I was one of the many people in attendance at last night’s city council meeting.  My column will focus on the two major issues of the night: the call for a code of ethics and the proposed hospital expansion.

Jonathan Kraut, the president of the Democratic Club of Santa Clarita Valley and Minerva Williams on behalf of the Democratic Alliance for Action both read resolutions calling for the creation of a Code of Ethics.  Bruce McFarland, Al Ferdman, Carole Luteness and several other people joined them in supporting a Code of Ethics.  Several speakers touched on the subject of the email sent from Mayor McLean’s email account without her permission.  During the city council meeting no members of the council or staff spoke about the issue.  The question still remains, if the mayor did not send it, who did?  Is this standard procedure? 

James Farley spoke about the open space assessment and claimed that due to the methodology used the city manipulated the process.  Specifically, that the owners of the following proposed developments: Whitaker Bermite, Keystone, Benio & Sierra, Penion, Golden Valley Ranch and River and Soledad Village, actually determined the outcome of the election.  Mr. Farley asserted that if the aforementioned would have voted no, then the assessment would have failed.  Mr. Farley stated that he had the analysis to substantiate his claim.  City Manager Pulskamp in response stated that the city followed the procedure and requirements of proposition 218.  That the measure passed with 69% of the vote and that the aforementioned developments accounted for only 10% of the vote, so even if they voted no, the measure would have passed by 59%.

Sterling King, briefly spoke about traffic issues and invited everyone to go to youtube.com and type either any city council members name or “SCV Politics” and which would lead you to a four minute video regarding his concerns.

After opening comments concluded,  council member Frank Ferry responded by accusing Bruce McFarland of  “politicizing” the ethics issue and went on to say that Mr. McFarland’s only reason for wanting a Code of Ethics is to get democrats elected. Mr. Ferry then stated that if this was an issue that Mr. McFarland was serious about, that he would be more than happy to look at after the next city council election.  Later on during a second comment made by Bruce McFarland, he responded to Mr. Ferry’s remarks by saying, that his group contains both democrats and republicans and that the issue is not partisan, but about transpercency.  He then cited the need for a neutral and unbiased planning department, citing the aforementioned emails between Jeff Lambert and city planning staff.

Councilman Boydston stated that he wants a Code of Ethics to be put on the council agenda prior to him leaving in April 2008 and called for lobbyist registration.  He also took issue with Ferry’s partisan statement, by saying that he is a Republican and has been so since he was 19.

At the request of Councilwoman Weste, the city attorney will report back in 30 days, with the various government regulations and codes that council and staff are required to follow.

Hospital Expansion

Paul Brotzman and Lisa Hardy gave a presentation on the revised hospital plan.  Since the hospital first started this process 3 years ago, they have dramatically reduced the amount of square footage.     Brotzman stated that the council has three issues relating to the proposed hospital expansion: city infrastructure, compatibility with the neighborhood and community benefit.

Lisa Hardy gave a report on the revised plan, some of the major revisions include: reduction of the master plan from 20 years to 15 years; the square footage of the project has been reduced from 578,000 to 328,000 square feet, which does not include parking space; parking structure 4 would now contain 3 levels of sub-level parking; several medical buildings would be relocated. During her presentation she advised that since eminent domain would not be used for the project that the median on McBean Parkway would have to be removed and replaced with a smaller median to widen the road and that a total of 75 trees would have to be removed to accommodate the entire project, this includes removal of trees currently on the hospital’s property.

After the presentation, Roger Seaver spoke briefly and advised that he would be available to answer any questions.  Several people, including Henry Mayo Board member Jim Beck spoke in favor of the project. 

Next, Mr. Gauny spoke.  He opened his remarks by saying that almost after 3 years; Roger Seaver finally met with Smartgrowth SCV to discuss the proposed hospital plan.    He went on to say that he is still waiting for additional documentation and asked the city council to wait until they receive all of the documentation before moving forward and questioned the wisdom in approving things in a piece meal form.  Mayor McLean, responded by asking Mr. Gauny what he wanted.  She was joined by Frank Ferry in her request.  Mr. Gauny responded by stating that there are a lack of specifics for him to review, so his is not a position to provided specifics.  After the meeting, I had a chance to speak with Mr. Gauny who clarified his remarks by saying “If you don’t know how many services are going to be offered, how can you talk about how many medical buildings you need, right now there are no services committed.” 

Unfortunately, I was not able to stay through the entire meeting.  After the additional opponents of the project spoke, council was able to ask questions of the staff. The issue will be continued to the September 25, 2007 meeting.

Mike Cruz                                                                                                                           Commentary

Mike Cruz is in the Legal profession and active locally with the Democratic Party. His commentaries represent his own opinions and not necessarily the views of any organization he may be affiliated with or those of the West Ranch Beacon.