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1925 - By letter, Wyatt Earp beseeches his friend William S. Hart to portray him in a movie, to correct the "lies about me." Hart never did. [story]
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Now and Then in the SCV | Commentary by Darryl Manzer
| Saturday, Aug 29, 2015

darrylmanzer0215It’s over. The long fight with Cemex is over … at last.

The city of Santa Clarita and indeed the whole of the Santa Clarita Valley have a reason to celebrate. I just wonder if some of the invoices from the fight the city had to fund can be sent to former Congressman Howard “Take-The-Buck” McKeon. He had all those years to resolve the problem, and now, less than a year after he was replaced by Steve Knight, Cemex is going away.

No bill in Congress. McKeon once said that was how it could be done – the only way it could be done – to stop Cemex. Get a bill passed in Congress to stop the mine. Make a trade with some folks in Victorville. Cemex would get paid and all would be happy.

But no, Congress didn’t have to take any action. Knight and many others pointed that out. All that had to happen was for the Bureau of Land Management to end the fight by cancelling the contracts with Cemex for the mining project. You see, Cemex didn’t comply with the contracts.

Many years ago in another local publication, I wrote that I found it amazing that McKeon had contributed to the defense fund for former House Speaker Tom DeLay. You see, DeLay had a major political contributor, and that was – you guessed it – Cemex. No, I can’t prove a connection with “Take-the-Buck” and Cemex, but it certainly could explain why nothing positive has happened until now.

mckeonminingRemember those great “Thank You, Buck” banners that appeared on the paseo bridges in Valencia? Can they be recycled to include all of those involved? Of course, they would be so long and wide that the streets would be blocked. Howard “Take-the-Buck” McKeon will not be noted on those banners.

While we’re at it, can we rename that street near Sam’s Club? (Just off of Golden Valley.) McKeon Way should have a new name. What it becomes doesn’t matter as long as it isn’t called McKeon Way any longer. Can any of all y’all think of a better name?

I’ve got to say, I’m just plain shocked. After a decade of “Take-the-Buck” trying to stop Cemex, all of a sudden it is gone. Gone is the threat to our air quality, wildlife, traffic, roads, and people. Funny how the other thing gone is McKeon. Had we known that was how to get rid of Cemex, we would have voted him out years ago.

I know he said he tried to stop the mine. We heard that each and every year. “A bill to stop Cemex has been introduced.” The bill would die and we would say, “Came close to getting to the floor,” but it never did.

In the end, the real folks who deserve the credit are the City Council, city staff, Rep. Knight, Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, and plenty of others such as Andy Fried and his Safe Action for the Environment group. I’m sure we’ll hear a lot more about them as time goes on.

The more we hear about those who actually helped win the battle, the less we’ll all remember those who said they were fighting Cemex for us. If we do remember, it will be as a footnote in the list of failures we came to expect.

If there was anything we can learn from this whole fight is that the little city can win against the big federal government. The little guy did it this time.

Sure, we had lots of help from the bigwigs in Washington, D.C., but through it all, it was the little city that carried the fight. When some within the city said we should give up, we kept going. One current and one wanna-be councilman were ready to give up.

Well, the fight is over. Santa Clarita and the whole valley are the winners.

Great way to start a Saturday, isn’t it? Take a deep breath. Cemex is gone.

And so is Howard “Take-the-Buck” McKeon.

Hope the door smacks their collective backsides as they leave.

 

 

Darryl Manzer grew up in the Pico Canyon oil town of Mentryville in the 1960s and attended Hart High School. After a career in the U.S. Navy he returned to live in the Santa Clarita Valley, where he serves as executive director of the SCV Historical Society. He can be reached at dmanzer@scvhistory.com. His older commentaries are archived atDManzer.com; his newer commentaries can be accessed [here]. Watch his walking tour of Mentryville [here].

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21 Comments

  1. warren jones says:

    The street by Sams Club is appropriately named “McKeon Way”.
    IT REALLY DOES’NT GO ANYWHERE.

  2. Chris Hulse says:

    Can you change that hat to a arse hat!???? truly I don’t help the people person!!

  3. Jennifer Kilpatrick says:

    I remember with great sentiment the one and only event in my memory, where Santa Clarita’s staunch Republicans and its environmentalist Democrats came together, the fight against the Cemex Mine. Reading BLM’s termination letter addressed to Cemex, I realize that Cemex and the BLM were guilty of “sneaking up” on Santa Clarita, making plans and agreements in the dark between 1999 and mid 2002.

    In late 2002, thanks to Santa Clarita’s City Council, “the people” finally understood what was going on, and participated in a huge anti-mine pep rally in a high school gym. Then, the City chartered buses to take a horde of Santa Claritans down to County Hall in Downtown L.A. to oppose the County granting land use permits to Cemex. The City provided anti-mine T-Shirts for its residents to wear. My 11 year old daughter and her dad rode on the bus and I met them. (Just last month my now 24 year old daughter found her tiny anti-Cemex T-Shirt in the back of her closet!) The Board of Supervisors chamber was packed with people, hundreds of them. Supervisor Mike Antonovich was so revved up with indignation about the potential traffic impacts on his constitutions, in Santa Clarita, Agua Duce, Acton, Palmdale and Lancaster, he could not contain himself. If the middle of the presentation by Cemex’s lawyers in favor of their project our Supervisor became so outraged, he made a motion to stop the hearing and deny the permits. The other Supersivors voted to support him and it was over. Everyone applauded with joy…except for those of us who understood the process.

    Despite beautiful legal work by the City’s lawyer, a notoriously cranky Federal judge later erased the Supervisors vote and ordered the County to issue Cemex its permits.

