It’s like the day after Christmas, no? No more drama, no more anticipation. What to write about?
News
- Kellar, Ender Domination: Incumbent Bob Kellar and Parks Commish Laurie Ender didn’t just win yesterday’s election, they won convincingly with almost 1,000 votes between them and the third place finisher Bob Spierer. Ender actually beat Kellar with 5,404 votes accounting for some 24.6% of the ballots. Democrats Diane Trautman and Maria Gutzeit placed fourth and fifth, respectively. Reached at her victory party at her home, Laurie Ender told The Signal that she won because her campaign focused on “bringing the community together and giving families a voice.” Bob Spierer, who was the target of several negative mailer, including some associated with the Ender Campaign, expressed disappointment that the election had gone dirty but said he enjoyed meeting people and discussing the issues. As for the election and vote-counting itself, Ender and Kellar had the lead from the outset as the first batch of mail in and absentee ballots were counted. Everyone’s got a story on this: The Signal, Signal part 2, KHTS, Daily News
- How Tim Myers predicted election outcome: In the days and weeks leading up to the election, local blogger/math wiz Tim Myers continued to predict a near-landslide victory for Ender and Kellar. Myers told me last night that in his discussions with local political consultant Scott Wilk, he found out before the election that two precincts in Valencia had mailed in 200-250% more ballots this year than the same precincts did in 2006. As he said in an SCVTalker’s forum post, “Those folks aren’t voting for Maria Gutzeit,” noting that Laurie Ender had connections with the PTA in the two precincts.
- Election went “very smoothly,” turnout likely higher: I spoke with Sharon Dawson, City Clerk, last night who told me that the mechanics of the election went off very smoothly yesterday. According to The Signal, 50-60 city staffers worked on the election, and an average of four volunteers manned each of the 30 polling places (two precincts had no voters in them.) About 1,000 late, provisional and drop-off ballots have yet to be counted, but as Dawson told me, those aren’t expected to change the results of the first and second place finishers. Bob Spierer and Diane Trautman, however, finished only two votes apart. Dawson wouldn’t give even a gut feeling on turnout, but noted that mail in ballots were far higher this year than in 2006.
- After the Election: MRF: One of the first things the next city council may have to deal with is community opposition to the Materials Recovery Facility in Canyon Country. We heard about it at the last city council meeting as scores of Canyon Country and Newhall residents lined up to oppose the project. Get up to date on the suspended project by watching Leon Worden’s interview with Travis Lange, Environmental Services Manager for the City over at SCVTV.com
- Famous Musician donates $15 million to CalArts School of Music: Musician and 8 time Grammy winner Herb Alpert will announce today that he is donating $15 million to the School of Music at California Institute of the Arts on McBean Parkway. Alpert told The Times that he feels CalArts is a “real creative place where people could push the edges and come up with things that are different from what we’ve heard in the past.” The money will go to funding three faculty chairs, student scholarships, and new music programs and the school will be renamed the “Herb Alpert School of Music.” LA Times
- New Editor at Daily News: Carolina Garcia is the former editor of the Monterey County Herald and comes to the Daily News with some 20 years of experience in the news business. LA Observed has an auto-biographical entry from Garcia in which the new Daily News editor says she values hiring diverse staff and taking creative risks. Will the Daily News get back to covering Santa Clarita news? Doubtful; some 20 staffers from the news room were laid off in February and the San Fernando Valley is the DN’s bread and butter. Link
- Horse/Vehicle accident near Piru: Sad story out of Piru on Monday night. A horse was killed and four people were injured when a car collided with the horse at around 11pm on Highway 126. The four people in the car were injured and were taken to Henry Mayo Hospital. Ventura County Star has more.
- Part of One Valley, One Vision to be presented next week: A specific safety aspect of the One Valley, One Vision plan, the joint initiative between the City and County on the Santa Clarita Valley, will be presented and discussed at next week’s Planning Commission meeting according to the city. The so-called “safety element” includes “seven State-required elements of the General Plan. Areas covered in this element include geologic and flood hazards, police and fire protection, and emergency preparedness.” More details here.
- This American Life broadcast at Regal Valencia: The popular public radio and television This American Life will broadcast out of New York City to over 300 movie theaters across the country, including Regal Cinema in Valencia. The show, which features outtakes and never-before-seen stories, will broadcast on May 1 at 6pm locally (time delayed three hours).
Opinion
- LAUSD at fault for budget crisis, not Governor: State Senator George Runner (R-Lancaster, but reps part of the SCV) says the Los Angeles Unified School District is to blame for its own budget problems, not the Governor. “Let us not forget that even as the district complains this year, during the previous five years, the LAUSD’s enrollment has actually declined by nearly 40,000 students while its revenues rose by $1 billion,” Runner says in an op/ed in the Daily News. It’s fashionable for local Republicans in the State House to pile on LAUSD; our own Assemblyman Cameron Smyth has a bill that would break up the nation’s largest school district which has had an unprecedented run of bad press in the last few years.
- Not so fast on predicting Real Estate recovery: RedFin, a Los Angeles Blog, takes a look at the latest stats from the Southland Regional Association of Realtors which studies the real estate market in the SCV and SFV. Though SRAR voiced optimism at the February real estate report, RedFin is skeptical that the worst is past.
- Myers on election results: He just posted a new blog outlining the results last night and gloating somewhat. He says supporters of the losing candidates shouldn’t despair. “The facts again: Bob Kellar likely won because of the absolute sanctity attached in this City to incumbency. Laurie Ender will win if she did manage to get 200-400 Helmers and Northpark Elementary PTA Moms and Dads to vote for her in their first ever City election. If she failed, Bob Spierer wins. Simple as that.But to those that lose, and specifically to those that support them, please do not withdraw from the public square.” Link
City Council Election Winners & Losers
Aside from the obvious, there were several other winners and losers after last night’s votes were tallied. From the cheap seats, here’s how I see it:
Winners:
- Scott Wilk
- Roger Searver’s bank account
- G&L Realty mucky-mucks
- PTA & its new found political power
- McBean Parkway north of Newhall Ranch Road
- Frank Ferry
- Tim Myers
- Out of town political consultants
- The Signal- best coverage and writing in years
Losers
- McBean Parkway & Orchard Village Road
- LA Times, which was too busy reporting & retracting fake Tupac Shakur documents to even devote one story to an election in the county’s fourth largest city.
- David Gauny & SmartGrowthSCV
- KHTS radio for their stinging criticism of Ender
- Community Holiday Tree
- Daily News for half-assed coverage of the election, candidates, and controversies