August 18, 2008 - Daily Brief
Written by Jeff on August 18th, 2008
Valencia Marketplace, the finest in Big Box retailing, earning money for the County since 1996. Woe unto our landscape.
- Newhall resident targets Councilwoman Weste with FPPC complaint: Weste (or her mother?) owns a large piece of property in Placerita Canyon, just a stone’s throw from several properties (and roads) in Newhall that may or may not be redeveloped in connection with the North Newhall Specific Plan, and resident Ben Curtis doesn’t like what he sees. Weste says she abides by the City Counsel’s advice and guidance and abstains from voting North Newhall Specific Plan matters. Link
- Cross Valley Connector “one bridge away” from completion: East-west motorized conveyance will get a boost as the city kicks off the last phase of its 10+ year, $245 million road project linking Highway 126 to, eventually, Highway 14, the Signal reports today. The last phase is a 1,100 foot long bridge that will connect Golden Valley Road to Highway 126. Katie Geyer says construction on the bridge may begin in December.
- Play Bob the Builder with Newhall Library cutouts: It sounds a bit cheesy, but at Wednesday night’s Newhall Library workshop, participants will be able to build their own library with “cutout forms” that will “provide an opportunity to let [participants] play around and come with their own personal design of the library.” The outreach meeting is the first held by architecture firm LPA, chosen by the city to lead the design of a future 16,000-30,000 sq. ft. library anchoring Old Town Newhall. Link
- Signal profiles homeless person in SCV: Writer Tammy Marashlian had an excellent Sunday feature about “Karan,” a 58 year old woman who sleeps in her car and struggles to find stable work in Santa Clarita or elsewhere. “There’s absolutely nothing in my background that prepared me for this. I came from a solid, middle-class family and people worked.” Good article
- “Very sexy underwear,” Pomeranian dog stolen: No, not necessarily in that order, but Signal reporter Jim Holt has a round-up of some bizarre thefts lately in Santa Clarita, including $500 worth of “very sexy” underwear from a shop on Magic Mountain. Not only did someone steal the sexy lingerie (and here I’m assuming it’s female undergarments), but they had to take it from the “very sexy room” in the shop. Link
- Mentryville, Trees, and History: Interesting A-1 story in today’s Signal on the cutting down and removal of what former Mentryville resident Darryl Manzer calls historic trees in the old oil boomtown west of Santa Clarita. The Santa Monica Mountains conservancy says the trees are diseased, rotting from the inside, and might fall on some of the old buildings there, but Manzer says they’re part of history. The story will continue when Manzer takes Signal reporter Jim Holt on a walking tour tomorrow. Link
- Fire in Green Valley: A massive plume of gray smoke consumed the northern horizon yesterday in Santa Clarita as a 150 acre brush fire near Green Valley marked the start of fire season. SCVTV has a report.
- Cops, firefighters gather for motorcycle rememberance ride: Santa Clarita is “fire and police country,” Mayor Bob Kellar told some 1,000 bikers who gathered at Valencia Town center for a 100 mile ride around the SCV to commemorate fallen firefighters and police officers on Sunday. Link
- Signal says Hart ought to start building Castaic High before bond vote: Creekside says that if the Hart District wants $300 million from us, it ought to “figure out where to build a high school in Castaic, tell the community when and where you will start construction, and then do it.” The Sunday editorial talks a bit about the last bond measure -$158 million in 2001- and mentions the parents group lead by Joe Messina, which opposes the current measure unless specific steps are taken. Link
- Hospital/Campus Expansion dominates Sunday Op/Ed: I’ve got to compliment the Signal on giving abundant space to David Gauny and Tim Myers to argue the specific points of the Henry Mayo Hospital expansion in Valencia. Gauny’s column was organized, coherent, logical and pretty powerful, while Myers’ column wasn’t very convincing. I won’t bother to sum either one up; you should read it yourself and be informed. Also note, I Heart seems to agree with me.
