Vote Tally Shows Broad-Based Support for City of Santa Clarita

Residents of Canyon Country and Saugus, where rolling hills, green meadows and oak-filled canyons have been replaced in recent years by mini-malls, housing tracts and congested streets, heavily endorsed the new City of Santa Clarita in Tuesday’s election.

Voters in the more established and historic community of Newhall and the newer, master-planned community of Valencia also favored cityhood, but by lesser margins than their neighbors.

To many longtime observers in the Santa Clarita Valley, the Los Angeles County registrar-recorder’s regional breakdown of the vote reflected and underscored the main concern that spurred incorporation in the first place--uncontrolled growth.

Thus it came as little surprise that the heaviest community support came from Canyon Country and Saugus, where development has proceeded helter-skelter, and that Valencia’s well-groomed subdivisions apparently did not trigger the same alarm.

Figures from the registrar-recorder’s office show that 5,412 people in Canyon Country voted on the measure--72% of them, or 3,880, in favor of cityhood. Saugus voters favored cityhood by about 73%, with 2,646 of the 3,616 who cast ballots voting for incorporation.

About 69% of the Newhall residents who voted endorsed incorporation, with 3,109 yes votes among the 4,522 ballots cast. In Valencia, where residents prize their paseos, parks and greenbelts, voters approved cityhood 2 to 1, or by 66.4%. Of the 6,029 ballots cast, 4,004 were for cityhood.

Few residents seemed fearful that their communities’ identities would be absorbed by the new city. Before the election, cityhood backers assured residents that the names of their communities would not be changed. “Community identity will be preserved,” said Connie Worden, spokeswoman for the City of Santa Clarita Formation Committee, the citizens’ group that pushed the incorporation measure through to victory.

“Newhall will still be Newhall and be in the City of Santa Clarita, just like Chatsworth is Chatsworth, but is in the City of Los Angeles,” she said.

Within the 40-square-mile City of Santa Clarita, 21,475 votes were cast Tuesday, with 1,896 of those going to the polls not voting on the cityhood issue. About 44% of the new city’s more than 48,000 registered voters turned out for the election, a high percentage for a year in which there are no state and national offices at stake.

The cityhood measure passed in all 38 precincts in the city, even in Valencia, where a small but vocal group organized to fight the incorporation.

It was Valencia--where residents are more content with the status quo because development, although almost as rapid, has been better planned--that most concerned cityhood proponents. But there, too, voters overwhelmingly said that they would rather have locally elected leaders control their destiny than a distant county government.

“I’d call this a mandate,” said cityhood supporter Allan Cameron at the new city’s victory party, where hundreds of people gathered to celebrate.

“For 14 years, we’ve wanted self-government; tonight, we have it,” said Art Donnelly, city formation committee chairman.

“This is a new beginning for the Santa Clarita Valley,” said JoAnne Darcy, one of five residents elected to the new City Council. “It’s the beginning of local responsiveness and a more people-oriented government.”

‘Happy to Give Birth’

Another council member-elect, Carl Boyer III, was involved in several other attempts by the Santa Clarita Valley to break away from county rule, including unsuccessful efforts in 1976 and 1978 to form Canyon County.

“I feel like I’ve carried this baby for 18 years and I’m sure happy to give it birth,” he said. Boyer resigned as chairman of the city formation commission in August to run for the council.

Besides Darcy and Boyer, Jan Heidt, Howard (Buck) McKeon and Dennis M. Koontz were elected to the City Council. The five city leaders had barely had time to savor their victory before they settled down to the long, hard task before them--organizing a city.

“Most people don’t realize all that’s involved,” said formation committee member Jill Klajic. “They think you can form a city overnight.”

Four of the new council members were in downtown Los Angeles the morning after the election to meet with Ruth Benell, executive director of the Los Angeles County Local Agency Formation Commission, to discuss mechanics of the transition between county and city government. Among the topics was how soon they could begin annexing territory surrounding Santa Clarita.

