|
|
|
|
|
[Sign Up Now] to Receive Our FREE Daily SCVTV-SCVNews Digest by E-Mail |
|
|
Inside Weather
Calendar 
Today in S.C.V. History December 19
|
Comment On This Story |
Opinion Section Policy
Read More From... RECENT COMMENTARY
Wednesday, Dec 10, 2025
Wednesday, Dec 3, 2025
Tuesday, Dec 2, 2025
Tuesday, Dec 2, 2025
Wednesday, Nov 26, 2025
Tuesday, Nov 25, 2025
|
Tweet This
Facebook
Digg This
Bookmark
Stumble
RSS
Latest Additions to SCVNews.com
|
|
Do you have a passion for swimming and a desire to make an impact in your community? The city of Santa Clarita is seeking individuals with strong customer service skills and a commitment to community engagement to join its lifeguard team.
 |
Santa Clarita Valley residents need to put down the yule log and refrain from all residental wood burning fires on Friday, Dec. 19.
 |
U.S. Rep. George Whitesides (D-Aqua Dulce), announced the winners of the 2025 Congressional App Challenge for California’s 27th Congressional District: the “MathViz” team led by local Academy of the Canyons student, Gautham Korrapati.
 |
The Mardi Gras Madness 1K/5K/10K, set for March 1, in Santa Clarita, is more than a race, it’s a celebration of health, community and giving back. Now through Wednesday, Dec. 24, take $10 OFF race registration with promo code WINTER10 at checkout.
 |
Theatre Extempore will present the all time classic musical The Fantasticks, 8-10 p.m. Jan. 9-11. 15-18 at The MAIN.
 |
|
West Ranch High School senior Braulio Castillo (17) never did any long-distance running before high school, but what he has accomplished in that demanding discipline since taking it up is impressive. And, so far his senior year, it is phenomenal.
 |
Powerlab Studio will hold its grand opening and ribbon cutting 4:30-5 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 8 at 28110 Newhall Ranch Road, Valencia, CA 91355.
 |
B2 Entertainment will have a Cookies With Santa event, 3-5 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 21 at 21516 Golden Triangle Road, Santa Clarita, CA 91350.
 |
The College of the Canyons soccer programs will be hosting 'Friday Night Footy,' small-sided pick-up games, running on Friday evenings Jan. 2 through June 26 at the COC Soccer Facility.
 |
College of the Canyons sophomore pitcher Nichole Muro will continue her academic and athletic career at Cumberland University after signing with the Phoenix softball program.
 |
College of the Canyons men's basketball won its fourth straight contest in an 80-72 affair at Napa Valley College on Monday afternoon, Dec. 15 as freshman Julius Washington led all scorers with 20 points.
 |
|
Canyons women's basketball snapped a five-game losing streak with a 60-44 win over Diablo Valley College during the final day of action at the Napa Valley Storm Surge tournament on Saturday, Dec. 13.
 |
1929 - Swift justice: Thomas Vernon sentenced to life in prison for Saugus train derailment & robbery 1 month earlier [story]
|
The Newhall School District Board of Trustees met on Tuesday, Dec. 16 for its annual organiational meeting.
 |
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Forensic In-Patient Step Down program’s success has led to an annual graduation that not only celebrates the participants for the progress they have made in the program but also acknowledges the department’s commitment to excellence in custody operations.
 |
The study of bones from the largest collection of Neandertal remains in Northern Europe has revealed evidence of selective cannibalism targeting Neandertal females and children between 41,000 and 45,000 years ago.
 |
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond today announced that registration is open for the second annual School Leadership to End Hate Winter Institute, co-hosted by the California Department of Education and the California Teachers Collaborative for Holocaust and Genocide Education.
 |
|
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department was awarded a $134,000 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety
 |
Southern California’s iconic Joshua trees are in bloom, and California State University, Northridge’s environmental biologists are asking the public’s help in figuring out why and what it means for the trees’ future.
 |
The California Department of Motor Vehicles today issued its decision in the Tesla administrative case, adopting the administrative law judge’s proposed decision
 |
Starting January 1, 2026, Santa Clarita Transit is launching Fare Capping, meaning once riders hit the daily or weekly cap, the rest of their local rides are free.
 |
The University Library at California State University, Northridge has completed the processing and cataloging of the Los Angeles Jewish Federation Community Relations Committee (CRC) Archives, spanning from 1921 to 2000, providing researchers and the public access to one of the most comprehensive archives documenting the Jewish community’s role in combating antisemitism, fascism and discrimination in Southern California and beyond.
 |
|
REAL NAMES ONLY: All posters must use their real individual or business name. This applies equally to Twitter account holders who use a nickname.