- Great ad on same sex marriage: Is this a political ad or not? Opponents of same sex marriage say it is, but others don’t see it that way. Whatever the case, it seems to have people talking, which I suppose is the point. Link
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Great ad on same sex marriage:
Far from great, poorly done at best! Highly exaggerated as one might expect. Overly dramatic, much like those engage (in pushing the issue, that is).
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Re:Signal profiles homeless person in SCV:
As alone as Karan feels, she doesn’t believe she is the only one in Santa Clarita who has been affected by the slow economy.
“For one thing, I don’t think I’m the only one in this situation,” she said.
No Karan is not alone, unfortunately. Imagine those men and women in her same situation with children to worry about also. As Karan said in her story, nothing ever prepared her for this. She came from a middle class family where everyone worked. It doesn’t take much for a person (or family) to find themselves on the street. So many of us are living pay-check-to-pay-check as it is and with a recession looming over all our heads, more will be victims of this sort of poverty. The stereotype is one of alcholics and drug addicts that are homeless,when in reality a large percentage are people that just can’t survive on their salaries.
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Regarding Tim Myer’s column in “The Signal” yesterday, what an absolute shameful attempt to ruin David Gauny’s integrity. Using one innuedo after the next to color an honest man’s reputation - that was despicable and unacceptable! At least Gauny’s article was factually based and considerably reasonable.
I would really like to know where Myer’s allegiance lies… does his income rely upon business dealings with City Hall or with The Signal? Enquiring minds need to know…
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I would really like to know where Myer’s allegiance lies… does his income rely upon business dealings with City Hall or with The Signal? Enquiring minds need to know…
I don’t think Myers is a sell-out to developer interests, big business or anything else.
I do think he takes delight in being contrarian, but he usually bases that on facts.
Most of his essays are unassailable - this was the guy who went into more depth on why Laurie Ender won than anyone else, and no one could dispute his analysis, even if it angered them that he was right.
In such columns he’s at his best - arguing based on numbers, statistics or facts - and clearly his Sunday column wasn’t among his best.
BTW it’s bad form to place everyone in Santa Clarita in an either/or, for/against column.
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“…..while Myers’ column wasn’t very convincing….”
There was nothing in it that could be considered an adequate rebuttal to David Gauny, why Tim bothered is a mystery. Also, the fact that Tim is employed by a company, Landscape Maintenence, that has donated substantial funds to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital for the G&L pseudo expansion “may” account for Tim’s blind devotion to G&L realty.
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What I found interesting about the article that Mr. Myers wrote, was that the signal highlighted a quote from his writing in large letters on page 3 of the opinion section, giving the idea that the article would ‘in fact’ indicate the following:\
“….David Gauny’s message assumes facts not in evidence.” I found nothing in Mr. Myers editorial to show that. In fact I found nothing to dispute those ‘facts’ that Mr.Gauney DID include in his editorial!
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Alright then, this makes perfect sense now. So basically, Tim “Stakeholder” Myers wrote that column on behalf of Roger Seaver & Jeffrey Lambert. Another, “it just so happens” situation…
Thank you Pauline Harte!
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“…..this was the guy who went into more depth on why Laurie Ender won than anyone else, and no one could dispute his analysis, even if it angered them that he was right…..”
Jeff, it disappoints me that you are twisting the truth about where all the anger comes from regarding Ender’s campaign. As you have seen here yourself, Jeff, it is Tim who gets angry and nasty, and resorts to silly name-calling attacks whenever he isn’t able to rebut those who discuss the dirty politics regarding the Laurie Ender campaign, or hospital/G&L Realty issues. Even The Signal editorial asked for Ender to recuse herself from voting on issues pertaining to the hospital. And so far, no one has disputed The Signal’s editorial, either.
