2008-04-06·westranchbeacon.com · WordPress (West Ranch Beacon)·Wayback capture

Santa Clarita council race nears finish

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Original Site City of Santa Clarita elections

As election season comes to a close in this city of 171,500, five candidates are vying for two available city council seats. Voters go to the polls on Tuesday. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. and votes will be tallied at City Hall.

Laurie Ender

A Santa Clarita parks commissioner, Ender wants to prepare for growth, end the battle over the Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital expansion and fight the Cemex sand and gravel mine.

Ender wants the city to be ready for its expected population boom and the increased demand on public safety, schools, parks and roads.

To alleviate traffic congestion, traffic lights need to be synchronized and roads should be widened. Plus, the Cross-Valley Connector needs to be finished and Magic Mountain Parkway needs to be expanded through the Whitaker-Bermite property, she said.

Regarding the hospital expansion, Ender wants to see a conclusion soon in the battle between the city’s only medical center and neighbors who dispute the plans.

“We really need to work together as a team,” she said. “This is our only hospital.”

She also wants another hospital built in the Santa Clarita Valley.

Through town hall meetings, Ender wants to shore up opposition for the proposed Cemex mine — a 56 million-ton sand and gravel mine slated to be built outside Santa Clarita between Canyon Country and Agua Dulce.

She wants to continue the city’s work with Cemex officials and U.S. Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, on potential legislation regarding the mine.
Ender also wants to hold town hall meetings on other community issues. “We need to go where the people are,” she said.

Ender, 44, is also a former television producer and former president of the SCV Council PTA.

Maria Gutzeit

A board member of the Newhall County Water District, Gutzeit is focused on big-picture issues including working with Los Angeles County, traffic and public safety.

In the past, she said Santa Clarita has had a hands-off approach in working with the county. She wants city officials to take a firm stance and insist on collecting mitigation money from county developments in the surrounding unincorporated areas to improve city parks and roads.

Easy traffic fixes - such as synchronizing traffic signals, running more Metrolink trains and adding parking at the Newhall Metrolink station - need to be tackled now.

Gutzeit, who launched the city’s non-motorized master plan, also supports expanding the “Bike-to-Work” program and kick starting a “Bike-to-School” initiative.

She wants to expedite the cleanup of ground and water pollution at the Whitaker-Bermite site so future roads linking Canyon Country to the city’s western side can be built sooner.

“It will be almost an easier road to build than the Cross-Valley Connector because we won’t have to go across the (Santa Clara) River,” she said.

Gutzeit wants more deputies patrolling the city. Residents say crime, graffiti and code enforcement are some of their major concerns, she said.

“Keeping our neighborhoods up is something residents want to see so they can continue to have a good attitude about the city,” Gutzeit said.

Gutzeit, 40, is an engineer and owner of an environmental compliance consulting firm.

Bob Kellar

Santa Clarita’s current mayor, Kellar wants to enhance public safety, clean up the Whitaker-Bermite site and improve the arts in the Santa Clarita Valley during a third term.

Kellar, a retired Los Angeles Police Department sergeant, wants to continue overseeing an ongoing public-safety campaign in which residents receive a different safety message each month.

Public safety is everyone’s responsibility, he said.

“When your citizens no longer feel safe, your city is in trouble,” he said.

Read it here: Santa Clarita council race nears finish

Comments

1 · as published

Pauline Harte
Pauline Harte Says: April 6th, 2008 at 6:53 pm Fact is, ALL the candidates support a hospital expansion! Laurie has proven she is nothing but a Frank Ferry/G&L puppet ONLY supported because of her inability to think for herself and because of her slave-like obedience to Frank Ferry. At a city council meeting, Frank Ferry blatantly campaigned for Laurie Ender from his council seat, throwing Ender’s name out in such a gratuitous manner, Councilman TimBen Boydsten finally called Frank on it. Frank’s “defense” was that Laurie wanted to come to the council meeting and speak, but Frank told her not to. Huh? Frank tells Ender when she may or may not attend a council meeting, and when she may or may not speak AND she obeys him? At a Republican candidate forum, Laurie Ender did not even show up, Frank Ferry showed up to speak for Laurie - now that’s scary! And needless to say, the candidate endorsements from the Republican district went to Bob Spierer and Bob Kellar, who spoke for themselves. Laurie Ender has never been anywhere in the Cemex issue. It is disgusting that she is attempting to attach herself to an issue she knows ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT. Those who have been on the front lines of this issue since 1998 and fought this mega-mine through the L.A. County Regional Planning Commission hearings to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors hearings, and countless other meetings/hearings along the way, know who has contributed and who has not - Laurie Ender has done nothing and knows nothing about the Cemex issue because she has never been involved in any way with this issue at all. She says she wants to unify this city in the Cemex fight, proving she hasn’t even a clue about the mega-mine opposition list that was put together back in 2002 - thanks, Laurie, but we already “unified” this city for you. Geez. The fact is, Laurie Ender’s campaign mailers are full of impotent boastings about what she will do, but why has she never actually gotten interested or involved in the issues she suddenly claims she will take on and fix for us? Where has she been? People who are interested in certain issues, get involved in those issues and try to make a difference, but Laurie Ender has just suddenly popped up as a Johnny-come-lately on many issues she has never had a thing to do with before this election; now she is suddenly an expert about everything with no prior history of being invloved in any way with issues she is dishonestly using on her campaign mailers! Major point of interest, Laurie Ender’s own Parks Commission colleagues have not endorsed her, their endorsements can be found with other candidates! Laurie Ender has lied so much and so often about other candidates on her sleazy hit mailers, her win at any cost attitude has caused a raging torrent of public outrage; never before has so much dishonesty been introuduced into our elections and it took a “PTA mom” to take local politics into the gutter. Her brazen exaggerations about her non-existent “accomplishments” and her continuous barrage of nasty hit mailers full of lies about other candidates continued to flow into households even AFTER all the unfounded accusations and blatant misprepresentations had been proven totally false. This election has proven to be so dirty because of the Frank Ferry/Laurie Ender puppet show, people who once fully supported annexation are saying maybe the unincorporated areas should think before taking the plunge - and at this point in time, that certainly seems like sound advice. There are 4 worthy people running in this election, and Laurie Ender is not one of them. Bob Kellar, Bob Spierer, Diane Trautman, and Marie Gutzeit have all contributed mightily to this city, and they don’t have to lie about what they have done, or smear other candidates with lies.