Worden Quits Santa Clarita Post, Denies Being Pressured

Connie Worden, a longtime civic activist who helped launch the Santa Clarita cityhood campaign, has resigned from the city’s Planning Commission, saying she wants to devote more time to her business.

Worden came under fire in recent weeks from critics who charged that she could not be objective about projects coming before the commission because her brokerage firm, SCV Investment Corp., is trying to lure businesses to the Santa Clarita Valley.

Worden denied Friday that she stepped down from the commission under pressure. SCV Investment Corp. is forming a partnership with another brokerage firm, J.M. Pearson and Associates, and Worden said she will need to spend more time working on the expansion of her company. The growth of the company, however, could have created conflicts for her in the future, Worden said.

Worden said she carefully avoided conflicts of interest since she was appointed to the commission shortly after the city was incorporated in 1987. Worden said she either turned away potential clients who would have required Planning Commission approval or refused to vote on projects in which she had an interest.

Worden’s credentials were recently challenged by a group called the Taxpayer and Voters Rights Coalition, which charged in a letter to the city attorney that Worden lied when she stated on her resume that she had a master’s degree in history from UCLA. Worden admitted that she does not have a master’s degree.

Worden said she had described her degree as pending in past resumes but had left out the word in the resume filed with the city. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am,” she said.

Linda Calvert, an unsuccessful candidate in the April City Council election, recently asked the state’s Fair Political Practices Commission to investigate Worden. The commission replied this month that it did not investigate the potential for conflict, only specific cases.

Worden’s term is scheduled to expire July 31, but she had been considered for a second term. Her last meeting on the commission is Tuesday.