Thank you to both The Signal and the Gazette for their attempts to show the four current members of the Santa Clarita City Council their mistake in ignoring the wishes of the people who voted them into office.
We already voted for council members in the Nov. 8 election, when TimBen Boydston placed third and Alan Ferdman fourth – which the council chooses to ignore.
Now they want to forget all that and not even limit their choices for replacing former Councilman Dante Acosta to the candidates who were willing to campaign for council seats on Nov. 8 – and spend their time and money to do so.
Now just about anyone can apply, at the Signal’s bad advice (“City Council actions negligent,” Dec. 17) for the seat vacated by Acosta due to his election to state Assembly.
At least TimBen has the council experience and Alan Ferdman has been in attendance at just about all council meetings. They both stand up for the voters.
So are we now going to be “lucky” enough to have a council member, who may never have been to a meeting, chosen just because Bob, Marsha, Laurene, and Cameron Smyth say so?
At the very least, a public committee should be allowed to interview these candidates in an open forum in front of the voters if council members choose to ignore the outcome of the Nov. 8 election.
A recent informal Signal poll, though not statistically valid, indicated 58 percent of respondents want the special election while 42 percent do not. This is not the first poll that the council will choose to ignore – remember the special election for the billboards that the council demanded because members did not believe the voters who showed up, time after time, at meetings opposing the billboards in about a 7 to 1 ratio?
This is only one example of their arrogance in deciding in a dictatorial manner what would be best for the people – and being on the losing end.
It is true that more than $354,000 for a special election is a huge expense, but I would assume it would be a lot cheaper than the time and energy spent for a recall election or two to four years of a very unhappy constituency.
I hope that constituency will remember this and vote against long-term incumbents Bob Kellar, Laurene Weste and Marsha McLean next time.
These three long-term council members have been in office for 16-20 years. Unfortunately, most voters have not attended City Council meetings to see how voters are treated when they dare to question just about anything.
Neither Laurene Weste nor Marsha McLean was willing to step up and be mayor, thus abdicating their responsibilities, in my opinion. Yet they feel they should be trusted by the voters to basically assign a designee of their choosing to the council with no public input.
Let’s not waste our votes in the future on anyone this arrogant and non-responsive to the voters they are supposed to represent.