10 Comments
Yessir, It’s a bright, bright sun-shiny Day…
For you and your cohorts. We’ll have to stick around to find out if you’re telling the truth or not. And if not, well then you will still do fine. You’ve moved on and will only be trotted out if necessary to insist that all is well.
Leon can give you my email, so feel free to contact me and let me know the truth as you see it. And I don’t mean a rehash of these puff pieces.
Leon – if Dan wishes to do so, you have my permission to provide my email address to him.
Typical of the power brokers in this community. Make personal attacks against a well-respected environmental leader who has staunchly stood up for the public in spite of such unfounded attacks. So CLWA breaks the law and the person that tries to challenge this bad behavior is the cause? Like blaming a rape on the victim?
Just in case you don’t get it, Mr. Masnada, we all know that your first boss was Newhall Land and Farming/Lennar/now Five Point. We all know that under your watch at CLWA you promised to give Newhall Ranch all the water they needed, let them calculate the demand and always tell the agencies there is enough for Newhall’s projects. We all know that your are or were still on the Board of Valencia Water Company, though it is difficult to find our anything about them because they don’t have public meetings or respond to public records. Heck, they won’t even publish their 2016 or 2017 financials.
So what is Valencia Water hiding behind those closed doors that you so cunnibgly helped create? $800,000 in annual dividends for one thing, that Valencia Water customers must pay to Castaic – this is outrageous.
Just wondering why SCVTV didn’t list Masnada’s other employers and current positions.
And the only people that want the Newhall Ranch project are the people that think they are going to make money off of it. Everyone else wishes it would go away.
Dan Masnada is nothing more then a appointed board member of the Valencia Water Company. Apparently he has not even read Senate Bill No. 634 which now has been amended three times. Once on May 26, 2017 the day after it cleared the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Why is the first action of this bill to repeal the provision of law that allowed a petition to request a confirmation by the voters? Why were they so afraid of a vote?
Sec.4 (i) states that steps to be taken by CLWA and the board of directors of the Valencia Water Company to “dissolve Valencia Water Company and to transfer the company’s assets, property,liabilities,and indebtedness to the district as soon as practicable ,but no later than July 1,2018”
Since Dan Masnada was the manger of Castaic Lake Water Agency when they bought the stock of Valencia Water Company with the additional agreements perhaps he should write about that and not his foolish rant about those that try to inform the ratepayers about what is happening to their retail water providers which will be deleted by Senate Bill No. 634.
Iused to think SCOPE had a legitimate reason for existing. Now I think they are simply mis-named. They should consider re-naming themselves The Litigious Society. All they do is line the pockets of lawyers.
And don’t even get me started on the lawsuits making local lawmaking bodies vote by district. The only result I’ve seen is that the districting voted out the only true Latino official on a school board! The poor dupes that have allowed the lawyers to file the lawsuits in their names are laughable. The only purpose is to fill the lawyers’ pockets!
I for one would like someone to stand up against the massive building here in Santa Clarita Valley. When I visit my friends in the California Delta and in Northern California they are more than upset about the massive amounts of water we take from them. Their farms are failing and salt water is infiltrating the California Delta. All the time here we say that there is enough water. We cannot keep robbing from Northern California to ensure that Southern California continues in their careless regard for the importance of water, to keep lawns green when farms are going under. I hope Lynn continues to fight for a sustainable growth, and against the greed that is currently taking over this valley.
You cost the taxpayers of our valley millions by paying far more for the Santa Clarita Water Co. than its value. I was on the city council when you do, and had all the facts at hand.
You are probably right Carl. CLWA, under Dan Masnada’s and Bob Sagehorn’s control, paid $65 Million in taxpayers cash to the Bonelli Family for all of the stock in Santa Clarita Water Company AND THEY DIDN’T EVEN GET AN APPRAISAL OF THE VALUE OF THE COMPANY’S PHYSICAL ASSETS BEFORE WIRE TRANSFERRING THE MONEY!
