City Hall Sheds Bureaucratic Mask for Halloween

Halloween is serious fun at City Hall.

City Clerk Donna Grindley donned a matronly gray wig and put on school charm in the city manager’s department as her “class” played hopscotch in the hall.

Across the way in community development, Assistant Planner Dan Powers as Aladdin ruled over the mystical city of Agrabah, which was recreated on the third floor of the Valencia Boulevard office building.

But walking away with the top honors Friday in the fifth annual Santa “don’t-call-us-quirky” Clarita staff costume contest was the Parks and Recreation Department.

Its double glass doors converted into swinging saloon shutters opened into a bar where bowls of candy mixed with the shots of air whiskey being poured by kindly barkeepers. But that’s just the start of an old-town Newhall, where Superintendent cum-”Sheriff” John Danielson ruled with an iron fist.

What was once a conference room became a rodeo, complete with bales of hay and horses to be roped. Emergency preparedness coordinator Adele (Madame) Macpherson ran the red light district in her office next to the dressmaker.

“We’re not quirky,” insisted city spokeswoman Gail Foy, brushing aside her Pippy Longstocking-hair and fidgeting with the bathroom key dangling on a string around her neck. “We just don’t like to be thought of as bureaucratic. We like to be thought of as people who are part of this community and are creative and have spirit.”

It’s the second year running that parks and recreation got to keep the city’s All Hallow’s Ghost Award, with the four-girl, four-boy panel of judges from nearby Town & Country Farm School giving them the nod over Aladdin when one of the 8-year-old girls defected to the boys’ side in voting for the western theme.

“Our job is serving the community, and this gives us a chance to have a break,” said recreation coordinator Johnathan Skinner. “And the people who come in seem to like it.”