Imagine if you will a popular girl who grew up in a town and moved up through her school career with a boyfriend she met in third grade. She attained all the accolades from ASB officer to prom queen, and seemed set for her senior year. That summer, a new girl arrived in town and swept the high school, Suddenly, she stood in the spot of most popular, and even the hometown girl’s longtime boyfriend started to date her.
What action will the hometown girl take? She will expect, no, demand a rational and point by point explanation of the change in everyone’s preference. With none forthcoming she will conclude the “new girl” put everyone under some type of witchery and rail against it. It does not matter. The new girl will capture the prom crown and go off into the sunset with the boyfriend.
One knows that Hillary Clinton stands in the position of the hometown girl, de facto incumbent in the Presidential race, now demanding an explanation why her core constituencies flock to Obama. Her argument? Like the dispirited hometown girl one just CAN’T like him better unless one can’t articulate rational reasons why. But, like the new girl, the people possess only one reason: They just like him more.
Now come back to Santa Clarita politics. The City Council election looms a mere five weeks away and Santa Clarita possesses no “Barack” candidate to move and motivate the people to action. So who wins the upcoming election? For sure, Bob Kellar wins, utilizing the power of incumbency.
If anyone doubts the power of incumbency in Santa Clarita politics, just look at the November Hart School Board election. Two incumbents swept in against a third time, well funded, energetic opponent in an environment where:
1. A high school construction project in Castaic laid dead in a ditch;
2. The cost of a middle school revamp tripled the original budget;
3. A public statement from the Chief Operating Officer for the district that the district could not undertake minor improvements at the aging Hart High School since the state would require implementation of expensive “modern” fire suppression and safety devices;
4. Racially motivated disturbances hit two high school campuses;
5. An external auditor concluded the District lacked proper financial controls on construction bond money, and got terminated for its trouble; and
6. The District entered into a large settlement to pay off attorneys for Valencia High School students that filed a racial discrimination lawsuit.
So the two incumbents get swept back into office fairly handily, and where stands the district nearly six months on? The Castaic High School project started to decompose in that ditch due to the real estate slump and the Hart District with no contingency plan, utilized its Foundation (Oh, I realize it’s “independent.”) to purchase real estate on the other side of the Valley. Looming on the horizon? A budget crisis due to cuts in state per diem payments caused by the state’s budget swoon over the housing hangover. Can we count on our incumbent board to take this bull by the horns? Over several meetings the Board spent hours discussing and examining a drug testing program for students participating in extracurricular activities, primarily sports. A program no one appears to want, from coaches to parents to the administrators charged with examining the feasibility of the project. The only promoters? Two Board members still using drug terminology from the 1970’s and a local passionate drug counselor who means well, but, let’s face it, makes his living treating teenagers involved in narcotics.
A current candidate for City Council told me insiders stated that Bob Kellar would “need to be careful” to get reelected. What a joke! Can one say with a straight face that someone who did a reasonably good job on City Council would not get reelected when the gang that couldn’t shoot straight won convincingly?
So I take out my dart board for the “open seat” on the council. Who can muscle the 200 to 400 votes needed to distance themselves from the third place finisher. Right now I would bet on Bob Speier, but stay tuned next week when I report back on Laurie Ender, who attempts something completely different with a public rally on March 1.
Tim Myers
Commentary
Tim Myers is Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Landscape Development, Inc. He has been writing on a wide variety of local topics for more than 11 years. 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.