Over at SCVTalk.com is a seriously flawed rebuttal to a piece that was posted last week on The West Ranch Beacon titled “Another Different Look at Annexation- What’s in it for Us?”.

To start with the author, Chris at SCVTalk.com, claims that I wrote the piece, which I did not. The article was written by Ron Mechsner a member of the West Ranch Town Council who was expressing his own personal views.

Chris went on to lay out a typical liberal argument that everyone should be treated the same. It is that same old, “if you get something we have to get too”, attitude. Reading his piece I thought that he may be an employee of the City of Santa Clarita!

Just because the West Ranch area has a large commercial base that the city wants doesn’t give us the right to negotiate an annexation?! Well the reality is that it does give us that right because the city can not annex the commercial centers without taking the adjoining neighborhoods as well. That gives our community a bargaining chip in any annexation discussion. The tax revenue that the commercial centers on The Old Road have generated fior the County has been beneficial to our community.

He claims “one thing I have learned is that government is most definitely not a business, and in no way is it run like one.” Well maybe local, state and federal government should be run more like a business, albeit a non-profit business, that way they can actually stop running deficits. It would cut down on chronic waste and work more efficiently. Running government more like a business that is accountable to its “shareholders” (taxpayers) would actually serve those taxpayers much better.

The one thing that anyone following the annexation debate has to realize is that you must do a comparative analysis of services. The West Ranch Town Council has been doing that in fits and starts with the City. We have learned that there are services that the County supplies that the City does not and there are services that the City supplies that the County does not. It worth noting that there are differences in the fees changed as well with the City charging additional fees that the County does not charge and there are fees that the County has that City does not charge.

It is not just about local representation as Chris has argued. It is about being responsible community leaders who are looking at all the issues involved in any of the options of self determination of our community. Looking at each service, fee, and program is part of the process and asking for parity in those fees, services and programs is part of that analysis and right of the community.

That analysis of annexation will continue regardless of the ridicule that is hurled by the local papers and blog sites. It is not only the right of the community but it is the intelligent thing to do. Blindly jumping into the arms of the City will not happen unless the community wants to do that and that has not been the indicated path from members of the West Ranch community.

On the first Wednesday of the month, the West Ranch Town Council has its monthly meeting. The residents who attend this meeting have not indicated any passionate plea to change the current status of the community. The constant call for annexation seems to be coming form those either in the City or acting on behalf of the City including the local “newspaper”. If annexation were a hot topic then I would think that those residents that want it should be letting their voice be heard at that monthly community meeting.

The Town Councils are advisory groups to the County that have no judicial power. What the Town Councils do have is influence. That’s right influence is as good as having actual power. Anyone who has attended the monthly West Ranch Town Council meeting will know that that influence has been flexed to get some very important issues dealt with over the past years. Sadly though, those successes have not been reported on in the local “newspaper” very much, if at all, because that would give the Town Council credibility. That is something that many on the City side don’t want to see happen.

Chris has every right to oppose an annexation of the West Ranch community if he wants but that will not prevent our community from making its own choices. It’s funny, one resident has recently said “let’s just annex now”, yet they are not willing to step up and do anything about it. The West Ranch Town Council has made the attempt to work with the City to investigate annexation. Unfortunately, the City does not seem to want a two way dialogue.

Dave Bossert
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