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Campaign Kickoff Speech 

I would first like thank my wife Ingrid and my daughter Analyn for all of their help and support, and I know this will be a sacrifice them, but they have both told me that it is the right thing to do. 

“Why run for city council?” It’s a good question and one I have been asked repeatedly since I announced that I would run. 
The first simple reason is because, many, many people whom I respect a great deal have asked me to do this. They thought I did a great job for the 16 months that I served. Many also told me that they respected me for keeping my word, when I said that I would not run in 2008.
Perhaps more importantly, I believe we are put on this earth for a reason. I truly enjoy helping people, and I believe that working as a City Councilman I can make a positive impact on people’s lives. When I can help people find solutions to their problems, I’ve done what I can to make the world a better place.
I also want to be part of the Democratic Process. As Franklin Delano Roosevelt said The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the government.

I have lived in the Santa Clarita Valley for most of my life and I love it here. I really want to make sure that as we build our City, we make it a place where we all want to live now …and 20 years from now. We must make sure that there are enough roads so that we are not sitting in gridlock, that there is enough water and adequate resources to sustain our population, and that we continue to have great police and fire services.
I strongly believe that the citizens who live here should have someone on the City Council that will listen to them. People should not have to be rich or powerful to get the full attention of our City Government. And ordinary citizens should feel that they will get a fair hearing on issues even when they find themselves on the opposite side of their own Government.
Our City Government should be transparent as it makes decisions. I want to work to make that a reality. Public input should not be discouraged but valued. We should be making our planning decisions by consulting the people, instead of hiring consultants to write the plans, and then trying to sell those plans to the public.
Also, I am pretty new to City Government. Because I am, I will bring a fresh perspective to the City Council. I agree with what Councilman Bob Kellar said in the paper the other day that “we have to kind of step aside and let new people come on board to bring forward their ideas, their energies.”
However, it is also true that I bring a really big toolbox of experience to the City Council. I served my Country for four years in the United States Air Force. 
I have worked for small companies and for large companies. I have owned small businesses. I have been successful in property management and development, and have a lot of experience in Redevelopment areas. Just after the earthquake, I even did some teaching as a long term substitute working with incarcerated youths in the Juvenile Detention camps. And for the last ten years, I have been the Executive Director for the largest non-profit Arts Organization in the Santa Clarita Valley, the Canyon Theatre Guild. And of course, I served on the council for nearly a year and a half. The City is also a non-profit organization, so my experience came in handy. When your goal is not to make a profit, your service to the citizens is the benchmark of your success. We can do better.
Our city needs to work closely with our school districts, and all of the organizations who educate our citizens of every age. True freedom means liberation not just from tyranny, but from hatred and ignorance. The path to true enlightenment is always education. Diversity cannot be just a lesson in school; we must work to achieve it in our neighborhoods and in our Government. 
One thing I’m known for is asking questions. Thomas Jefferson said “Information is the currency of Democracy” I will continue to ask questions. I believe that a Councilmember’s job is to know what is going on in the City, and to know what he or she is voting on. This is accomplished only through hours of reading, and study, by taking the initiative to request information, and especially by asking questions. 
Asking questions on behalf of my constituents’ and for my own knowledge is paramount. Asking questions and debating issues is what democracy is all about. If elected, the City can save money by not issuing me that rubber stamp…I didn’t use it the first time around.

Now that you know why I decided to run, let me tell you why you should vote for me. Two reasons;
One, because of what I accomplished during the short time I was on the Council. Two because of what I would like to accomplish in the next four years.
I served on the Council for 16 months and I was very, very busy. Here are just of few of my accomplishments. 

1. Fought alongside the Seniors to keep the TCU in our Valley

2. Created and helped pass a new anti-bandit sign ordinance

3. Initiated the establishment of an Oversight Committee for open space funds

4. Worked with Councilmember Kellar to establish regular law enforcement reporting

5. Initiated an Architectural Standards review

6. Worked with Homeless Shelter Task force to resolve the shelter location issue

7. Assisted staff to make Code enforcement letters more consumer friendly

8. Fought against illegal signs and spinning signs

9. Defeated the ill conceived and unstudied 30 million dollar boondoggle to outsource our sports fields.

10. Expedited Redevelopment of Old Town Newhall 

11. Established ethics reform and a City ethics policy

12. Established a Lobbyist Registration Ordinance

13. Fought for (and received) Increased Funding for the Arts

14. Facilitated improved relationship between the County and City 

15. Worked with County officials, and town council members to find out the wishes of their citizens with regard to annexation. 