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Jeff, it disappoints me that you are twisting the truth about where all the anger comes from regarding Ender’s campaign. As you have seen here yourself, Jeff, it is Tim who gets angry and nasty, and resorts to silly name-calling attacks whenever he isn’t able to rebut those who discuss the dirty politics regarding the Laurie Ender campaign, or hospital/G&L Realty issues. Even The Signal editorial asked for Ender to recuse herself from voting on issues pertaining to the hospital. And so far, no one has disputed The Signal’s editorial, either.
Your emotions have nothing to do with the fact that Ender won by focusing on a certain demographic others ignored.
Myers told us how she did it and why it succeeded, factually.
You can certainly get angry that she won, or how she won, but you’re essentially shooting the messenger.
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Sorry, not Landscape Maitenance, Tim works for Landscape Development, Inc.
FOR RELEASE ON OCTOBER 26, 2006
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD
PDF VERSION
Landscape Development Inc……contributed $60,000 to the expansion of Henry Mayo Hospital…..
Needless to say after contributing tens of thousands of dollars to the folly that is G&L Realty, this company (owned by Signal columnist Gary Horton) would of course blindly support Laurie Ender in a big way and NEVER question discrepancies and the lack of guarantees and G&L escape clauses in the Master Plan and the Development Agreement.
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“Your emotions have nothing to do with the fact that Ender won by focusing on a certain demographic others ignored.”
My “emotions” have nothing to do with it, Jeff, especially at this point. You are referring to a column written way before new info has come out, and reported on by The Signal.
Myers told us how she did it and why it succeeded, factually.
You can certainly get angry that she won, or how she won, but you’re essentially shooting the messenger.
Jeff, you are referring to my “anger,” when that is not an issue. As I stated, the anger comes from Tim Myers, not me, and anyone who piosts here can see that. I only use facts, even quotes, then give an opinion, minus anger and name-calling. Numbers cxrunching an election is just that, doesn’t address the dirty politics of the election, which The Signal did. CURRENT news is where the truth lies about the last election.
Silly as it may seem to you, Jeff, most people are angered by dirty politics and I am thankful that our local paper shares the outrage.
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RE: The Mentryville tree removal, I’m generally OK with hacking down eucalyptus and pepper trees. With their shaggy bark and high oil content, eucalyptus are ranked as one of the most flammable of trees. That’s not a risk we need to take in SoCal. As for pepper trees, several species in that group are ranked as highly invase by the California Invasive Plant Committee. This means they can spread into wild areas an displace indigenous species, alter the local ecology, etc.
These trees may be “part of history”, but they’re an inappropriate part. We don’t keep asbestos in buildings because it was part of history, so let’s ditch the landscape asbestos (eucalyptus) as well.
Also, I really like the photo at the start of today’s daily brief. It’s at a much different scale than I’m used to thinking about that glorious strip o’ retail.
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*I meant California Invasive Plant *Council*, not Committee.
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The pepper tree were brought from Pennsylvania by Mentryville’s first settlers and they should be considered important historical landmarks, every bit as important as any historical structure on that property. The pepper trees are the only way we can tell where the first settlers lived. Wherever there is a pepper tree, that is where a structure existed.
My husband gives tours at Mentryville, and many tours are for schoolchildren. Children are fascinated to actually see the spots where the early settlers lived, and they touch the trees with so much awe, knowing that other people long ago lived beneath the pepper trees.
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BTW, I was out there with Darryl Manzer, and the pepper trees are thriving and healthy.
“…..they can spread into wild areas an displace indigenous species, alter the local ecology, etc…..”
I would suggest that, as part of documenting the history and exact locations of Mentryvill’s first settlers, each existing pepper tree on Mentryville’s site be marked with a marker that documents the historical pepper trees as such. There are people who can accurately determine each historical site (some on-site plaques exist right now) and any newly growing pepper trees can be removed.
