On the way home from Target this evening at about 5:15, I was surprised to see heavy smoke coming from The Greens.  My daughter was able to capture this picture on her phone from the mall parking lot.  Four fire trucks and the hazardous material truck responded, as well as numerous Sheriff’s patrol cars.  Southbound traffic on McBean was stopped between Town Center Drive and Valencia Boulevard.  The fire department appeared to get things under control pretty quickly, but the sound of chainsaws coming from the scene was quite loud.

What is being built here? A new ride that takes you all the way to Magic Mountain? The beginnings of a high speed rail line through the heart of Valencia? A crazy art project put on by some overachieving and scary-ambitious CalArts students?  A sphinx in the shape of Dr. Dianne Van Hook, supreme chancellor of COC perhaps?

Nah, I doubt it’s any of those things. The only construction project I know of on that site is the UCLA Film and Television Archive, which has been slated for that location for almost ten years.

You can be forgiven if you don’t recall this project. It’s been several years (like four or five) since I last saw a story about it. The LA Times first mentioned the project way back in 2002:

With the help of a wealthy film buff, UCLA is planning to consolidate the country’s second-largest media collection at a campus to be built in Valencia, university officials said Thursday.

The proposed 60-acre site for the UCLA Film and Television Archive was purchased by the Packard Humanities Institute, a nonprofit foundation in Los Altos headed by computer heir David Packard. Escrow on the land, bought from the Newhall Land and Farming Co., closed last month.

The nonprofit plans to build a new UCLA Film and Television Preservation Center on the site in the next few years to house the archive’s 27 million feet of newsreel footage and 220,000 films and TV programs.

The collection is currently spread among four sites on UCLA’s Westwood campus and at the old Technicolor building in Hollywood, on Cahuenga Boulevard, archive officials said.

The new facility would bring the collection together, and give its 63 employees a single, state-of-the-art place to work on film restoration and preservation, said Tim Kittleson, the archive’s director. It will also host a new master’s degree program in “moving image archiving studies,” which university officials said would be the first of its kind in North America.

A quick check on the ultra-simplistic Packard Humanities Website (seriously was it created with Notepad?) doesn’t even mention the project. And the UCLA Film & TV Archive website doesn’t show any updated information either.

But I’ve not heard any changes in ownership for the property so without any contrary information, I think it’s safe to assume this is the beginnings of the UCLA Film & TV archive.  It’s unlikely the facility be open to the public given the rare materials held inside, but in that Times article Bill Packard says he’d like to build a public screening room, which would be a real treat for us screen and quality-film deprived SCVers.

Whether Huff’s account of what happened in the SCV is strictly accurate is beside the point. Perception is reality in politics, and the perception is that Santa Clarita’s seizure of the COLA library system was hasty, against popular opinion, and poorly executed. To other cities in California pondering library privatization and to boosters (and providers!) of privatized government services, Santa Clarita’s process has to be a case study in what not to do.

Maybe that explains why Mayor Marsha McLean penned that spin-tastic column last week in the Pasadena Star News. The City has to rehabilitate its image state-wide, or to put it more vulgarly and keep with the stink  theme, polish the turd.

In any event, Huff’s prescription for such bad decisions is to vote the bastards out of office. We know that won’t happen here next year  because incumbents are virtually invulnerable, which is  what enabled the City to bulldoze this through in the first place.

But let’s say it could. Let’s say all the people who were upset about the library take over got together and elected two or three new Councilmembers.

The problem is, at that point, the libraries are still privatized. And it’s a major hassle and very disruptive to go back. Very few government services that have been privatized ever go back to being truly public. Even with three new Councilmembers and a sympathetic Bob Kellar, going back to COLA (or firing LSSI & hiring real city employees) would be a difficult task.

That’s why I think AB 438 is a good bill, even if it does remove some local control. The cities should have to jump through extra hoops before they do something radical, controversial and anti-democratic like Santa Clarita did.

