RECAP: Can You Hear Us Now?
In a Santa Clarita City Council meeting stretching for nearly three hours, the City made major re-opening progress, protected renters, dealt with some riled up residents, and decided to delay voting district hearings after much angsty discussion. Everyone was fretting about a lot of different issues, and Councilmember Weste made multiple, ominous declarations. What a time to be in Santa Clarita. Let’s get to recapping.
Mike Garcia and Kathryn Barger Delight Council
With Mayor Cameron Smyth nowhere in sight, Mayor Pro Tem Bill Miranda got things rolling by asking Councilmember Bob Kellar to provide the invocation. Kellar described a “modified Memorial Day program” held at Eternal Valley Memorial Park, which has hosted an observance for over three decades. He said that, while the public was unable to attend owing to restrictions against large gatherings, there was still much to appreciate. The staff of Eternal Valley set out over 6,000 flags on the graves (this is a task normally performed by Scouts troops). Our recently sworn-in 25th District Congressman Mike Garcia gave a keynote address that ended in a standing ovation (the first Kellar can remember at the annual event). Kellar closed his remarks by reading the names of the Santa Claritans who have died while serving in the armed forces since the events of 9/11.
At this point, Mayor Cameron Smyth entered with typical dramatic flair: his lower face was masked,[1] but his eyes darted back and forth in eager anticipation of the news he had to share. He said, “I am pleased to announce that just 15 minutes ago, the LA County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to apply to the State of California for an LA County-wide variance” to State health orders. He said that, if approved, LA County would be able to re-open salons and some in-restaurant dining. Later in the meeting, he clarified that houses of worship and retail had just been re-opened by the County, so those were already checked off the list. Smyth called it an “amazing day” and gave due credit because “Supervisor [Kathryn] Barger carried an amazing load.” Just a couple of weeks ago, the City of Santa Clarita was trying to get its own variance to the most restrictive of health orders, but the unified county effort is sure to get more attention.
Councilmember Bob Kellar said, “May I make a suggestion?”, and vigorously applauded the re-opening progress.
Roll call followed (all present), and Smyth re-arranged the agenda just a little to accommodate City Manager Ken Striplin, who would be leaving early to join his son’s high school graduation.
“I called her back!”
Lynne Plambeck was the first to speak during public participation. She said that hundreds of native oaks have been removed for the Needham Ranch business park, but she hasn’t seeing an equal number of mitigation oaks planted, as required. Plambeck mentioned other projects where oaks have been removed and not promptly replaced, and she reminded the Council that an oak features prominently on the City Seal. “Where in the heck are the oaks?” she queried.
Next, Elaine Ballace complained about, well, everything, but mostly about not getting a return phone call every time she wanted one. In a master class on how to endear oneself to City Hall, she said the following, and more:
“When you place a phone call to you people, not one of you on City Council has returned one of my calls.”
“Ken hasn’t returned a call in two weeks! And I’ve left messages ad nauseum with Ken’s assistants.”
“Is there a problem?” [reacting when Smyth whispered “I called her back?” to Striplin]
“If ever there were a reason for districting, maybe this is it, because at least you could call one person ad nauseum until that person calls you back, and then if that person doesn’t do anything for your area, you vote him or her out”
“Just for fun, I called other city chambers and what not, and they all got back to me within an hour!”
“Maybe I need to call Kathryn Barger’s office and have her request that you people return phone calls”
“Hopefully you’ll be able to do something to help some of the seniors get their taxes filed.”
“Next time, could you write it [an agenda] in English instead of ‘legalese’?”
“I just think this is really sad what you have done to people in Santa Clarita…[three minute timer rings]”
Clearly, the prolonged quarantine has hit some Claritans harder than others.
In any case, Mayor Smyth said that he’s spoken with Ballace for over half-an-hour at least once this year, Councilmember Marsha McLean said that she always returns phone calls, and City Manager Striplin said that he has spoken with Ballace often over the phone, mentioning that the conversations are usually over a half-an-hour in duration.[2]
The final public speaker was Steve Petzold, who praised the library system that is allowing loans amid shutdowns. He then alleged that a Brown Act violation occurred when the City Council met in a closed session to discuss district-based voting and legal actions relating to it. “Simply acknowledge the mistake that you made,” he said. In response to Petzold, City Manager Ken Striplin said that a violation had not taken place, and that the City Attorney had made certain this was so.
Laurene Weste’s Horses Predict Bad Fire Season
During councilmember updates, Councilmember McLean said that LA County Public Health’s reports of the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases scared people. She suggested that focusing on the number of new cases and their location would better inform the public of risk. Mayor Pro Tem Miranda’s remarks included an “Eid Mubarak!” to acknowledge the end of Ramadan. Mayor Smyth used his update time to clarify what the County had opened (retail stores, houses of worship) and what it was waiting to re-open (restaurant dining, salons).
