By Ken Striplin
City Manager
One of the factors that makes our city so successful is the amazing citizen base, comprised of individuals who are engaged, dedicated and proactive in helping our community thrive.
We see this in the number of speakers we have at our City Council and Commission meetings, the thousands of volunteers that give of their time every year, the multitude of requests processed through our Resident Service Center and the amount of residents engaging with our city’s social media accounts.
At City Hall, our employee philosophy centers around excellent customer service. We strive to provide our residents with timely, courteous responses, no matter the request. Reports from our Resident Service Center show month after month that staff is living up to this expectation. With nearly 2,000 requests processed each month, residents continually rate timeliness, courtesy and efficiency of staff in the 90th percentile.
The Resident Service Center allows you to access city services and make online requests 24-hours, seven days a week from the comfort of your own home or office. By logging on to santa-clarita.com/rsc, you can do everything from report an abandoned vehicle to find a place to recycle used motor oil. The most frequent requests involve seeking information on city jobs, bulky item pickups, schools, how to sign up for city emails and public records requests.
Looking for the latest on city projects, events and general information? Make sure you are following the city of Santa Clarita on our social media pages, including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Some of our more popular recent posts involve the progress at the site of the new Canyon Country Community Center, and how city staff helped a wandering tortoise find its way back home. Social media posts also share information about class and sports league registration, what entertainment will be taking to local stages, important public safety tips, job postings, event details, explore local history, offer emergency preparedness tips and so much more.
We also share beautiful images of our city, from sunrises over the mountain tops to our majestic oaks in our open spaces.
With the fire danger that is always present in our city, I encourage all of you to sign up for emergency alerts through Nixle. Nixle sends emergency messages via text and/or email from the City of Santa Clarita, the L.A. County Office of Emergency Management, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Headquarters Newsroom and the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station. To sign up for text alerts, simply text SCEMERGENCY to 888777. To learn more, please visit santa-clarita.com/ealerts.
In addition to Nixle alerts, the city also pushes out emergency information on our social media accounts and will activate our Emergency Blog. The latest information in times of disaster can be found at SantaClaritaEmergency.com. This is where the latest on road closures, evacuations, shelters, updates and more will be posted.
Please take a moment to like, follow and sign up for all of the resources above. This will allow you to get the most out of your city, and allow us to better tailor programs, initiatives and projects to best serve you.
Ken Striplin is the Santa Clarita city manager and can be reached at [email protected].
