Los Angeles County has sent a second mailer to residents of unincorporated Santa Clarita ahead of November 3 non-binding governance vote.
My parents received this in their box on Friday:
The mailer follows last week’s controversial “Living in Unincorporated SCV” mailer, which highlighted programs and services offered by Los Angeles County.
This mailer, however, is much more in-depth and even mentions the upcoming ‘self-determination vote.’
The 27 page full-color glossy booklet has information on the vote on the front page. It lays out the three options west side and Castaic voters will choose from on November 3. It even has some text on the City of Santa Clarita’s relationship & history with the west side:
Thus far, efforts by the City of Santa Clarita to annex territory west of the I-5 Freeway have not been successful, in part due to objections by west-side residents about dividing established communities with long-held borders.
This is quite biased and I hope the fact that it’s written by an interested party (LA County) isn’t lost on west side residents.
As mentioned in last week’s Signal article, there is/was supposedly a gentleman’s agreement between the City and the County not to advocate for one option or another prior to election day. Then the “Living” mailer came out and City Manager Ken Pulskamp emailed the County saying the mailers violated the spirit of the agreement.
The County denied it was advocating anything; the mailers were just for information purposes and the timing was coincidental. Dave Bossert, defending the County, said the Signal story was suspicious and likened the County mailer to a City annexation brochure that was available at a recent self-determination meeting.
But the mailer isn’t the only thing the County has been working on ahead of the November 3 vote. Several residential streets in Sunset Pointe have been repaved in the last two weeks as well. That, coupled with the mailer which explains all the benefits and programs for County residents, might make west siders a little more hesitant to bail from Los Angeles County, which, of course, is the point of doing those things.
I think it’s time for the City to go on the offensive. The county isn’t playing fair (especially considering how we generously funded the Think SCV Campaign which supports businesses outside the city) and though it’s probably too late for the City to do much about it, we ought to market ourselves to those residents too!
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