“The Michael D. Antonovich Memorial Dump.” Does our supervisor want to be remembered as the man who allowed this landfill fiasco?

I received a beautiful commendation from the supervisor’s office for serving on the Castaic Area Town Council for four years. I sent it back to Mr. Antonovich along with the following explanation:

In a column I questioned how the Castaic Area Town Council’s seeking donations from entities such as our local landfill, whose expansion the council will vote on, might be perceived by the public. Because of this, I endured suggestions from fellow council members that I be removed from my elected position – elected by a community I fear many council members ignore, while I was simultaneously threatened with a lawsuit by some on the council.

Some on the council defended and excused the landfill against my constituents’ claims of landfill violations. The council left it to its own constituents to research these claims, and lo and behold, these constituents were informed by L.A. County Public Works that our wonderful, state-of-the-art landfill has indeed been cited for violating its conditional use permit – for receiving non-allowable, non-wonderful sludge.

What is even more disturbing is that although my constituents discovered this with zero help from the council or the landfill, the county and landfill representatives who report to the council every month had multiple chances at multiple meetings to inform the council and community of this violation, and they have not. Why not?

It must be they didn’t have any idea. How disturbing – for it means the people whom the council relies upon for reporting the truth to the council are themselves being kept from the truth. As a result, elected officials mandated to protect the public interest and safety, as well as all Castaic citizens, are being kept in the dark.

Even though some council members declared that they themselves are not landfill experts, and that they can’t digest all of the documents, they seem to feel they know better than my community what’s best for my community, despite my community’s objections. This callous disregard was demonstrated by discussions of the landfill’s expansion and where the extra money will be spent as a fait accompli, and as if Val Verde’s representatives weren’t even in the room.

Some on the council told me the county will do what it wants anyway, despite my correcting the council over four years that the correct American viewpoint is “we the people” are the bosses, and that government employees “work for us.” No wonder some call councils like ours “placebo councils” that fear offending our own paid civil servants.

Perhaps they never paid attention to Jefferson’s dictum, “Where the people fear the government you have tyranny, but where the government fears the people you have liberty.” So, it seems to me that rather than being load-bearing pillars of our community, our council is now an additional burden – more like persecutors instead of the defenders we were elected to be.

I assume you, Supervisor Antonovich, to be an honorable man who is in charge of supervising a vast geographical area of a county with a budget supposedly exceeding that of more than 40 of our 50 states – not unbelievable at just under $30 billion a year. And yet the supervisors won’t fund our councils that are supposed to advise them, even at only $8,000 annual operating expenses, causing our council to seek funding by asking the landfill to help support us financially.

After the floods of 2005, which literally shut off Val Verde from the world for two days, we were told that the county had plans to spend $8 million for comprehensive flood control projects for the whole community. This then got changed to plans for a simple storm drain down the main street. This in turn was reduced again, without community feedback, to Val Verde receiving … nothing. I was told by the county that the paltry sum we paid in taxes didn’t warrant flood control projects.

If county funds aren’t going to an impoverished community that has to worry about flooding every year, where’s the $30 billion going? Flood control might cost the county money, but landfills bring it money, and even more money from allowing this landfill to expand – an expansion our community opposes. Piling on – “dumping on,” if you will – one’s least powerful, most vulnerable community might be considered unconscionable. Using the American system of government – designed to protect its citizens and their rights – in order to work against the desires, rights and safety of its citizens certainly is unconscionable. It would also be a perversion of the American system and of American values.

In all levels of politics there is the understanding that if you want a project in your district or state, you can expect the support of your fellow politicians in exchange for similar support for their own pet projects. I suppose it is possible a scenario could exist where a politician would want to look as if he were against a project, while letting it be known that he would actually appreciate being overruled. But I’m sure this scenario won’t occur regarding the landfill fiasco, if for no other reason than your own demonstrated personal honor, Supervisor Antonovich.

We don’t appreciate being asked to do the council’s, the county’s and the landfill’s jobs, and we don’t appreciate being kept in the dark or being insulted. I hope you, Supervisor Antonovich, don’t appreciate it, either, or appreciate being kept in the dark yourself.

Richard Hood served on the Castaic Area Town Council or four years as a representative from Val Verde.