November 15th, from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM at the Castaic Sports Complex
Like many Castaic residents, you may have never voted for your regional candidate in the Town Council election. Every year, voter turn-out is dismally low, sometimes fetching less than ten ballots for each district. Castaic is mainly rural, but has a population of approximately 20,000. Perhaps a good voting year will yield 100 – 200 votes – averaged at 150. At that rate, voter turn-out is 0.75%, less than 1%. This is an extremely low number for a community who places importance in their property values and autonomy.
The election on November 4th may not affect our day-to-day lives as much as a local election can, especially with our snail-paced State and Federal governments. There are County and corporate pressures for the community of Castaic that will greatly affect our investments in our property and our public safety and health. If you are not aware of the proposed Chiquita Canyon Landfill expansion in Castaic, you might be shocked to hear that its scope of intake will outpace the current largest landfill in the United States. What is more shocking is that many of the incumbents on the CATC support the expansion and are accepting money outright, in exchange for donations for their charities and social clubs, such as the Lion’s Club in Castaic.
They are regularly entertained by the landfill’s lobbyist, a registered lobbyist with Los Angeles County, but not registering his lobbyist activities for the Chiquita Canyon Landfill. (Mike Devlin wrote an article addressing this quandary in September). They allow him to regularly address the Council and influence their agenda outright. Heck, they are unpaid community volunteers, not professional politicians who would know about the strict professional code and to the County’s own lobbyist ordinances. A registered lobbyist knows that they are not allowed to address a law-making body, deceive or mislead the public, personally broker financial agreements to exchange money for support of a proposed development, or to push legislation that places free speech restrictions on an unwitting community and their leaders.
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The entire text of the controversial Memorandum of Agreements can be found here.
As a side note, there is
tremendous risk to the lobbyist and their employer for violating the lobbyist
ordinances. Los Angeles Ordinance Codes state:
“Each person or entity who applies for a County contract, permit, grant, license or franchise shall, as a part of the application for such contract, permit grant, license or franchise, certify that the applicant is familiar with the requirements of this chapter, and that all persons acting on behalf of the applicant have complied therewith and will continue to comply therewith throughout the application process. A person or entity who seeks a contract, permit, grant, license or franchise from the county shall be disqualified therefrom if any lobbyist, lobbying firm, lobbyist employer or other person or entity acting on behalf of the person or entity seeking the contract, permit, grant, license or franchise fails to comply with the provisions of this chapter.”-Los Angeles Lobbyist code 2.160.150, subsection A
Why hasn’t the Board of Supervisors, who incidentally regulates lobbyists, not reined in the lobbyist activities of the landfill? They are in direct contact with the CATC and the landfill’s lobbyist, and are in attendance at the local Castaic Area Town Council, Val Verde Civic Association and the Val Verde Community Advisory Committee meetings. I think it is a fair question that deserves an honest answer.
On the issue of the CATC saying that they are not a law-making body and are exempt from the Ralph M. Brown Act, this is an outrageous claim. Not only did they approve legislation to enforce a gag order on the CATC and Castaic residents, they authored and enforce the Community Standards District. Many of the CATC incumbents support the position that the CATC is not subject to The Brown Act and hired an attorney to specifically argue the denial of a Public Records Act request.
All of this amounts to corruption. Continually pushing the envelope of acceptable ethics and fair political practices has advanced without any barriers because the citizens of Castaic are not paying attention.
So which candidates support the landfill expansion and interested protecting your health and property values and are concerned about the expansion? Here is a quick run-down of the candidates who are up for election:
Region 1: Live Oak, North Bluffs, Hillcrest Park, Hasley Hills and the Valencia Commerce Center
Region 2: Val Verde Area
Region 3: Hasley, Sloan and Romero Canyons Region 4: Meadowood, Bravo, Encore, Castaic east of I-5 & south of Lake Hughes Road
Region 5: Double C Ranch, Hidden Lake, Stonegate, NorthLake, Castaic east of I-5 and north of Lake Hughes Road
Region 1:
Marty Kreisler (incumbent): Supports expansion
Jessica Roussel Chambers: Opposes expansion
Region 2:
Bonnie Nickolai: Opposes expansion
(unopposed)
Region 3:
Lloyd Carder (former CATC President): Strongly Strongly opposes expansion
Marty Kreisler (incumbent): Strongly Strongly supports expansion
Region 4:
Jim Idleman: Position Unknown
Region 5:
Dawn Faulconer: Supports expansion
Torrie Anderson: Newly-informed About the Proposed Expansion, States Concern Regarding the Expansion’s Impact on Property Values and Public Health
Jinghong Li: Position Unknown
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