The City of Santa Clarita has issued an emergency change in venue for tonight's City Council meeting where the contentious issue of Henry Mayo Hospital's expansion will be discussed for the fourth time. Gail Ortiz, speaking on a special red hotline phone to reporters at the Signal, KHTS, and the Daily News said that so many SCV residents were expected at the meeting that the city was forced to find a larger venue.
"Due to the massive amount of people interested in this and the physical size of all the egos involved, we've moved tonight's city council meeting to the College of the Canyons football stadium," a shaken Ortiz told panicky reporters.
City sources tell SCVTalk that staff has been worried for weeks about the large turnout expected at tonight's council meeting.
"We had visions of red-buttoned supporters jostling with blue-buttoned opponents for seats," the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
According to the source, proponents of the hospital expansion will be seated in the home section of COC's stadium. Opponents will sit in the smaller visitor's section.
"We discussed the problem and figured that was the best way to diffuse tension and the inevitable confrontations," the source said.
College of the Canyons staff tells SCVTalk that maintenance workers are busy painting the City's seal on the 50 yard line, and are working with city staff to move the entire city council stage, the public dais, the city clerk's desk, and the councilmember desks to COC's field.
"We just got word this morning that thousands are expected to debate about some hospital thing or other," a tatooed maintenace worker told SCVTalk. "Honestly, I don't know if we can pull it off on such short notice, but Dianne owes some favors to the city, so we're going to do our best."
Councilmembers will sit facing the home bleachers, while City Attorney Carl Newton and City Manager Ken Pulskamp will face south.
Hospital expansion opponent David Gauny was pleased with the change in venue, but disappointed tha opponents would have to sit in the visitor's bleachers, facing the councilmember's backs.
"I don't know if that was a deliberate move or not," Gauny said, "but we're going to fill those bleachers and make our voices heard," he told SCVTalk.
On the other side of the debate, Mayo CEO Roger Seaver is said to be organizing supporters of the hospital plan to make a strong showing in the home bleachers. One source tells SCVTalk that the CEO will give incentives to all doctors, nurses, physicians assistants, nurse practitioners and even patients to sit in the home bleachers section and cheer for the plan.
"He's offering financial bonuses to the doctors and nurses to show up, and extra painkillers to some of the patients if they show up," the source said, adding that Mayo has transportation available to patients who aren't able to drive to COC.
COC's stadium is handicap accessible.
Around noon, the city's IT workers were seen integrating city computer systems with COC's scoreboard. A City IT department source tells SCVTalk that the scoreboard could be used to tally votes on the expansion matter, should it come to that tonight.
Ortiz told the reporters that COC's stadium offered several benefits apart from its physical size. She said the lighting in the stadium was excellent and said that any vocal interruptions from the crowds of supporters and opponents wouldn't interrupt the councilmember's comments.
"Sound won't carry as well if people start shouting out slogans," Ortiz said. "Decorum will be maintained."
For those who do speak at what is being billed as the largest city council meeting ever, their voices will resound throughout the stadium's loudspeaker system.
The meeting is scheduled to begin at 6pm tonight, and in a departure from previous council meetings, the city has authorized supporters and opponents to use signs and placards to make their point in the larger venue, though cheerleaders have been prohibited.
Stay tuned to SCVTalk for more on this developing story...
The above article is intended as humor. The City council meeting will occur at its regular time and place.
City moves Council meeting to bigger venue
City moves Council meeting to bigger venue
Attributed to Jeff Wilson (editor-supplied)
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