I’ve received at least a dozen anonymous emails from local Republicans about the guide, most remarking on how funny at it was and at least a few seemingly saying, “Jeff, you don’t even know how right you are.” They are, of course, referring to the fact that Bob “Oakley” Haueter and his groupies have formed a new Republican club in the wake of David Gauny and the local Tea Party’s victory over the old guard in last spring’s SCV Republican Assembly election as well as Hart Board Member Joe Messina’s criticisms of the Republican Machine in the SCV.

I’m not going to pretend to understand all that’s going on in local Republican black arts, but suffice it to say, some sh*t is going down. At least four folks forwarded me emails from Haueter in which the Deputy Chief of Staff for Congressman McKeon touted the virtues of his new club and tried to sell divided SCV Republicans on his conservative bona fides and the purity of his new club’s conservative secret sauce:

I have always supported our Party Platform that defends the rights of the unborn, supports traditional marriage and the 2^nd amendment. As a former member of the Party Platform committee, I supported and voted for our current platform that reflects these conservative views and more.

And here’s Oakley’s commentary on what happened after the last club he was a member of, the SCV Republican Assembly, came under the control of out-of-favor local GOP insurgents:

So what’s the real story? After the last election a group of moderate to liberal Republicans was appointed to the State Party and with the backing of a wealthy individual mounted a campaign to get their supporters elected to the State Party Platform Committee. While they succeeded in some parts of the state they were unsuccessful in others failing to elect a majority to the full Platform Committee.

To underscore how pure his new club is against the Gauny/Messina insurgency that’s threatening his vice-grip on power, he tells us about who has joined the new Greater Assembly of Republican SCV Assembly American Conservatives for Conservatives (or whatever it’s called):

As to the new unit’s membership, I am delighted to share with you that the Mayor of our city along with three other city council members are charter members of this new unit. Our Congressman and his wife are also members, seven out of the 11 members of the 38th Assembly District Republican Central Committee our local party are also members. The President of our local Republican Women’s Federated club along with other board members are also members. I chartered this unit with 18 members and it has quickly grown to almost 40 members. I hope you can share my excitement with this outstanding growth of active Republican volunteers.

 

But of course! Of course four out of five members of the City Council are in Oakley’s new club. They, along with Bob Haueter, got kicked out of their old cozy bed, so they went and spooned in a new warm bed!

I bet Bob Kellar is the only councilmember who hasn’t joined the new club, God Bless him.

Finally, Oakely had some words for Joe Messina, the earnest, misguided-yet-approachable Hart Board member, Christian conservative and radio talk show host:

When no problem exists, invent one like, “there’s an invisible Republican machine that exists to eat our brains and consume our substance telling us what to do and who to believe.” Really?… and on what basis are we to believe there’s a machine, well of course the fact a candidate sought an endorsement from elected officials and didn’t get it. Has to be a plot to deny the endorsements, right?

Oh come on. As if Buck McKeon’s endorsement isn’t worth its weight in gold in the SCV. Anyone who is anyone in the SCV recognizes that to get elected to any position in this town, you have to have the endorsement of a McKeon or a Smyth or a City Council person. To say otherwise is to insult the reader’s intelligence.

Speaking of McKeon, it’s kind of sad that our 72 year old Congressman, who is so powerful he can say no to the President, so sought after that he’s interviewed by the likes of Bloomberg, so well-connected that he gets hundreds of thousands of dollars from defense contractors, has to keep such a vice-grip on the affairs of inconsequential Republican clubs in the R+7 SCV. Make no mistake about it, behind Haueter is Buck McKeon, our former school board official, City Councilman, boot salesman and husband of future Assemblywoman Patricia McKeon. That Haueter and the local GOP establishment are so vociferous in their defense of splitting off yet another local Republican club speaks to their insecurity. It shows that even good local Republican soldiers are fed up with McKeon, unless support for him benefits them personally in some way.

I may not have anything in common with David Gauny or Joe Messina, but I will say they won their posts fair and square, and both of them are passionate Republicans who by their participation in our valley’s affairs, make it a more interesting place. So if you’re a local Republican looking for advice, I say go with them and ignore the peer pressure.

