8-30-05 Monday's highly questionable ADTC election was won by Mark Flath (209 votes), Ramona Hall (200 votes) and then 2 airport candidates Mary Johnson (154 votes) and Eric Harnett (133 votes).
Note that the 2 candidates opposing airport expansion won by a 25% margin. The other pro-airport candidates, Lorraine Cangiano, who has claimed to the County that she “represents the majority of Agua Dulce” received 129 votes; former school board president and former Town Council president Jim Duzick only garnered 120 votes, thoroughly thrashing his attempt to regain elected office; and a distant last was Crystal Blackstone with 70 votes.
The election had an abysmal turnout of only 306 voters. The self-appointed election chairperson Dee Howland refused to require disclosure of the amount of money spent by each candidate and the official airport supporter Connie Spears, who is the wife of Wayne Spears, who is purported to be the airport's financial backer. Connie Spears ran multiple quarter-page ads in the Daily News (Santa Clarita issue) and similar ads in the AV Press. These two papers listed her name as a signature for each of the ads.
The same ads were run in the Country Journal (not a newspaper but in fact a free advertiser) without Mrs. Spears name. The Country Journal also ran numerous individual ads for the candidates. Some of the advertising material was unmarked as advertising and was easily mistaken as editorial comments. In a legitimate election, these ads would have to be noticed as ads, with a listing of who ran the ads and who paid for them.
It has been estimated, based on published ad rates, and the ad fees Smith charged one of the candidates, that at least $5,000 was spent by the airport group, which is about $32 per vote, based on the highest airport vote-getter (Mary Johnson).
The two candidates receiving the highest votes (Flath and Hall) will serve on the ADTC through November 2006. The next two highest vote-getters (Johnson and Harnett) will serve on the ADTC until this coming November when they will face a new election, along with Andy Fried and Diane Terito.
It seems that the Friends of the Airport, who brought an expensive lawsuit, again paid for by an unknown contributor, are going to suffer some remorse when they discover their lawsuit has stopped the back-room deals and will force the Council's actions to become more visible. With the Court ruling that they are a legislative body they will be fully subject to other laws besides the Brown Act that will include the Fair Political Practices Act requiring the disclosure of campaign funding and the Conflict of Interest Statutes that will require elected Councilpersons to disclose their sources of income and their contributors.
So while this paper thanks these undisclosed backers, presumably the airport for bringing the lawsuit, this ruling will go far beyond just requiring minutes to be disclosed and will hopefully, ultimately lead to the Council being elected on the regular election ballot. While the County may not like the ending of their close relationship with Andy Fried as the de-facto ruler of Agua Dulce, they will get used to real elections and real representatives of the community making decisions.
This is a classic example of “you better be careful what you wish for”, because a local open government is breaking out in Agua Dulce!!