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For a number of years I have been an active observer of Santa Clarita City Council public hearings, council member voting patterns and behavior at the dais. It is absolutely true that our city has improved in countless ways since its founding. However, unfortunately in recent years City Hall has become too big for its own britches; no pun intended.  And, it’s become increasingly apparent that the majority of our city council members have very little regard for the concerns of citizens who have pleaded their cases with them to resolve their problems.

Anyone who pays attention to City Hall activities knows that this is true.  Councilman Frank Ferry’s arrogance and bullying behavior, sanctioned by fellow council members, Ender, Weste, and McLean, exemplifies everything that’s gone south at City Hall.  Particularly, their abrupt library takeover, constructing a massive and expensive Newhall library while ignoring basic law enforcement requirements, their raising campaign contributions from $360 to a whopping $1,000, Henry Mayo Hospital’s huge “office expansion” plan approval, wasteful spending of tax payer funds for underutilized bicycle lanes, installing back-in parking in downtown Newhall, which had to be corrected, etc.

Because our current city council members, except Bob Kellar, have literally stopped listening to Santa Clarita citizens, my voting decisions were greatly simplified this year.

My votes go to Bob Kellar and TimBen Boydston because their excellent performance as city council members reflects a strong commitment to understanding and resolving numerous issues presented by Santa Clarita citizens as well as meeting the true needs of our fine city.

Friends and associates know full well that I gave Jon Hatami every benefit of the doubt when he first emerged from anonymity to our political stage.  Jon Hatami cannot dispute this fact.  But at every turn, he proved a disappointing candidate.  Willingly, I overlooked his lack of knowledge on city issues as he constantly extolled his honesty and conservative values.  Retrospectively, it seems clear that he received local Republican establishment (RINO’s) coaching.  While lamenting mean spirited politics, he secretly informed myself and another Veteran that Laurie Ender actually owned LSSI stock (the company who now manages our libraries), that Mr. Ender produced the liberally slanted movie, “The Reagans”, and that he was playing the Haueters for support (all dubious information at best).  The final straw for me came at an endorsement event when Hatami inexplicably revealed his routine political party flip-flops while referring to the GOP as being racist.

Conservatives must look beyond Jon Hatami for a seat on our City Council.

It’s clear that the local Republican machine first championed Ed Colley but quickly dumped him, resulting most likely from his numerous “Joe Biden-like” gaffes, to favor newcomer Jon Hatami.  Certainly, this too is problematic for “the powers that be” considering Hatami’s lack of experience and dubious GOP credentials.

On April 10th I urge you to cast your votes for Bob Kellar and TimBen Boydston.

Bill Reynolds

Valencia Resident & Vietnam Veteran

(Please note that this Letter to the Editor was originally submitted to the local paper but they declined to publish it; we were happy to do so and let a resident voice their opinion.)