City Councilmember and former mayor, Cameron Smyth spoke with KHTS about this past year with him at the helm of Santa Clarita’s highest governing body, as well as his goals for 2018 during an interview with KHTS Radio Wednesday afternoon.

Councilmember Cameron Smyth left the State Assembly in Sacramento in 2012, but later returned to public office four years later with new ideas and experiences.

His various experiences in both Sacramento and Santa Clarita both taught and reinforced an important lesson.

“What you have planned to do doesn’t end up being what you end up doing,” Councilmember Smyth said.

Looking back at 2017, Smyth recalls the natural disasters that had to be tackled throughout the year.

“At the beginning of the year we had record setting rain, which created some flooding. Some homes were certainly put in jeopardy,” Smyth said. “We needed to work with all the other state agencies to make sure debris got cleared.”

Along with the heavy rains and floods, Smyth talked about the recent brush fires which affected the residents of the Santa Clarita Valley.

Related: Trump Makes Disaster Declaration For California Due To Rain Storms

Smyth also touched on the Las Vegas shooting massacre that occurred in October of this year, noting that the tragedy hit close to home.

Many residents from the Santa Clarita Valley attended the Route 91 Harvest Festival on October 1 where several SCV residents were injured and killed, Smyth said.

Showing support and love are some of the things that “make Santa Clarita unique,” Smyth said. “It has persisted for the last 30 years.”

Related: Las Vegas Shooting: ‘Get Well’ Cards Made For Santa Clarita Victims At Vigil This Week #SCV4Vegas

Along with reflecting on both the shooting and the natural disasters that sent shockwaves through the Santa Clarita Valley community, Smyth discussed the various improvements in the social welfare services offered to the homeless in Santa Clarita, which weren’t as effective before.

The city worked along providers of homeless services to improve the service and plans to continue to do so throughout 2018, according to Smyth.

“We really have changed. We’ve grown to be the third largest city in LA County,” Smyth said. “We are a much more diverse city when it comes to demographics and I think all of those things are a positive.”

Another goal for the new year is to maintain Santa Clarita as a financially sound city.

“I view 2018 as the year where you’re not going to see a lot of sexy things, a lot of big splashes,” Smyth said. “But we’re doing a lot of that groundwork that needs to be done. So you’ll see things happening in 2019 and 2020 when some of the bigger capital projects open their doors.”

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