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was not about to discuss anything of the sort in detail. Lt. Don Rodriguez told
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him it was “business as usual.”
Jo Anne Darcy’s husband, Curtis, died after a long bout with heart disease.
The Census Bureau said we had a population of 110,642, a number that
seemed too low, particularly in light of the fact that both Dennis Koontz and I had
to hassle them to get our families counted.
The city looked good when it agreed to pay no more than $9.95 million in
infrastructure support for Newhall Land’s proposed mall. This was projected to
bring in $126 million in sales tax revenue over a thirty-year period. A week later
we got $7 million in financing from the state, cutting the city obligation to less
than $3 million.
I was asked to install the officers of the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of
Commerce, with Gary Choppé as president. I had never been to an installation
before, and almost bent over laughing when the officers repeated quite precisely
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after me, “I, state your name, do solemnly¼.”
A great pleasure of being Mayor was having the opportunity to help recognize
people who had worked very hard in volunteering for their community. The
Bahá’í Faith recognized Chris Connelly during their celebration of Human Rights
Day. Chris had worked with many organizations, and had spearheaded a drive to
equip each of the public schools with trailers equipped for disaster preparedness. 6
When the question of garbage collection franchises came up, Waste
Management tried to get into the picture. They had just begun soliciting business
in the valley. I started to get clippings in the mail from anonymous contributors
about the time their efforts to snatch part of the franchise became public. Larry
Spittler, the general management of Waste Management’s San Fernando Valley
operation, attended the hearing. Before it began, I showed the clippings to City
Attorney Carl Newton, who said that I should be very careful about how I used
them, that there might be a question of broadcasting libel. I knew that one should
not believe everything he reads in the papers, and did not figure out how to use
the clippings until a moment before the hearing began.
I did not mention them. I simply asked questions, such as “Did your
corporation recently pay a $1 million settlement in a price fixing case so you
would not have to go to court?” Other questions concerned felony convictions for
pollution. That disposed of Waste Management for the time being. The public
did not have much to say about the idea of a franchise, and while I was no expert
I had no reason to believe that granting a franchise to the three existing companies
was not a good idea. Splitting up the city among them on a pro rata basis, at the
existing rates, with 10% of that going to the city treasury, seemed to be a good
solution. We cut the traffic on the streets and noise in the neighborhoods
significantly. We held the line on rates. We put part of their income back to
work in the city budget. We saved the trash companies a lot of money. Why
would not everyone be happy?
The public ignored the hearings. However, when we took action, the criticism
was immediate. “I can’t believe it. They did not even put out bids,” was a part