Bob Kellar for City Council. “What is under-reported and far more dangerous is Ferry’s use of his own campaign money to endorse other candidates. .. Individual contributions to candidates are limited to $360, but Frank Ferry spent $12,000 in mail flyers to tell us who Buck McKeon endorses for our city government. Individual citizens have no hope against that kind of money.” Ferry admitted last week that he may have broken the law when he paid for the mailer. Activist Bruce McFarland also spoke about Ferry’s mailer at the meeting.
- Form 700 Memo from City Counsel: All five members of the City Council voted to “agendize” an item for a future meeting on whether to make public a confidential memo written by City Attorney Carl Newton on the Form 700 mess. Newton emphasized that the memo falls under attorney-client privilege and that the City Council will have to formally vote on whether to make it public.
- MRF Mess: Residents of the Sierra Highway area in Newhall/Canyon Country showed up in force again last night to make sure the City Council knows how much they hate the MRF “dump” idea. Wait, you thought it was dead? Well, Alan Ferdman of the Canyon Country Advisory Committee says it’s not, saying that “things started to unravel” shortly after an email from a Burrtec official announced that the company was putting an EIR review on hold. “It’s obvious that if Burrtec can put the EIR on hold, it can quietly restart it,” Ferdman said. It took at least an hour to cycle through the anti-MRF commenters and they promised to come back again and again (ugh). Jon Dell has more.
- Newhall property to be purchased: “The council also directed the city to finalize the $725,000 purchase of property at 24515 Spruce Street in Downtown Newhall to make room to build the Newhall Library the city and county are planning as part of an effort to revitalize the downtown Newhall area,” reports Katie Geyer in today’s Signal.
Elections & Politics
- KHTS endorses Spierer/Kellar for the second time: Deja vu all over again, but this time with a twist. On March 14, the radio station’s owner Carl Goldman wrote a brief endorsement of Bobs Spierer and Kellar for City Council. Pretty vanilla stuff. But yesterday, the station released a new “KHTS Editorial” that not only endorsed the Bobs but expressed disappointment with “council candidate Laurie Ender decided to take the low road by mailing out a hit piece containing a number of misrepresentations.” That’s in reference to a mailer apparently sent to Valencia neighborhoods that said Bob Spierer hadn’t taken a solid position on the hospital expansion plan. The editorial continues on Ender: ” If she’s doing that now, we’re afraid of what she may be like if she does get handed real power.” Link
- 19th Senate Seat race heats up: The battle to replace Senator Tom McClintock for the 19th Senate District in California is getting attention again. The 19th includes a small slice of the western SCV. This time, the Ventura County Star reports that the GOP challenger Tony Strickland has some $509k to spend on the race while his Democratic opponent Hannah-Beth Jackson has about $209k. Despite the gap, the Star says, Jackson’s donations are picking up. Also in the report: Our Assemblyman Cameron Smyth has some $204k in his war-chest, an amount that’s likely much bigger than his challenger, local Democratic activist Carole Lutness. Link
Blogs & Opinion
- LTE Questions Planner Lisa Hardy Consistency: To some extent, it’s unfair to criticize city staffers who follow the direction of their bosses and the City Council, but when they speak publicly on a matter, as Planning Manager Lisa Hardy did recently on Las Lomas, questioning them seems to be fair game. That’s exactly what Signal reader Lynn Vogel does today in an LTE; the Valencia resident “absolutely” agrees with Lisa Hardy that Las Lomas was a project that was “grossly incompatible with its surrounding.” But Vogel feels the same could be said of the Mayo Expansion project and she wonders why Hardy isn’t consistent. “Lisa has enthusiastically talked about the G&L Project at City Council meetings and how there will be a “healing garden” on the campus. She should walk around the neighborhoods surrounding the hospital campus and then maybe realize that it is so grossly incompatible with its surrounding, it violates every principle of urban planning!”
