Mayor Pro Tem Bob Kellar
delivered the invocation this evening. He
considered how his September 11, 2012 was experienced in a way not unlike the
same date in 2001—watching the horrific footage and feeling a sense of shock both
then and now. He ended by remembering
George Bush’s words that “a great people has been moved to defend a great
nation” and by appreciating those who have served in the armed forces to fight terrorism.
Councilmember Laurene Weste was
in charge of the next proclamation, which supported “No Texting While Driving
Pledge Day.” She said 43% of teens admit
to texting while driving and repeated the pledge day’s catchphrase, “It can
wait.” I’m not sure how well city
council meetings do with viewers in the 12-17 age group, but others will be
repeating her message, I’m sure.
The final presentation covered
highlights from a recent public opinion poll commissioned by the City[2]. Assistant City Manager Ken Striplin gave the
presentation, his hands characteristically fidgety and his voice animated in a
forced sort of way. He promised
highlights and, indeed, only highlights were offered. According to the poll, people trust the City
of Santa Clarita, overwhelmingly approve of its services, believe we’re in a
stable financial position, and are satisfied with our parks, landscaping, and
stores. Notably missing were statistics
about the areas where less than a majority is thrilled with the City, like regarding
its performance in protecting air quality, controlling growth and development, and
attracting new jobs (though he would lament that 52% of Claritans work outside
the valley). Striplin chose to let the
City bask in its favorable statistics rather than hear mention of the less
spectacular stats. Even when he reached
the topic of Cemex, he explained the lack of public knowledge/interest in the
topic as the result of less City outreach following the truce between city and
corporation. He was proud that 49% of
people surveyed knew at least a little bit about Cemex “even with the limited outreach
that we’ve done.”
The last page of the poll results presentation said
that residents want an “Applebees”, omitting the apostrophe. In any case, a gentleman from the polling
firm said Santa Clarita had truly excellent numbers compared to other cities
and advised “whatever you’re doing, keep doing it.” In response to Councilmember Marsha McLean’s
question about sampling methods, he revealed that calls were made from a pool
comprising both landline and cell phone numbers. In response to TimBen Boydston’s question
about what the City could do better, he was at a loss to answer, noting his
papers were presently elsewhere.
During public participation, John
Cassidy of Isabella Parkway expressed “grave concern” about his street and how
fast people drive on it, often to cut through.
City Manager Ken Pulskamp promised a speed measuring trailer and increased
speed limit enforcement.
Committee reports followed,
during which we learned about Santa Clarita’s excellent triple-A rating from
S&P and the official annexation of Fair Oaks and Jake’s Way into Santa
Clarita. Kellar said that the annexation
makes Santa Clarita the third largest city in Los Angeles County, behind LA and
Long Beach but ahead of Glendale. For
his comments, Boydston asked that agendas be published well in advance of
meetings and hoped that contracts set for voting would be furnished to council
members so they have enough time to read them over prior to the meeting.
Discussion of Ken Striplin’s
contract to serve as city manager began next.
City Attorney Joe Montes said that a few modifications needed to be made
regarding penalties from abuse of the office or felonies. Language regarding cost of living increases
was also updated.
Most Claritans had good things to
say about Ken Striplin during their comments.
Duane Harte and many others thanked the City for saving money by hiring
in-house rather than starting a lengthy, cross-country job search. Dee Dee Jacobson was thrilled at the hiring of who she called "a comapny man." A few speakers, however, were upset at the
expeditious hiring and said they would have preferred to see a more thorough
and open candidate search. The tone of
most speeches was congratulatory and expressed great confidence in Striplin,
though his qualifications were described rather vaguely. He handled communications well during the
serious wildfires a few years ago, he’s a good baseball coach and involved in
numerous community non-profits, and he has spent a lot of time listening to Ken Pulskamp. Those, in a
nutshell, were among his most notable qualifications.
Mayor Frank Ferry said that he
and others had known all along that Striplin was well-suited to work as City Manager. In one of the worst analogies ever, he said
losing Pulskamp was like losing Steve Jobs, but Striplin was a solid Bill
Gates, so it was better to hire him right away than to go to Atari and find its manager.
Councilmember Laurene Weste said
that Striplin’s knowledge of local issues like Cemex was invaluable in that it
saved the City the downtime of an outside applicant reading up and get
acquainted. Weste had an interesting perspective on what
makes the SCV interesting itself—our cowboy history, consumer culture, colleges, and
unified opposition to outside forces that will change us (e.g., Cemex, the Elsmere landfill...). Kellar moved to approve the contract for
Striplin, but Boydston stepped in and said he had questions. Indeed, he did. After asking about benefits, severance
packages, etc, he requested a closed session to discuss details of the
contract. Mayor Ferry said the council
could vote on the standing motion to approve Striplin’s contract, but with
support from Bob Kellar, they instead entered a closed session for just over 30
minutes.
Since it was a closed session,
there’s not much to say, but TimBen Boydston emerged from the session voting “no”
to approve the contract, making yet another 4-1 vote. He explained
that he thought all executive positions should enjoy pay raises as a reward for
performance, not automatically to keep up with cost of living increases. That said, he expressed great faith in Striplin and had no complaints about him. All the other council members were happy to
approve the Striplin contract. After
Boydston’s explanation for a “no” vote, McLean was clearly annoyed and said “no”
to Boydston when he asked if he could offer a comment. Luckily for Boydston, McLean is not mayor,
and Mayor Ferry allowed Boyston to talk to his heart's content. McLean wanted to express what had been said
in closed session but couldn’t directly, so she hinted that Striplin wasn’t
making out with the kind of outrageously good compensation that Boydston might have suspected. She did so by asking if she could ask whether
the employee got the amount he originally asked for, smiling slightly as she
spoke and was told to keep mum by City Attorney Montes.
Striplin’s approval was followed
by examination of an utterly unremarkable consent calendar, and the meeting
ended at 8:25.
[1]Agenda
[2]Here's the survey
1 comment:
Thank you for understanding that my issue was on the increase in compensation which had to do with the automatic COLA increases (or any other increases)which are given to the upper management staff that would then apply automatically to the City Manager.
I wanted all increases of any type to be considered separately for the City Manager.
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