December 18, 2013 – Daily Brief

By Jeff Wilson

Petition to rename Hercules Street after Paul Walker and Roger Rodas gaining steam according to the SIGNAL, with nearly 800 signers so far, many of which, the Signal notes, aren't in Santa Clarita. Exactly: none of those outsiders know the pain & politics involved in street renaming in the SCV. At the same time, we've named streets after people who were 1/10th the man Paul Walker was, so I'm sympathetic. Wonder how the businesses on the blvd feel; an address on Walker/Rodas Road might be prized by certain types of businesses. SIGNAL, CBS
Great bit of reporting from Perry Smith on City employee wages & the cost to Santa Clarita residents. Compared with other similarly-sized municipalities, Santa Clarita pays dramatically less on an average and total basis for its 970 employees: in fact, Santa Clarita's average wages are $31k, less than half of Glendale's $67k & much less than Oxnard's $48k. This is a great deal for SCV residents, who spend only $147/per resident to fund those positions, 40-80% less than Glendale & Oxnard. And those wage numbers are on a downward slope, unlike the other cities. HOw's this possible? We contract most traditional labor-oriented functions to private companies, including the libraries, and it yields big savings. Must read piece from KHTS
On the other hand, one of the City's oldest goals is to bring high quality, high-paying jobs to the valley. Strategically the City has decided long ago it will not be a source of such jobs; it wants to keep its workforce lean, non-unionized if possible, or, better yet, employed by someone else. That's great for taxpayers but for every dollar the City is saving with this policy, I don't see a commensurate $ spent in the private sector on creating high quality local jobs. In other words, the City's personnel costs are $31m per year; Glendale's are $156m per year. The usual theory states that that $120m difference would more productively be managed by individuals acting in their own self-interest, and quality jobs would naturally result. Yet looked at another way, while Glendale residents pay a lot more to keep Glendale City employees on the payroll, a big chunk of that $120m difference is probably sunk right back into Glendale property, sales tax, and other things.
Weather yo-yo to continue: My boy has either been shivering or sweating. Yesterday temps hit the mid 80s compared to last weekend when they were in the 30s! A storm may roll through tonight says the SIGNAL.
.Neat: Newhall School District asking for donations for music program, and Mayo Hospital is going to match funds above a $10k mark. KHTS

Comments (9)

Linda SWednesday, December 18th, 2013 at 1:58 pm

Actually, the City has not named streets after anyone. McKeon Way, Ferry Court, and Carl Boyer Drive to name a few are chosen by the developer when they are developing a project that includes streets. The City just makes sure that street names are not repeated with same addresses. Only time to my knowledge that the City initiated and renamed streets is when they reconfigured Old Town Newhall area getting rid of San Fernando Road in favor of Railroad Avenue and Main Street.

ToddWednesday, December 18th, 2013 at 8:04 pm

Don't kid yourself. The City Council has the authority to name streets within city limits and only they have said authority. The developer must name the street when they plot it out and propose it to be dedicated as a right of way, but the City Council and only the City Council can approve that within city limits.

Linda SThursday, December 19th, 2013 at 7:36 am

I did say that the City has to make sure naming and number sequence has to follow convention. Ultimately, City Council approves project as you indicated. However, Council has never told a developer that I don't like this street name so go change that. I do not think it is within the power of Council to hold up/deny a project because they do not like the name of a street. Stop kidding yourself.

egonzalezThursday, December 19th, 2013 at 8:37 am

Often, developments do not even have streets named at the time of Council approval. They are often listed as "A", "B", "C", Street and etc on tentative tract maps. Once Council approves a project and the developer is ready to file a final tract map, street names get finalized. Council does not approve street names. Only in the cases of renaming an already established street, does the Council have to take an action to approve.

Leon WordenWednesday, December 18th, 2013 at 3:52 pm

My dad was flight-test manager at Lockheed and I am totally opposed to changing those street names. He worked on a number of those aircraft. I'm not sure if he worked on the Hercules but he worked on the Constellation and lots and lots of others. He was on the team that developed the autopilot, back in the '50s on the Constellation and Electra .... then most of his stuff was black and I never knew much about it, as a kid .... flight-test manager on the SR-71 and U-2; at one point Francis Gary Powers worked for him ... finished his career as head of avionics on the F-117 stealth fighter, just before Gulf 1. Anyway, keep our Lockheed street names. If those people want to do something, they can start a collection to repay the city for the law enforcement and trash pickup.

Leon WordenWednesday, December 18th, 2013 at 4:26 pm

I don't know why this posted twice and I don't know how to get rid of the second one

JackHererWednesday, December 18th, 2013 at 5:05 pm

Speaking of trash pick-up, when are those memorial candles placed around town going to be picked up. I'm thinking of the ones down the road from Walmart for starters. For a week it's a memorial, after that they are trash!