- Democratic activist blogs on City Council election: Minvera Williams of the SCV Young Democrats has some thoughts on the election, the hospital expansion, and the candidates. Of Laurie Ender, she says: “Do not put Ender on the City Council. She is not her own person or up on the issues. I can’t believe Congressman Buck would demean her publicly by saying she is the instrument which he can use to deal with CEMEX. The woman isn’t a dummy she just isn’t up on the ramifications of large issues. Give her time to grow more,” she writes, concluding, “TimBen will you be available in two years?” Link
- A View of Newhall Ranch from our neighbor to the west: A surprisingly favorable review from the “Just Fillmore Blog” of Newhall Ranch plus a bit about the recent LA City Council motion that questioned the 21,000 home project. A sample: “After more than ten years of discussing, planning, litigating and circumscribing with governmental regulators and citizens alike, Newhall Land and Farming Company found itself a new foe, just as the first “decisive” LA County Board of Supervisors public hearing meeting was set to take center stage.” Link
- CalArts Alum returns to the SCV and writes about it: David Ocker of Pasadena attended our very own CalArts back in the 1970s and he remembers a much different Santa Clarita Valley after visiting his college and parts of the SCV recently. “I wandered toward the cafeteria, site of some of my least memorable composition lessons ever, even though it boasted an awe-inspiring view in 1974 of green onion fields populated by migrant workers which was soon replaced by a view of now mansionized tract homes and green water-hazarded golf courses and which is now obscured by trees.” The writer also mentions Saugus Cafe and remarks on a Newhall Land housing sign near Cal Arts. “The backward pointing arrows tell people “Go back! The new tracts are back that way. Happiness awaits you in your new home!” Interesting
- I Heart on Council Meeting: The blogger covered last night’s meeting and has a good wrap-up at his site. Sample: “Predictably, Bruce McFarland was bashful when he addressed Ferry, beginning: “Let’s play ‘Who broke the law?’” and encouraging the audience to determine who on the council was a “lying, cheating, un-American crook.” Ferry elected not to respond, and McFarland was likely left wondering whether his words were ever-so-slightly over the top (answer: they were).” Link
Jeff -
Family emergency? Hope all is well with you and your wife.
Jeff
I hope all is well with you and Mrs. Wilson.
I believe KHTS might be a little late with the endorsements, given the fact that most of the absentee ballots probably have been returned to the city clerk. As for the enterprise zone, I heard that only one business has taken advantage of it here in Santa Clarita.
Oh thanks everyone. Everything’s fine.
Anyone remember when I broke my leg last year 2 days before a trip to Hawaii? I still wrote a brief even though I was doped out of my mind on Vicodin!
This was far less catastrophic than that. Thanks for the concern though.
Jeff, you did not miss much. This council is a real disappointment. The council is intended to be the voice of the people, but ours is not. Mr. Boydston has been able to show us how the Council and the City staff are influenced by special interest.
Perhaps we need a standing citizens committee that is provided the same access to City government as the VIA and the Chamber of Commerce.
Someone should tell David Gauny and Bruce McFarland that Frank Ferry is not currently running for City Council. I predict many (and many means 10 or less) incensed people will show up on election day looking for Frank Ferry’s name on the ballot to make sure they don’t vote for him and finding his name absent will pick Laurie Ender whose name stands first on the ballot (yuck, yuck).
KHTS’s editorial confirms that everyone thinks the race for second place is between Ender and the other Bob, as well as her hit mailer very narrowly targeted to her “hood.” To Diane Trautman and Maria Gutzeit, thanks for playing and you can pick up you Turtle Wax on the way out.
The people incensed over these dueling scandals is small, I’m sure. The readers of KHTS editorials isn’t a large number, either. They didn’t even offer a sentence of elaboration on Bob Spierer, just a nod in his direction. Anyone notice Ender’s blog has been silent since things have gotten rough?
Are the form 700 filings available to the public yet? I’m really surprised neither media outlet has reported on the content of the lists. 2002 to 2007 is a very long time, though.
It should be now surprise that David Gauny is supporting Kellar and not Ender. This even though Kellar thinks the law applies to everyone but him, unless it favors him.
Dave also took shots at Bubba Ferry for the same reasons. It’s the hospital stupid, and we’ll do whatever we can to stop it.
cash - what are you talking about? Last night was HUGE! Boydston revealed plainly that what the council says they they actually plan to do are two VERY different things. they object loudly about the MRF and then sit silent when Boydston puts forth a motion to agendize and kill the current proposed site.
Instead, Weste chimes in with some bulls**t about laws that protect the developer and concerns about rushing in without all the facts. The facts are plain: the owns the contract and the site is in a residential zone - we owe nothing to Burrtec and the council could kill it without further conversation about any of it.
I for one am sick and tired of lazy, fat, tired, pathetic uselessness of civic leaders more interested in returning favors to their fatcat friends than representing the citizens here. For all her B.S. about concern for open space, Laurene is selling us out at every turn within the city. WE NEED CHANGE AT CITY HALL! Last night, Boydston showed us just how badly it is needed.
I meant to say the CITY owns the contract…
SCVoice, make your point without the personal attacks okay? Thank you.