Item 12 on the agenda had been moved up to this point in the meeting so as to include City Manager Ken Striplin before his son’s graduation. The item was an opportunity to discuss progress made on getting a variance to help Santa Clarita expedite re-opening, but it was moot due to the earlier, county-level progress on this front led by Supervisor Kathryn Barger. The Council quickly agreed to submit a letter to the Governor in support of LA County’s unified re-opening efforts.
Apropos of nothing, Laurene Weste then launched into a discussion of the Fourth of July Parade. (It may be that she wanted Striplin to hear her remarks before he left.) She said that the parade is a big deal in Santa Clarita and one of our longest running traditions, so she wanted to imagine what an Independence Day celebration could look like given that crowds of thousands would almost certainly not be permitted. She suggested teaming up with The Signal and KHTS to create neighborhood competitions to decorate with flags and the like. She pitched many other ideas, some perhaps not fully developed: “The kids could have speeches; it could be kids and their pets.” The idea of a “virtual parade day” was also floated.
City Manager Ken Striplin agreed that the usual parade was out of the question, and he said that City staff could start fleshing out the alternatives. Mayor Smyth encouraged keeping a fireworks shows (perhaps with viewing from cars), because he said that a big, City-sponsored event would “reduce the temptation of doing a home firework show” that could lead to wildfires.
Laurene Weste offered a foreboding warning on this front: “This is going to be a very, very dangerous fire season. I knew when my horses started shedding the middle of February that we were going to have a really hot summer.” She encouraged Claritans to make sure that their properties have good fire clearance—advice perhaps most pertinent to the landed class.
Carl Boyer Rolling in Grave, Claims Steve Petzold
The City Council then moved onto the rest of the consent calendar. Most of the recommended actions were approved without discussion, including a rate adjustment for waste services amounting to an extra $3.95 per month for single-family homes. According to the agenda, taking your trash has gotten more expensive partly because China isn’t accepting foreign recyclables like it used to.
Sprawling across the consent calendar and into the unfinished business portion of the meeting was a discussion about protecting renters in light of pandemic-related financial hardships. Without any action, Santa Clarita’s eviction moratorium would cease at the end of May, at which point renters would have six months to pay back rent. LA County had a similar measure, but it was recently extended, providing eviction protection to the end of June and allowing 12 months to pay back rent. At issue was whether Santa Clarita’s policy should match LA County’s.
Landlord/public speaker Steve Petzold kicked off the discussion, and he was decidedly riled up. He called in to comment that Santa Clarita was founded to gain independence from LA County, yet item 10 on the agenda recommended rescinding the City’s own rent protection ordinance and letting LA County’s policies govern by default. Carl Boyer would be rolling over in his grave, speculated Petzold, whose tone ranged from indignant to outraged to hopeful to simply loud. He made remarks about the importance of protecting landlords who depend on rental income—not just protecting the renters. For Petzold, it was paramount that the City keep some level of oversight instead of deferring to the County: “You must retain control. You must reject the resolution before you!”"
Councilmembers generally agreed with Petzold about preferring to have the City rather than the County dictate terms, even if the terms were essentially identical. Councilmembers Laurene Weste and Bob Kellar both wished that they could better predict the pandemic and the recovery ahead in order to gauge when it would be fair to expect outstanding rents to be paid back. “I’ll give you a better answer six to eight month from now,” joked Kellar, defeatedly. Councilmember Weste could also see both sides of the issue—the need to look out for renters and landlords alike. She made her second foreboding warning of the evening: “It’s either going to get a lot better real fast, or it’ll do what happened in 1918—it’ll get a whole lot worse.”
It sounded like everyone was on board for more protection for renters. Just like the County, eviction protection was extended through June, but unlike the County, the 6-month payback period was extended to 9 months, not 12 (McLean proposed this as a kind of compromise, and the duration could be changed again based on future developments). Kellar summed things up by stating that, “Instead of just abdicating our control to the County, mirror the County but maintain control.” All voted in favor, so at the very earliest, eviction protection remains in place through June and renters have the better part of a year, at least, to resolve unpaid rent.
Can’t We Make Districts Some Other Time?
[Background Note: There’s an industry of sorts built around suing cities on the basis of the California Voting Rights Act. The Act states that cities can’t elect officials with at-large elections if voting is “racially polarized” because doing so dilutes minority votes. Santa Clarita has bumped up against the CVRA and the general idea of voting districts for many years, and Scott Rafferty is the lawyer who has forced the City’s hand with the threat of costly litigation. So district-based voting is happening—it’s just a matter of how quickly the transition will proceed under the present, extraordinary circumstances.]
