Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station officials sought to assure community members this week that they are taking action in Valencia, after a City Council discussion Tuesday that described an Old Orchard neighborhood as being overrun by drug use and signs of addiction.
Resident Traci Ramirez started by thanking Councilwoman Laurene Weste for attending a packed community room meeting in Old Orchard I, a neighborhood of homes not far from Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital with a half-dozen listings currently on the market for about $800,000 to more than $1 million.
It’s not an area where one might typically expect to see such brazen signs of drug use and addiction, she said.
“We have done everything possible. Our neighbors have been more vigilant in walking up and down streets,” Ramirez said. “But we have children walking down streets and paseos by people that pass out, eyes rolling back in their head, with the needle still left, at some point, in their body. And I just feel like we have done everything that’s been asked of us.”
Ramirez told the council members she didn’t care what addressing the issue publicly might do to the area’s home prices — she cares about children.
“Our elementary school children see it, our junior high and our high school students walk by people in the tunnel, where they’re dealing drugs or they’re using drugs,” she said.
“I just want to know what we can do — I hate apologizing,” she said. “I do not want to apologize to our children because we didn’t stand in the gap.”
City Manager Ken Striplin said the city and the SCV Sheriff’s Station are well aware of the neighborhood’s problems, adding that city and station staff have been there.
“I can tell you there was an active investigation,” Striplin said Tuesday from the dais.
“I’ve never seen so many people in attendance at Old Orchard I in their Community Room, and they were serious and they will work with us in any way that they can to better improve their neighborhood,” Weste said. “They’re almost all committed to that, they’re good people, they’ve worked hard to keep up their neighborhood and they’re in shock.”
She said Tuesday that during the committee meeting she described to residents a problem that L.A. County law enforcement officials have lamented: “I did explain that our D.A. removed the opportunities for law enforcement to do their job,” Weste said, referring to policy changes from District Attorney George Gascón.
Gascón’s policies have called for the charging of nearly all drug crimes as misdemeanors, which are generally citations with a future court date assigned under the county’s current bail structure.
“Mr. Gascón did that as soon as he came in and we do have an election coming up that people can vote in to improve that situation,” she said, not mentioning the challenger Nathan Hochman by name but certainly rallying to his cause.
As far as the city is concerned, she said, she echoed Ramirez’s sentiments:
“I feel so bad. If there’s anything we can do to help, we need to do it now,” she said.
The station has increased its presence in the area in several ways in response to residents’ concerns, said SCV Sheriff’s Station Deputy Robert Jensen, adding that some of the response has been from the station’s local patrols increasing in the area and that others he can’t discuss are associated with countywide resources from the department’s narcotics investigators.
Jensen also said political concerns and policy changes won’t impact the station’s dedication to its public safety goals.
“Our job does not change,” Jensen said in a phone interview Friday, acknowledging the challenges Weste mentioned. “Our job is to protect the community. We’re going to continue to do that. We are actively monitoring those neighborhoods. We’re actively monitoring and patrolling the paseos. We are aware of the issue and are working on long-term solutions.”