SCV Republican Assembly

In the incident at the fast-food restaurant, a deputy in a McDonald’s heard his car alarm go off and went outside to find that the vehicle had been hit. He and the other driver agreed to exchange information, but the other driver didn’t want to alert police, prompting the deputy to pull his gun out and tell the driver he was a cop.

The other driver, surprised by the statement, got back in his car and drove off.

As the car pulled away, the deputy fired several rounds at it. The man wasn’t struck, but his car was.

When investigators arrived, the deputy claimed he had reached into the other car while the other driver was trying to flee, and was dragged 15 feet before he started firing. The incident, however, was caught on tape, showing that he wasn’t dragged. The deputy, a new hire then still on probationary status, was fired after he refused to cooperate with an investigation into the August 2010 incident in Stevenson Ranch.

According to the report itself, four of the shots fired by the Deputy hit the suspect’s car and one of the shots hit a nearby business. The report also states that the driver of the car was later found to be intoxicated. The Deputy’s version of events that day were contradicted by video surveillance at the restaurant.

The LA County Sheriff’s Department employs nearly 18,000 people, a little over half of whom are sworn Deputies. With a workforce that large, you’re bound to have some people who aren’t law enforcement material slip through the cracks. So it’s a relief the Deputy above was dismissed.

On a side note, the misconduct review also shows that Deputies are under the same financial pressures the rest of us are. It speculates that the terrible economy and personal financial pressure may have lead to an increase in the number of financial misconduct cases Deputies were involved in in the last year:

the financial pressure that may have been faced by the involved deputies due to the Global Financial Crisis could well have played a role in their alleged decisions to violate the law and their oaths of office. Deputies were among the many borrowers who financed their homes with adjustable-rate mortgages, but had difficulty making their payments or refinancing once interest rates reset and market values declined. Deputies have also been affected by an increase in unemployment among their spouses as well as unexpected increases in he cost of gasoline and college tuition for themselves and their children.
…
Regrettably, the reduction in available overtime may also have contributed to the rise in poor decision making by deputies who appear to have, at times, resorted to unfortunate measures in order to get out from under debt possibly caused by living beyond their means. In essence, vehicles and other luxury goods may have been acquired when overtime was readily available, and those deputies who no longer have overtime as readily available may not have been able to keep up the payments on those luxury goods.

I see a more cynical possibility:  Similar to the aluminum siding salesmen in “Tin Men” who would drop a $20 bill on the floor of someone’s living room and then deny it belonged to them in order to build goodwill and credibility, the Board will unanimously vote down the increase to prove how much they can “sacrifice.”

Other predictions?

UPDATE

Oh, boy I should have seen this coming after the City Council vote to increase their pay earlier this year.  As the Signal reports the Hart Board did vote 3-2 to increase the monthly fees paid to Board members for attending meetings by (a whopping) $21, and like the City Council the members running for reelection in 2011 voted AGAINST the increase, with incumbent Board member Steve Sturgeon acting all indignant and refusing to take the increase.

In my opinion it does seem illogical to increase Board fees by even a paltry amount during times of austerity.  However it seems even more illogical to go for such a small increase.  Don’t elected officials know you are supposed to swing for the fences?

I’ve pinged those who usually know about corporate/government relocations to the SCV and they either said they hadn’t heard about it or didn’t respond. So take this for what it’s worth: a rumor, but I have confidence in my source.

The current IRS office in Van Nuys appears to be a typical IRS service branch, with several services offered to the public. Its current location is at the Van Nuys civic center, familiar to many an SCVer who have had the misfortune of being called for jury duty there.

If this is true, it’s great news from an economic standpoint. Federal jobs tend to be stable jobs, and service branches (like the DMV, or Post Office or a library) generate reliable and steady traffic. Plus, government services tend to cluster, meaning that as the North County region continues to grow, perhaps more federal agencies will look to Santa Clarita. Indeed, the Postal Service has already  invested a lot in the SCV.