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re: meyers. WTF?
that was a long way to go for a not-so-subtle personal attack. scv smart growth had very articulate statements, all included in the public record already. what the hell was meyers talking about?
my favorite line:
“Now David Gauny and his fellow travelers’ message assumes facts not in evidence. Namely, the pursuit of lawful commerce (permitting office buildings), the exercise of First Amendment rights (supporting one’s candidate of choice in a local election) and an elected official’s evaluation and vote approving the pursuit of lawful commerce necessarily provide all the evidence we need of the exercise of greater evil in our community.”
again… WTF?
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Seems someone has been drinking Manzer’s milkshake.
If the trees are indeed thriving and are indeed bad for the local ecology, why keep them around?
If they are diseased, then why keep them around?
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re: meyers. WTF?
Yeah, WTF is right. I can’t figure out why the Sig even printed that crap as a rebuttal to David Gauny. It wasn’t, and should have been put in the LTE section where Myers belongs anyway.
Hey Mike, the conservancy wants the trees out because they are in the way of film crew parking. Who says the pepper trees are diseased? The conservancy says so because they want an excuse to get them out so the conservancy conveniently claims the trees are diseased. I ride my bike up there all the time and the pepper trees look fine and are the healthiest looking trees in that area. Its the fire damaged oaks that are looking bad. Problem is the pepper trees make less room for movie trucks to park. L.A. County and the conservancy want to keep film crews happy with some extra parking space and that is what this is really about.
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What’s filming out there?
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The TV series, “The Unit,” was being filmed there last week and there is filming out there quite often. Jason Crawford of The City of Santa Clarita can answer questions you have about filming.
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Where did Myers receive his law degree? My guess after reading some of his rambling piece, is that he has no law degree. Last I heard he was the chief book keeper for a landscape company, perhaps even a CPA. It is unfortunate that a guy like Tim, who is very witty, is allowed to use TMS as a platform to try and dazzle us with his nonsensical verbiage. Blah Blah Blah Tim Myers!
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If Tim Myers has any legal understanding, he probably got it directly from HB. The same HB seen chatting with the new girl off in the shadows of the crowd, at local event.
The city and its lackluster leaders, are likely to be on the receiving end of more good work by concerned residents, like David G and Ben C. Stay tuned!
The spokesperson from TMS seems to live amoung the troubled insiders, which hope to continue to gain from the loss of others.
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While hearing stories of the homeless, you cannot help but be heartsick…
however…
We are not in a recession, period.
Our parents and/or grandparents lived through the Great Depression and World Wars. A cold hard fact of life is that there will ALWAYS be some who “have not”. There are many reasons for this, it doesn’t make it easier or fair, it’s just a reality of society.
We live in one of the most, if not the most opportune times in history overall. All of our quality of living, yes even the “poor”, is high on the grand scale.
We’ll never have answers for everything, nor will everything be perfect. I became so sad for this woman after reading this article. However in perspective, we live in the greatest country and at the greatest time so far in history.
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The harsh reality in the real world is that our free society could be equated to a ladder… we’ll always have folks at the top and some at the bottom. In America, anyone can strive for the top rung… or not.
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Cash
18 Aug 08 at 7:49 pm
(regarding Tim Myers) “…..Last I heard he was the chief book keeper for a landscape company…..”
You are right, Cash. And I was incorrect about Gary Horton being the actual owner of Landscape Develolopment, Inc, Horton is Chief Executive Officer of that company. But Landscape Development Inc. is indeed a major contributor to the Henry Mayo Campus Expansion, and a disclaimer regarding this important info should appear above EVERYTHING Horton and Myers writes in (blind) support of the G&L Realty MOB expansion and G&L’s favorite/hardest working lobbyist, Laurie Ender.
After all, Tim Myers attacked David Gauny about David’s career in the mortgage business, and as I Heart SCV asked on that blog, “Does that even count as ammunition?” Of course not, But Tim had no arguments at all and, as he always does when he has nothing to offer, as we have seen right here on this blog, Tim resorted to baseless, personal attacks that have nothing to do with any kind of decent rebuttal.
But after attacking David Gauny for being involved in the mortage business, Tim Myers neglected to admit that he himself works for a firm that is a major donor to G&L’s MOB expansion on Henry Mayo’s campus.
