Santa Clarita Hires Consultant to Fight Elsmere Canyon Landfill

The city has signed a one-year, $300,000 contract with a public-affairs consulting firm to develop and implement a “strategic plan” to kill the proposed Elsmere Canyon landfill.

The contract with Los Angeles-based Bill Hussey & Associates, which was signed Oct. 8 but not announced until this week, is the largest financial commitment the city has made to the battle against the proposed landfill, city officials said, and more than twice the amount Santa Clarita had spent on the fight in any previous year.

Deputy City Manager Jeff Kolin was vague in discussing the elements of the plan, whether it would include media blitzes, lobbying of elected officials or polling.

“We just feel like we are at a critical juncture,” Kolin said. “Everyone felt that it was important to get a firm that has expertise in public affairs and issues management so we can get our issue out to the greater Los Angeles area.”

Kolin was also unspecific about what the city wanted Bill Hussey & Associates to do, saying only that “they have a comprehensive list of services and resources that they bring to us.”

The city does not want to disclose its strategy for opposing the proposed dump for fear of giving opponents an edge, Kolin said. It is unclear, he said, what will happen next year after the agreement between the city and Hussey expires.

Bill Hussey has been a Republican strategist, working for George Bush’s successful 1988 presidential campaign as regional director of the Fund for America’s Future, a political action committee. Hussey has also been involved in other state and local political campaigns.

The city has been in a longstanding battle over Elsmere Canyon, just outside the southeast border of Santa Clarita off the Antelope Valley Freeway.

For the past seven years, the Torrance-based BKK Corp. has planned to build a 190-million-ton landfill on the site. An environmental-impact report was to be released earlier this year, but has been repeatedly delayed. It is now under review by state regulatory agencies, BKK officials said, and is due to be released in late January.

The city fears that the garbage trucks will clog the already jammed Antelope Valley Freeway, worsen air quality and threaten the area’s ground water.