But on a more cultural level, having the IRS -the federal government’s tax collection agency- call the SCV its home is also deliciously ironic in that the SCV is a hotbed of anti-tax Tea Party activism where Laffer Curve adherents and Grover Norquist devotees hold yearly anti-tax protests in front of City Hall.

I mean, can you think of a more ironic or awkward arrangement? It’d be like the GOP holding a presidential nominating convention in San Francisco’s Castro District.

Despite concerns raised online and in local media reports over implications of the gas company’s stepped-up drilling near Interstate 5, no hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” is taking place there, a SoCalGas spokeswoman said.

“At SoCalGas’ Honor Rancho facility, our current project involves drilling injection and withdrawal wells to increase the storage capacity of our underground storage reservoir,” spokeswoman Denise King said Friday.

“Our drilling operations do not involve fracking.”

That’s an out and out denial right there.

Apparently the site is a major storage facility for the Gas Company:

“SoCalGas purchases most of its natural gas supplies from out-of-state sources,” King said. “We store natural gas more than a mile beneath the surface in porous sandstone, which is capped by solid rock.

“Our storage facility plays an important role, particularly during the high winter demand periods when customers are using natural gas for heating,” she said.

What was confusing about the initial reporting on this is that the word “production” was mentioned several times. Indeed, it’s still used in Jim Holt’s latest piece. He says CPUC documents state that “the gas company wants to boost production and storage of natural gas from about 2,000 barrels daily to ’4,500 barrles per day on a continuous basis for several years.”

My bad for reading hydraulic fracturing into the words “natural gas production” but kudos for the Signal for clearing it up.

SIGNAL

The Times points out that most small and medium sized Cities only have part-time City Councilmembers. The same is true in Santa Clarita, where our members have bi-weekly Council meetings, a summer break, and are expected at numerous functions throughout the year.

The Times also found Cities that give health care benefits to residents who serve part time on City commissions. The database doesn’t show that Santa Clarita contributes to its part time commissioners.

What’s not clear is whether Councilmembers in Santa Clarita or elsewhere can get cash-in-lieu of their medical benefits. I would imagine some of our City Councilmembers, like Frank Ferry, get health care coverage through their employer.

Last month the Council gave itself a raise to $1,728/per month, for a total of a little over $20k per year for their service. That plus the $12,075 in health care contributions gives our City Council about $32k/year in salary and benefits.

Do you think the City should be paying for health care benefits for our City Councilmembers? On first glance, I’d say yes. I think we should compensate our Councilmembers for their time, and my impression is that City of Santa Clarita Councilmembers spend a lot of their time working on city matters. I’d hate to see an issue where an elected Councilmember has to minimize his time spent on City matters because he has to maintain a certain amount of hours at his day job just to keep health care benefits. In that light, the $12k/year buys us their time.

About 40 of those attending Rivas’ seminar were from LSSI, including co-founder Frank Pezzanite.

“It was hard to understand their concerns,” Pezzanite said. “They were coming from a very emotional place.”
Rivas said she was reinvigorated by ALA’s reception of her presentation.

That’s right. If you were concerned or upset by the way the City handled the library seizure in the last year, your concerns aren’t legitimate, you’re just being emotional. If you have real, substantive criticism to level at the City over their undemocratic, pre-decision process and their wildly optimistic budget & revenue projections, first of all, take a Valium and calm down little lady, and secondly, the sky didn’t fall, so what are you bitching about? “Why do you chicks keep arguing with me about my business model,” he seems to be saying.

I wonder how the women on the City Council or in the senior City staff would feel if a man publicly told a newspaper that “they were coming from a very emotional place.” Something tells me Laurie Ender, Laurene Weste and Marsha McLean wouldn’t react kindly to a man reducing them to a shrieking harpy.

The reality is that Lori Rivas has argued persuasively that public libraries should remain entirely in the public realm. And yet, I think she would say that if a community wants to outsource, the process should be clear, public, and transparent, with real opportunity for the public to weigh in prior to the decision. Which is exactly the opposite of what we had last year. Nothing emotional about that.