SCVoice you must have misunderstood me. I agree with your assessment completely, including Weste. I think she needs to stop with the lectures and begin to listen. She seems to think she is above the rest. I am a TimBen fan and I wish he was not leaving. I respect him for honoring his commitment.
To keep Jeff happy let’s start referring to the Council members by number beginning with the longest sitting member first. Weste would be number one and so on! There have been no personal attacks that I can remember. If you had called number 1 that over bleached blonde, that would have been a personal attack, IMHO.
Ms. Roberts and the recognition was nice. But she deserves a lot of credit for the costly and underutilized transit system as well. Does she look like a transit expert to you!
Speaking of endorsements, when will SCVTalk break it’s silence?
Would you endorse anyone! This crowd will kill ya!
Newhall property to be purchased: “The council also directed the city to finalize the $725,000 _____
Passed with only one question. McLean asked what the appraised value was. To which she got an I do not know answer from the City manager. A great question went unanswered but they all voted to approve spending $750,000.00 of our money without this basic information. You know, that valuable information that council member #1 says we all need. What a shame!
Appraisal - Surely you folks know by now that the council and city buy whatever they want (usually from their friends) and who cares what the value is vs. the price they pay.
I noticed that too. Seemed like an odd question to ask if you were indifferent about an answer before voting yes.
cash - you misunderstood me! I wasn’t railing against you - this council IS a TOTAL disappointment. I was just trying to raise the issue of how significantly Boydston called them to the carpet last night. I thought is was one of the best “let it hang out there” moments when he put forward the motion and none of the loud voices of opposition on council two weeks earlier would even give it a 2nd.
My incredulous response was directed at this fact, not your statements! Sorry for not clarifying this better.
BTW - sorry Jeff. Are you referring to my comments re: the council in general or Weste in particular? Either way, I’ll cut back to seven cups of coffee prior to posting.
I obtained copies of Kellar’s amended forms this afternoon from the city clerk.
For each of the years 2002 thru 2007, Kellar lists his gross income as over $100,000. This is the highest category. There are no others above that.
For each year a list of names and dates is attached, but no specific dollar amount for each name.
The list of for 2005 contains 40 sets of names and dates. Interesting thing about this list is that the transactions are in date order from 1/5/2005 to 12/23/2005 and then there are 7 entries which are listed randomly. Those I will list here:
Michael Mugford, Builder Inc. 6/17/2005
Dale Rice (COC) 7/21/2005
David & Diane Wang (COC) 9/27/2005
William & Lenora Lambert (COC) 6/20/2005
Margaret Warmuth (COC) 6/1/2005
Patrick & Erica Betz (COC) 1/25/2005
Julia Gamba & Lorida Pena (COC) 3/20/2005
I think there should be a requirement to list the individual amounts and the specific gross total income on these forms. I think the public needs to know just how much business is floated someone’s way when they are a real estate broker and sit on the City Council.
Interesting to see the first actual data. Is the (COC) from him or is it your addition? I don’t think he has to list dates, so that’s a nice plus. I agree that amounts would be useful, but I think $10,000 for anyone is past the point of recusal.
The (COC) notation was provided by Kellar. Check out the KHTS website. They are claiming Kellar has released the amount he made on the COC deal. Trouble is, the figures don’t add up.
http://www.hometownstation.com/kellar-fppc-clarita-2008-03-26-15-40.html
Kellar claims he earned $140,186 as commission for all the parcels. But when you add up the total sales it comes to $13,494,000. A 4% commission would amount to $539,760. If Kellar divided that with his partner, that would amount to $269,880. Where does the $140,186 figure come from?
Here’s some more interesting math: Kellar earned a minumum of $10,000 per transaction on the other 34 transactions. That plus the $140,186 means he made about half a million dollars in 2005. That does not include any transactions where the commission was less than $10,000.
The Signal’s info on the doggie day care building purchase isn’t quite correct… it’s a 3,000sf building on a 6,247sf lot. This is the middle building in that row, sitting between Just Passing Thru and White Light Chiropractic.
Neither of these other two property owners are anywhere close to reaching an agreement with the City for the purchase of their buildings. Also remaining in the hands of private owners is the old jail (now-defunct Antique Flower Garden) building. The City now owns the empty lot at the corner of Spruce/Lyons, the CarQuest building, and is working on the purchase of the Paws for Fun building. 3 down, 3 to go, not counting the Foreign Legion building.
“The new library will be between 16,000 and 30,000 feet in size, replacing the existing 4,000-square-foot library on Ninth Street,” says The Signal.
Can anyone point me to a study that shows that there is a NEED for a new mega-library in that area?