Tonight, the City Council had to decide how to schedule the five community hearings required as part of the transition to district-based voting. There had been a schedule in place, but it was changed because of COVID-19 related health orders that precluded the City from hosting large crowds for the required hearings. There have been multiple, at times conflicting factors that influence this decision:
The main impetus for trying to fit five public hearings into one month is that the LA County Registrar gave a deadline of the end of June to receive districting information from the City. They need that information in time to prepare district-specific ballots for the 2020 election.
However, large gatherings are prohibited by both the County and the State at this time. (Will that change soon?)
Furthermore, the Governor suspended deadlines for CVRA lawsuits in light of current conditions.
And no one on the City Council is in a rush to move to districts—the transition is opposed.
Still, the Council recognizes they have little chance of winning a lawsuit if they try and fight it. Rafferty looms large with the threat of costly litigation for delays.
So what’s a City Council to do? There was a prolonged and often confusing discussion on that very issue. City Attorney Joe Montes said that, in light of the Governor’s suspension of deadlines, the countdown clock had essentially been paused. Santa Clarita will have 89 days to comply with holding the public hearings, etc. once the Governor lifts the suspension and the clock re-starts. This sounded simple enough. If the Council didn’t proceed because of the Governor’s suspension and an inability to hold public hearings, they wouldn’t be able to submit district boundary information to LA County in time for the 2020 election, and the election would proceed in the usual, at-large fashion. The City would still be on the hook to move to district-based voting, but that would affect the 2022 City Council election. There could be consequences, but those were still nebulous.
On the agenda, staff had recommended continuing to move forward with a busy schedule of hearings all June long just in case there was a change that allowed for large public hearings to take place next month. Some councilmembers were trying to read between the lines, so to speak, that this recommendation was the safest route. Summing up the confusion about mixed messages was Councilemember Marsha McLean. At one point she said, “The Governor has suspended the deadlines…what are we talking about here?” (i.e., why the rush then?), but she later said, “Play the game…maybe I shouldn’t say ‘play the game’” (i.e., demonstrate that the Council is trying to make progress with a tight schedule, but let County or State regulations be blamed for being unable to hold the public hearings that are required to move forward). Obviously, some of this is inference on my part, but feel free to watch the meeting if you’d like to try and read the Council yourself.
Overall, Councilmember Kellar was exasperated (“I just find this to be the most disgusting thing,” he said of being forced to implement districts and pay Rafferty a minimum of $30,000—there were also frequent reminders that Rafferty worked in Northern California, not locally). Mayor Pro Tem Miranda was at once resigned and defiant—he wanted to “do it right” and without a rush because he figured that, “We’re gonna get sued anyways" (i.e., regardless of what action they take). The others had mixed feelings, with McLean and Smyth especially wanting to err on the side of minimizing the risk of litigation.
Public comments did not help add any clarity. Many speakers were upset that the City Council seemed to be trying to rush the hearings, so the Council had to emphasize they didn’t like the rush (or districting at all, for that matter) but that they were considering it to avoid an expensive lawsuit. Elaine Ballace said, “I don’t know what’s going on…I think there should have been a presentation because I am really confused here.” Truer words… Glo Donnelly was simply grasping at straws (“I hope Scott Rafferty [pause] goes away.”) And Jonathan Ahmadi said that his committee had worked on selecting district maps so he wanted the hearings to go forward. Ahmadi had taken it upon himself to create an independent committee to draw districts after dropping out of the City Council race.
While everyone held strong opinions, all seemed fairly open-minded throughout the whole discussion. It truly is a singular situation, and there wasn’t a clear “best” path. The final decision was to not adopt the rushed/amended/whatever-you-want-to-call-it schedule of public hearings and instead draft a new schedule once the County allowed for public gatherings to occur. Miranda voted in favor, McLean waivered aloud: “Can I vote after others vote? Is that possible? No? I’m going to vote no.” Smyth voted no. But Weste and Kellar voted yes, so the motion carried.
Fire Fees, Dining in the Street, and Pride
There was a very brief discussion about increasing Fire Protection District development fees from $1.24 to $1.28 per square foot. Everyone supported the resolution to adopt the increased fee. Before departing, Mayor Smyth asked the City staff to look into ways to help restaurants increase capacity, such as shutting down streets to allow for more outdoor, well-spaced dining. Mayor Pro Tem Miranda wanted to add a resolution recognizing gay pride for June. Then, the meeting ended.
[1]The mask, which comes off and on all meeting long, now bears the City Seal. Is this merch available to all?
Cammy, Cammy, Cammy—on or off, buddy? Note that Kellar also wore a mask tonight, but only as he was leaving the meeting.