16. Was instrumental in defeating the proposed dump which was to be located on residential land in Canyon Country

These are issues I was able to affect in less than a year. Here is a little of what I would like to accomplish in the next four years for the people of Santa Clarita.
Amend the General plan to make sure that traffic does not get worse! I will fight to make sure that as we build new housing in our City, we also build enough additional road lanes to ensure that we are not sitting in our cars in gridlock polluting the air. Let me ask you this question; because it goes to the heart of this issue…is traffic better or worse than when you moved here? Why is traffic worse?...because the City Council has done a poor job in traffic planning. 
When I was on the Council, I fought for peak traffic studies to be done that could be included in the new One Valley One Vision plan, but the other Council Members voted to only study average flows. And the One Valley One Vision plan that is being written by the consultants for the City now PLANS on the traffic getting much worse. Stick with me here. This will explain a lot.
Under our existing General plan, the County gives letter grades of A,B, C, D, E or F for traffic flow for major roads. Much like the letter grades we are used to in school, an A is the best grade. The worst is still an F. Our current plan planning target is C, and the plan reads, “ In heavily urbanized areas …D is accepted, though undesirable.” The One Valley One Vision plan you’ve all heard so heavily touted says, “all roadway segments within the planning area that are designated as major roadways will operate at …E...” Folks, that’s one step up from an F grade which is total failure. 
Why is the City Council planning to make your traffic worse?
Along with making traffic worse they want to increase the density in different areas of the City. The consultants call this concept by the quaint term Valley of Villages. These villages are going to be tall buildings with lots of people and little to no yards. Here is what the City has planned. I will read from a letter which was written to the City from the consultants who are doing the environmental impact report for the City. ‘Valley of Villages…are intended to become more vertical from a density perspective over time.” 
My planning question is this, why are we making areas of higher density when we have already approved 25 years worth of housing ? Our valley has 42,000 units approved, and with the average growth rate over the last twenty years, that is enough housing for twenty five years.
I will fight to create a policy that says, we will not increase density of housing, unless we decrease the zoning for housing on undeveloped land in a different part of the City. We need to focus on developing property that will create jobs.
Also, the City Council should easily accessible to its’ People. I will fight to move public participation for non-agendized items back to the beginning of the meeting. After I left, the City Council made it difficult for it citizens to speak to them about their problems by moving public participation to the end of the meeting. Now, instead of being able to talk to their City Council and then go home to their families, citizens are forced to sit for hours and have no idea what time they will be able to speak. Not surprisingly, since the City Council moved public participation to the end of the meeting, public participation during public comment has dropped over 60%. I believe that participatory democracy should encourage participation and not discourage it. In addition I will propose that we have public participation at the end of the meeting as well.
A city council person should be responsible to the citizen’s he or she serves. I commit to responding to all of my emails and phone calls. In addition I make a commitment to making regular town hall meetings in different parts of the city where there can be a give and take between myself and the people. 
Furthermore, I believe that a government is best served when it is able to harness the energy and new ideas that come from people who are new to the political process. It is for this reason that when elected I will work to enact term limits for members of our city council. I’ll also work to increase participation in local elections, by proposing that we hold city council elections in November.
Nothing is more important to our local economy than the creation of good jobs. With many of our citizens unemployed and under employed it is critical that we bring good paying jobs to Santa Clarita. When elected I will work to have our economic development department aggressively recruit companies to move to Santa Clarita. In order to ensure that we are being successful, I will ask that a quarterly report be given stating the actual number of new jobs that have been created each quarter.
The bedrock of our community is public safety. I laud our police and fire personnel. Without public safety for our children and families, there would no quality of life in Santa Clarita. To give as much support as possible to our police and fire departments I will propose that we create a sub-committee on public safety…. With an ombudsman whose job it will be to interface between the public, the city, and the public safety agencies, to create a collaboration that will make our city an even safer place to live. 

Let me close by saying that I read in the paper the other day where someone wrote that I cannot win this race. 
Now It is true that this is not going to be an easy race. I am going up against three deeply entrenched, well funded incumbents, and the Status Quo likes their status…but I will tell you what I have. I have People. I have a great multi-partisan campaign team. Passionate, talented, people that are willing to fight for the kind of Government that we used to have. The kind of local city government that we formed so that we could determine our own destiny, and not have a City run by a select few who have lost touch with their citizens. 
But we are going to need each one of you to help us. If you can give time …give time. If you can money ….give money. But most importantly we need your vote and we need you to ask your friends for their vote. Write letters to the paper, organize a coffee, send an email to your list, and put us on your Facebook. We need you to spread the word that we must give our City back to its people. The City of Santa Clarita must once again become a government of the people, by the people and for the People. Abraham Lincoln.
May God bless you and May God Bless The City of Santa Clarita.