An ordinance was on the calendar at last night’s City Council meeting that would make it mandatory for animals to be spayed, neutered, and micro chipped. The micro chipping is a procedure that involves injecting a dog or cat with a micro chip roughly the size of a grain of rice. The chip then acts as an identifying tag for the dog.

Mayor Laurene Weste is a proponent of the ordinance, and her hope is that it will lower the occurrences of animals being put to sleep at shelters because their owners cannot find them. The chip would also help identify owners who abandon their dogs.

Marsha McLean was first to speak up, citing that she understands the motive behind the micro chipping, and agrees with it, but she didn’t want to go as far as to make it mandatory.

As written, the fine for not complying with the ordinance would be $250.

Frank Ferry chimed in and asked who would enforce the rule if it was enacted. When the presenter’s answer seemed to elude to not enforcing the fine, Ferry, responded by saying; “I’m not going to publicly say ‘here’s the rule, here’s what happens if you don’t follow it’ and then turn around and say ‘but we’re not going to enforce it.’” 

The debate resulted in the council unanimously passing the ordinance, but without the fine.

Here’s what else happened at the City Council Meeting.

Recognition

Jim Stahl, was recognized for his work with the city in the Sanitation Department. Stahl is retiring from his position as the Chief Engineer of the Sanitation District after serving since 1969. In his job, he reported to the LA county board of supervisors, and a delegation of mayors of 78 cities.  

Cameron Smyth was presented with a key to the city.

City Staff members were applauded for their recent winning of 6 National Marketing Awards. That makes Santa Clarita the only municipality to win 6 awards.

Council Comments

Bob Kellar thanked the volunteers who made Festival of Trees possible. The event raised a great deal of money for the Boys and Girls club.

Mayor Laurene Weste showed before and after photos of Soledad Canyon, which is nearing completion of a project that took overhead utility lines down, and put them underground. The after photos show an unobstructed view from the street.

Public Participation

Two separate people asked the council to look into restricting the Origami Restaurant’s operating hours to 10:00pm. The residents said that matters of noise and public drunkenness are interfering with their lives. The Origami Bar is located on Town Center Drive, across the street from the Hyatt. Residential dwellings reside directly above it.

City Manager Ken Pulskamp said that the issuers of Origami’s liquor license permits them to operate until 2:00am, but that he would contact the issuers to find out what the city’s options are. He also noted the city would have more power on this issue, if a certain number of complaints are filed. Bob Kellar vowed to work with the people, saying; “Their license allows for them to serve alcohol until 2:00am, but it does not allow for them to disrupt your lives.”

Buck McKeon’s district manager Scott Wilk and others spoke in favor of the city leasing land to a man who wants to build a Martial Arts Museum. The Museum would be the first of its kind in the world, and the city is exploring land options that could potentially be available for the museum.    

Executive Meeting

City Manager Ken Pulskamp detailed the process for selecting a replacement for Cameron Smyth. The details are as follows:

16 members of the community were picked by staff, and they will sit on three panels. The panels will convene on Friday to interview the 16 applicants. Three separate panels will be designated to three separate rooms, and the interview process will consist of each applicant getting a 20 minute interview with each panel.

Each member of the panel will blind rank their top candidates with their favorite getting 5 points, their next getting 4, and so on, down to 1. These ratings will be made public.

At the end of the ratings, the total points each candidate receives will be posted and the top five (maybe six or seven) will be recommended to the council.

On December 6^th, the city council will hold a special meeting where they will get to interview the top candidates, and select one with a majority vote. If no majority is formed on any candidate, another special meeting will be held on December 8^th, where the council could then interview the candidates who ranked 6^th through 10^th. At the end of that meeting, if held, the council will make a decision on Smyth’s replacement.

On December 19^th, the new member of the City Council will be officially installed.

The members of the community panels are:

Jim Ventress

Dan Masnada

Dianne Van Hook

Connie Worden Roberts

Chris Fall

Gary Marco

Samantha Thomas

Al Ferdman

Susan Shapiro

Jenny Ketchepaw

Sean Herron

Dora Zovala

Richard Budman

Holly Schroder

Phil Ellis

Ian Swift

Jon Dell

KHTS AM 1220 News

11-29-06