Seems the square footage is fluctuating as well… first it was supposed to be 65,000sf, then the City declared it to be somewhere between 18,000 and 24,000sf, and now it’s back up to possibly 30,000sf. Just how is the library’s size determined?
Kellar and his “associate” represented both COC and the sellers in the land purchases. At least that is what we were told back on 8/28/2005 by the Signal. We were also told that Joan MacGregor that the commission on the deal was 3%. Now we are being told 4%.
As the buyer, COC did not pay a real estate commission. That is paid by the sellers. Where the conflict comes in is in the negotiations process. It was in Kellar’s best interest that the price on the land be higher so his commission would be higher. The highest priced parcel increased in price from $5 million to $6.25 million during the course of the deal. That particular parcel was owned by Dale Rice — who is apparently related to someone in Kellar’s office.
As to the names on the forms, they are not available online, but for 10 cents a page you can obtain them from the city clerk. Or you can check out the Bob Kellar thread on the SCVTalk forum. I will enter them all there.
I thought on the Dale Rice issue there was another broker involved. If Kellar was indeed representing both parties than the “fiduciary duty” that loves to talk about, it to get as much money from the college as he can, so maybe there is something there, but it’s not something that would affect his standing as a councilman. A wrong name or two on the lists probably would.
Putting the charity spin on the commission reduction was very distasteful. Not to mention probably a falsehood.
It is not that uncommon to see a negotiated commission. This guy Wilk is a real piece of work.
What Mike is saying in his last couple of comments is exactly right and exactly what I have been saying all along. Bob absolutely had to come clean on these numbers but judgment should have been withheld until the facts were out. Here are things to think about:
1) Yes, 4% commission is split between listing and selling offices. If Bob split the remaining 2% with a partner, the number pencils out almost exactly.
2) Listing office receives entire commission of 4%, then pays selling office; this means that just nearly every listing taken by Bob’s office would result in a check of over 10K that is then paid out to the office representing the buyer and then to the agents involved in the sale - ALL of these would have to be disclosed and, with 20 agents in his office, that’s probably hundreds of transactions in each year. A tough number to perfect in a disclosure statement.
I am pleased that we are now realizing that there may not be any meaty news here but the damage has been done. Yes, I am concerned about the G&L office project being approved without sufficient parking and NO obligation to build a hospital OR commit one single medical service in the office space. And, yes, Bob has stood firm with us on this.
But Bob was also the only one to come out loudly against the MRF site, directing Pulskamp to tell Burrtec to take a hike. The rest were quiet when TimBen put out a motion but Bob is taking action on doing something.
As the media has quite possilbly sacrificed Bob’s election run, we now face losing a man who has fought against some of SCV’s worst projects - and done so at huge political risk and against the wishes of some of his closest friends and contributors.
So, now we realize that there’s probably no real meat in this news story and the one critical thinker left on our council may be gone. Bob is not perfect. I do not agree with his protection of staff’s dismal performance and I wish he would have come out early and loudly with the amended forms. But perhaps Scott Wilk should take the blame for that error rather than Bob.
Many of you say that Bob is conflicted because Scott is his campaign manager and represents the hospital. I see it differently: Bob has made up his own mind on the hospital and, if anything, Wilk has abotaged his campaign. That’s a tragedy.
Stand by Kellar: at the moment, he’s all we’ve got at City Hall. If we keep fighting over the partisan nonsense here, we will remain divided. The developers have us where they want us and we are poorer for it.
David Gauny
Piffle.
According to the Signal on 8/28/05 — and I quote:
“According to COC Board President Joan MacGregor, Bob Kellar (a Realtor and city councilman) and his associate are representing both the buyer (COC) and most of the sellers. MacGregor said the total commission is 3 percent, to be paid by the sellers through escrow.”
The figures Kellar released to do not add up. Explanation is required.
As to the assertion that no one else can stand firm against the developers and special interest, that is silly. Diane Trautman will do a better job and she doesn’t have a boatload of good ol’ buddies and real estate clients pushing their own agenda.
I don’t care if Kellar is a Republican or a Democrat. I want someone who is HONEST and has the best interest of the city at heart, not his own bottom line. Trautman has my vote.
I think it’s clear that there are but council members presently serving that have SCV residents best interests at heart: Boydston & Kellar. Boysdton must depart, but hopefully Trautman will replace him. We need McLean to stand fast with Kellar & Trautman, otherwise The City will cruise merrily along implementing Mr. City Manager’s stated goal of converting our suburban bedroom community into a bogged down traffic snarled Urban Center. I believe SCV residents should focus on the big picture and cease piling on Bob Kellar.