At the time of the stock purchase, that water company’s ground water wells near Bermite were profoundly polluted with the solvents TCE and PCE and with a rocket fuel called perchlorate. One of the reasons the “men who run the water companies” wanted to avoid a professional appraisal of the Santa Clarita Water Company’s properties was that under the rules under which licensed appraisers operate, the mega-million dollar cost of cleaning up the water in SCWC’s territory should have been deducted from the “value” of the water company’s assets.
Instead, merely as a housekeeping matter, CLWA ordered an “appraisal” of Santa Clarita Water Company’s assets by one of their “consultants” well after the cash was out the door. The person who did the appraisal was not licensed by the State of California as an appraiser, and of course the cost of cleaning the toxic chemicals out of SCWC’s underground water supply was not even mentioned.
Once CLWA owned Santa Clarita Water Company, CLWA described it as a “division” of the public agency and SCWC began complying with California law concerning public agencies, including the California Public Records Act.
Then in December 2012, Dan Masnada as General Manager of CLWA did it again, BY USING TAXPAYER MONEY to purchase all the stock in Valencia Water Company from The Newhall Land and Farming Company, AGAIN without a professional appraisal of that company. That deal, under a contract dated 12/12/12, was made with less that a week’s notice to the public.
The terms of the 12/12/12 contract, allegedly negotiated by Masnada and CLWA’s lawyer, were very far from favorable to the taxpayers and CLWA as a public agency. Exactly how unfavorable were the deal terms? CLWA’s publicly elected directors don’t want the public to know.
CLWA’s publicly elected directors have spent almost 5 years litigating a California Public Records Act case to keep all of the “other contracts” to which Valencia Water Company is still bound a deep, dark secret from the public and the press.
One contract which CLWA has stubbornly tried to hide is a “Management Contract” which Valencia Water Company entered into effective in 2007 where Valencia Water Company agreed to be directly managed by Lennar Corporation, the NYSE traded company run out of Miami. (The Newhall Land bankruptcy did not terminate that contract, because Valencia Water Company was not a debtor in the bankruptcy.)
The 12/12/12 contract under which CLWA bought all of the Valencia Water Company stock says absolutely nothing about whether or not Lennar Corporation has formally given up the management control of Valencia Water Company which it gained in the 2007 Management Contract.
Here we are, 10 years later, and CLWA does not want the public to see the proof on paper that Lennar Corporation’s management control of Valencia Water Company has ended.
The California Public Utilities Commission is no help. They have ruled that they have no power to regulate Valencia Water Company for the benefit of the ratepayers/public because Valencia Water Company’s sole shareholder is a public agency.
The overall refusal of CLWA to have Valencia Water Company comply with the California Public Records Act, allowing the taxpayers to see all of the documents affecting a water company the public paid to buy, is all the more suspicious because under the Wilk & CLWA sponsored bill to merge Newhall County Water District into Castaic Lake Water Agency, the bill text DOES NOT merge Valencia Water Company into CLWA as well.
Valencia Water Company remaining a private stock company, coincidentally owned by a public agency (CLWA), allows all of the contracts binding on Valencia Water Company to remain a secret, barring a court order binding on VWC to the contrary.
One might ask “What is Valencia Water Company hiding from the taxpayers…over and above the Management Contract where Valencia Water Company agreed to be directly managed by Lennar Corporation?”
“Newhall Water District has been a voting district for 60 years. They should have a say in whether or not their district is dissolved. They have eliminated every way for the people to object to this. Lynne is standing up for people’s right to have a voice. I applaud her for that.”
What is needed to protect the ratepayers is a vote and an audit of how Castaic Lake Water Agency and Santa Clarita Water got their bond rating.
All Dan Masdada is doing is trying to divert attention from the actions of the this so called merger.
The basis of the Paris Climate Accord started on the local level around the world. In the Santa Clarita Valley, Lynne Plambeck, is our leader.
She has environmentally protected the air, water, and land space of our community against those who have attempted to contaminate this valley.
These two commentaries using labeling and name-calling is an inappropriate attempt to slur Ms. Plambeck’s efforts and promote a nefarious big business scheme to takeover water and blindfold the citizens of this valley.
For years, she has worn her cape, and used her voice to assure the Santa Clarita environment remains healthy for our citizens.
She is our hero.
Robin Clough and Gene Dorio, M.D.