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I’m typically a big fan of Myers, but this latest column was completely unpersuasive. The Signal should disclose any conflicts if there are any, like if they have existing business with the hospital. If the company made a donation, that isn’t a conflict of interest in and of itself.
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Eric,
Our economy is in substantially worse shape than it was ten years ago. You may not think it’s “bad”, but it’s not the “best”.
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Many of the Eucs have come down in Mentryville over the years. Some limb by limb others all at once. The large euc that was by the Big House was cut down about 2 weeks before some of the hardest winds to ever hit Mentryville. If you saw the inside of that tree you would agree that it needed to come down. Unfortunately eucalyptus is not called “the widow maker tree” for nothing and luckily this one was taken out just in time. Some of the peppers at Mentryville have split limbs during high winds as well but they are not nearly as suseptible to wind damage as the eucs when they get old and, yes, most of those trees have been there for more than 100 years. Count the rings. The point is that if they need trimming so be it but to radically chop them all down is an historic travesty. The filming at Mentryville is a big factor in the lack of restoration that has been attempted over the past 13 years. Once the Big House is restored and furnished the film companies can no longer “do their thing” and that money stream for the Conservancy will dry up to some extent.
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If the company made a donation, that isn’t a conflict of interest in and of itself.
Mike
19 Aug 08 at 6:37 am
No, it is not a conflict of interest for the company itself, but if Tim Myers is going to attack David Gauny because David was involved in the mortgage business, then Tim should disclose his own affiliation with Landscape Development as an employee - that would be the fair and honest thing to do, based on Tim’s criticism of David Gauny.
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“Tim should disclose his own affiliation with Landscape Development as an employee”
His columns always end with:
“Tim Myers is executive vice president and chief financial officer of Landscape Development Inc. in Valencia. His column represents his own views, not necessarily those of The Signal. “
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Myers’ columns, when covering topics his company is associated with, should always end something like this:
“Tim Myers is executive vice president and chief financial officer of Landscape Development Inc. (which donates heavily to Henry Mayo Hospital) in Valencia. His column represents his own views, not necessarily those of The Signal.”
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Giving a donation does not constitute a conflict of interest, receiving one does. If I mailed you $5 today, that does not compel me to do anything further on your behalf. There is nothing that you would have over my head that would improve or lessen my fortunes depending on what I write tomorrow.
If his employer does a lot of work for the hospital, then that is another matter. I would like to see that answered one way or another. Does anyone know? Tim?
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Conflict of interest… who mentioned that? Myers’ company donates $$’s to Henry Mayo; no big deal. However, it becomes more significant when Myers runs down an honest man’s integrity, David Gauny… who happens to hold very valid criticisms of HM’s giant office project. What is it that you’re not gettin’ here, Mike?
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I brought it up, if you look above, calling on the Signal to state any conflicts of interest, but qualifying that to exclude simply giving a donation. If that is the extent of the entanglement between LDI and HMNMH, then there is no reason for the paper to add anything not in the column.
But I really have no idea what that relationship is. My guess is if they are donating to the foundation in large numbers, then they have a further relationship with hospital itself.
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Okay, you agree that it was inappropriate for Myers to run down Gauny’s integrity given Myers affliation with Henry Mayo?
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Does donating to a hospital count as an affiliation, or is there something further that you’re aware of?
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If you’re still askin’ questions, then you must be in league with Myers. Check this:
http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/3583/
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Bill,
Carl didn’t have an answer here, only the same question I’m asking. But an excellent LTE nonetheless. I agree with everything here.
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Cool… glad to hear you’re not in league with Myers’ crew…
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I’m usually a big fan, but he lost me on this one.
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I’m not a fan of his at all… that guy endorses every development project that shows up - nevermind water/traffic issues here. He’s in it for the money & I’m not against capitalism by a long shot, but these people (City Hall, Myers, developers, etc.) are out of control.