WalkerWednesday, December 18th, 2013 at 11:57 pm

On city salaries - Granted this is my completely unprepared and unresearched musings, but it seems unfair / unrealistic to compare average salaries across cities unless we're only comparing ourselves with those cities that operate in a way similar to SC. I assume, for instance, that the Glendale figures include police, fire, and DWP employees, occupations that demand a higher compensation than, say, recreation coordinator. Totally stone me if that was covered in the article, but I didn't see it mentioned. Do the figures include full as well as part-time employees? We rely pretty heavily on part-time employees (to the point that there have, at least in the past, been some ethically questionable employment situations to maintain PT status). Is that standard in city operations? A reliance on PT employees could possibly skew the average in terms of health/etc costs. I do think that the compensations for the positions I'm familiar with seems fair. I'm also recalling that the city performed a study of salary parity to other local cities, perhaps 10 or so years ago, and wages were adjusted accordingly.

timothymyers02Thursday, December 19th, 2013 at 8:51 am

Walker: A later clarification to the post revealed that 620 of the 970 employees used in the denominator were part-time or seasonal. Making some conservative assumptions about part time pay and excluding those numbers from the numerator and the denominator one comes to average full time pay comparable to Glendale. In defense of the City they did not release this. Perry Smith got the data off a website maintained by the State Controller, but you are correct that the numbers need some scrubbing to make them truly comparable.

Linda SWednesday, December 18th, 2013 at 1:58 pm
Actually, the City has not named streets after anyone. McKeon Way, Ferry Court, and Carl Boyer Drive to name a few are chosen by the developer when they are developing a project that includes streets. The City just makes sure that street names are not repeated with same addresses. Only time to my knowledge that the City initiated and renamed streets is when they reconfigured Old Town Newhall area getting rid of San Fernando Road in favor of Railroad Avenue and Main Street.
ToddWednesday, December 18th, 2013 at 8:04 pm
Don't kid yourself. The City Council has the authority to name streets within city limits and only they have said authority. The developer must name the street when they plot it out and propose it to be dedicated as a right of way, but the City Council and only the City Council can approve that within city limits.
Linda SThursday, December 19th, 2013 at 7:36 am
I did say that the City has to make sure naming and number sequence has to follow convention. Ultimately, City Council approves project as you indicated. However, Council has never told a developer that I don't like this street name so go change that. I do not think it is within the power of Council to hold up/deny a project because they do not like the name of a street. Stop kidding yourself.
egonzalezThursday, December 19th, 2013 at 8:37 am
Often, developments do not even have streets named at the time of Council approval. They are often listed as "A", "B", "C", Street and etc on tentative tract maps. Once Council approves a project and the developer is ready to file a final tract map, street names get finalized. Council does not approve street names. Only in the cases of renaming an already established street, does the Council have to take an action to approve.
Leon WordenWednesday, December 18th, 2013 at 3:52 pm
My dad was flight-test manager at Lockheed and I am totally opposed to changing those street names. He worked on a number of those aircraft. I'm not sure if he worked on the Hercules but he worked on the Constellation and lots and lots of others. He was on the team that developed the autopilot, back in the '50s on the Constellation and Electra .... then most of his stuff was black and I never knew much about it, as a kid .... flight-test manager on the SR-71 and U-2; at one point Francis Gary Powers worked for him ... finished his career as head of avionics on the F-117 stealth fighter, just before Gulf 1. Anyway, keep our Lockheed street names. If those people want to do something, they can start a collection to repay the city for the law enforcement and trash pickup.
Leon WordenWednesday, December 18th, 2013 at 4:26 pm
I don't know why this posted twice and I don't know how to get rid of the second one
JackHererWednesday, December 18th, 2013 at 5:05 pm
Speaking of trash pick-up, when are those memorial candles placed around town going to be picked up. I'm thinking of the ones down the road from Walmart for starters. For a week it's a memorial, after that they are trash!
WalkerWednesday, December 18th, 2013 at 11:57 pm
On city salaries - Granted this is my completely unprepared and unresearched musings, but it seems unfair / unrealistic to compare average salaries across cities unless we're only comparing ourselves with those cities that operate in a way similar to SC. I assume, for instance, that the Glendale figures include police, fire, and DWP employees, occupations that demand a higher compensation than, say, recreation coordinator. Totally stone me if that was covered in the article, but I didn't see it mentioned. Do the figures include full as well as part-time employees? We rely pretty heavily on part-time employees (to the point that there have, at least in the past, been some ethically questionable employment situations to maintain PT status). Is that standard in city operations? A reliance on PT employees could possibly skew the average in terms of health/etc costs. I do think that the compensations for the positions I'm familiar with seems fair. I'm also recalling that the city performed a study of salary parity to other local cities, perhaps 10 or so years ago, and wages were adjusted accordingly.
timothymyers02Thursday, December 19th, 2013 at 8:51 am
Walker: A later clarification to the post revealed that 620 of the 970 employees used in the denominator were part-time or seasonal. Making some conservative assumptions about part time pay and excluding those numbers from the numerator and the denominator one comes to average full time pay comparable to Glendale. In defense of the City they did not release this. Perry Smith got the data off a website maintained by the State Controller, but you are correct that the numbers need some scrubbing to make them truly comparable.