The virtual Castaic Area Town Council meeting Wednesday hosted community updates, local crime reports and a “Meet the Candidates” segment ahead of the council’s election, Saturday, Nov. 7.
Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff Capt. Justin Diez provided an update on monthly crime reports for Castaic, noting crime was decreasing.
“Crime is down throughout the entire Santa Clarita Valley, our unincorporated area of Castaic is no exception,” said Diez.”Our lowest crime rate on record in the Santa Clarita Valley was 2019, and our goal is to beat that in 2020. We are on par to do that.”
Diez added the main crime reported in Castaic between Sept. 21 and Oct. 21 was grand theft auto, and reminded the council and those watching the virtual meeting to remember the “9 p.m. routine,” a reminder to remove valuable items and lock car doors at 9 p.m. each day to prevent car theft.
“As in Castaic, like most of the Santa Clarita Valley, most of the crime is property crime, which could be grand theft, shoplifting, theft from a car, things like that. We do have violent crime, it’s present, but it’s very minimal,” said Diez.
During the meeting, each candidate running in the town council election was given a short amount of time to introduce themselves before the Nov. 7 election.
Candidates were running for five regions in Castaic, with two seats open for region 5.
“Region 1, 2,3 and region 5, all these candidates ran unopposed, so they will be brought in in January,” said Jessica Chambers, vice president of the council. “There’s three people running for region 4 however.”
Andrew Chambers will represent region 1; Abigail DeSesa will represent region 2; David Boyer will represent region 3; and Jim D’Addario and Chris Ditties will represent Region 5.
Richard DeLong, John Silva and incumbent Jeff Preach are running for Region 4.
“We only have an election for Region 4. So you will come in and prove that you live within that region, so bring a driver’s license. Then, you’ll be given an election card that will have the three names on them,” said Chambers.
The voting will be at the Castaic Sports Complex on Nov. 7 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. After voting concludes, a count will be done at the sports complex.
To see mapped regions of Castaic, visit https://www.castaictowncouncil.org/region-map.
The meeting can be viewed on the council’s Facebook page at https://bit.ly/31EReOB.