The cityhood proposal originally submitted to LAFCO covered 95 square miles and included Castaic and parts of the other communities. LAFCO pared that proposal to the 40-square-mile city approved by voters.

‘Felt Left Out’

“That’s one of the questions we were asked most frequently,” said Klajic, who has been in charge of volunteers working Monday through Friday at the city formation office in Saugus. “People want to know when the city is going to start annexing. A lot of them felt left out.”

The office at 26111 Bouquet Canyon Road will remain open through Nov. 30 to serve City Council members and the public. After that, the council must either pay rent on the office or find another temporary city hall.

“They already have some feelers out,” Klajic said. “Right now, people think we’re the City Hall.”

The day after the election, she said, residents called the cityhood office wanting everything from jobs to permits for housing renovations.

Meanwhile, the City Council met in one of McKeon’s chain of Western clothing stores Thursday night to begin planning strategy for establishing the city.

“One of the first things we have to do is find an interim city manager and a secretary to handle all the phone calls,” Koontz said.

Transition Readied

The City Council also will meet in two day-long sessions with county department heads to prepare the transition from county to city government.

Lists of retired city managers and city attorneys already have been submitted to the City Council by the League of California Cities, an association of state municipalities, and the Contract Cities Assn. of Southern California, an organization of cities that contract for most of their municipal services.

It usually takes new cities at least six months to hire permanent officials, a league spokesman said.

Before Santa Clarita can officially be incorporated and council members sworn in, election results must be certified by the secretary of state’s office. Then, the county Board of Supervisors must pass a resolution of incorporation for the county’s 85th city and turn that over to LAFCO for certification.

“Later, LAFCO will register the city’s incorporation on the date the City Council members choose to meet,” said David Estrada, county intergovernmental relations officer who is serving as liaison between the county and the new city.

Incorporation, then, will become official the day of the first City Council meeting, when council members will be sworn in. Dec. 9 has tentatively been chosen for that meeting, in the auditorium of College of the Canyons. Klajic and other volunteers are working on a guest list.

“It’s already up to 1,000,” Klajic said.

A tentative agenda prepared by the formation committee includes 40 items, ranging from approval of contracts with the county to appointment of planning commissioners, a city clerk and a city treasurer. Estrada said he also has a tentative agenda package he will offer the council.

“We’re working hard to provide a graceful transition of services,” he said. Estrada will assist the city until June 30, the end of the county’s fiscal year.

Before the first City Council meeting can take place, many tasks must be completed, Estrada said. About 12 agreements between the county and the city for such services as fire, police, public works, planning, financial, building inspection and criminal prosecution must be drawn up, for example.

Santa Clarita’s council members have said they intend to contract with the county for most services, as most new cities do. However, city leaders have vowed to eventually hire their own planning and financial staffs.

Urgency ordinances that will extend county laws in Santa Clarita while the City Council decides which ones to continue and which ones to change must be written before the first meeting.

Some of the new city’s most costly needs, including law enforcement, road maintenance and parks and recreation, will be borne by the county until the end of the fiscal year. The new city has promised to repay the county the estimated $2.7 million that those services will cost.

Cityhood leaders said Santa Clarita will begin to pay the county 60 to 90 days after incorporation. But to pay that and other bills, the city must first take out a loan from a financial institution because the municipality cannot begin collecting revenues until July 1, the beginning of its first fiscal year.

“Setting up the reins of government in the largest city ever formed in the state will require careful, thorough, hard work and the unstinted energies of the newly elected council and interim city government,” Worden said.

Financially, Santa Clarita should be in good shape. LAFCO has estimated that the city will have a $3.5-million surplus its first year. Santa Clarita’s first-year budget has been estimated at $16 million.

SANTA CLARITA VOTE BREAKDOWN

Area For Against Saugus 73.1% 26.8% 2,646 970 Cyn Country 71.6% 28.3% 3,880 1,532 Newhall 68.7% 31.2% 3,109 1,413 Valencia 66.4% 33.5% 4,004 2,025