    Years passed, and as Darryl Manzer and SCVNews point out, millions of Santa Clarita taxpayer dollars where dumped into complex maneuvers to kill the mine legislatively, without the BLM’s cooperation. Through the end of 2014 BLM was vehemently opposing cancellation of the mining program, because its managers wanted the cash flow to fund their other programs.

    Now, this letter called a BLM Record of Decision has arrived, with page after page of carefully written description, from BLM’s point of view, on how Cemex failed to perform on its BLM contracts, casting BLM as the aggrieved party, not Santa Claritans. In the last few pages of that Record of Decision, BLM includes language which tips off any lawyer that there IS more to come. BLM says it will pursue “the sureties” (insurance companies) for payment on the bond posted by Cemex to insure its performance on the contracts. BLM gives notice to Cemex that Cemex has a right to appeal the letter’s termination of the contracts.

    The entry of surety bond insurance companies into a problem situation is never good, because they have but one objective: Not paying money. Under many legal theories the surety bond holder can step into Cemex’s shoes and pursue that appeal. So the “problem” of the mine will not be gone until BLM has the surety’s money. Perhaps more check writing by the city, to make BLM whole, and take the surety out of the picture, will be necessary. So Santa Claritans, don’t be angry if you hear that the city has to write more checks to make BLM whole under the last pages of that Record of Decision letter.

    Outside of Santa Clarita, BLM’s world is very different. Senators Harry Reid and Dean Heller of Nevada have a wonderful relationship with BLM’s senior management in Washington. During the frenzy of legislation passed by Congress at the end of 2014, Nevada’s Senators were able to convince BLM to relinquish fee title ownership, including mineral rights, to more than 100,000 acres of BLM land in Nevada, giving the land to the state, to Clark County and to several Nevada cities. Prior to that 2014 Nevada BLM bill, Senator Reid had previously twice killed a proposed Cemex gravel mine in the south end of the Las Vegas Valley, near the M Casino if you know it.

    In 2014 Nevadans got ownership of all of that BLM land “for free” at the same time Congressman McKeon, retiring Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, one of the most powerful Congressmen “on the Hill”, was unable to get his Cemex-solution bill through the Senate, because of the last minute intervention of an obscure junior Senator from New Mexico, Martin Heinrich, the son of Shirley Bybee, a member of a politically powerful western family which includes a rather infamous Federal judge Jay Bybee. Senator Heinrich sided with BLM and put a “hold” on Buck’s Cemex-solution bill, negating Buck’s “juice”. I won’t speculate on the Heinrich-Bybee-McKeon connection but perhaps other Santa Claritans can figure it out.

    Even assuming that BLM has wiped the slate clean with this Record of Decision letter, removing Cemex from the picture, Santa Clarita is STILL at risk because that mine-able aggregate will still be sitting in those mountains northeast of Santa Clarita’s boundaries, waiting for BLM under some President’s administration to decide that cash flow from sale of mining rights is needed. It is absolutely essential that Santa Clarita or Los Angeles County obtain the same thing as Senators Reid and Heller delivered for their constituents last year. A gift of fee title ownership of the BLM land, including mineral rights, covering both the former Cemex mine site and additional BLM land to the north which Leon Worden identified, long ago, as being another candidate for a BLM mine which would be disastrous to the public health. How can that happen? Only if Santa Clarita figures out how to move BLM’s decision makers the way Senator Reid could for his constituents. Only through the gracious offices of Senators Feinstein and Boxer, with the cooperation of BLM officials who are still controlled by President Barack Obama, at least for the next 15-1/2 months.

  4. Suzi S Smith says:

    A clue as to how far into the bubble Buck went was when his wife ran for local office! They thought they were invincible. So we find out what some of us have always thought: the McKeon’s are “takers”. And after 15+ years of political stagnation, the SCV can finally move forward. Thank you Sen. Boxer!!!!

  5. Steve Petzold says:

    Can we count on Darryl to pay the bill when it comes in the mail?

  6. People will be sorry when they want to build a new patio, pool deck, etc…and there is a concrete shortage…typical not in my backyard mentality.

    • Frank Rock says:

      At least I can breath clean air from my backyard!

    • Yeah…mining sand and gravel is not a pollutant..

    • Frank Rock says:

      Maybe! But the pollutants from the hundreds of trucks traveling in and out of the canyons at all hours would. Plus if you enjoy viewing scarred mountainsides then more power to you but I’m certain you live nowhere near the would be impacted area. Have a nice day Amy!

    • All I’m saying is there are WAY worse things that could be coming to SCV. And we all benefit from concrete, Believe or not. Without it cost of living goes up. It really isn’t that bad. Take Care. Congratulations.

    • Wow, two people with opposing views not calling each other names on Facebook!? What a breath of fresh air. Thanks Amy and Frank!

    • Ruth Rassool says:

      Amy, perhaps those patios should be built with sustainable materials so that we can all continue to have a back yard and slightly less polluted air.

    • Hahaha. Are you kidding me. You must not live near the site or the 14 fwy where they planned to truck all this cement!

    • Thanks Ethan..yes people can debate opposing opinions without being jerks! Just want some people to hear the other side. Everyone needs to realize cement is used for a lot of things that we all will want or need at some point. Not just patios. And it does affect all of our costs of living.

    • Nothing is “over” and if any of you believe that you’re mistaken or like false hope! They, (someone) WILL mine there, period!! There is no other use for the land in question! The best reading the “pollution” argument…which is simply not the case nor has it ever been! When LA country run out of material, soon…most will eat crow and find another person or company to blame for the rapid rise in the cost of living!

  7. Im sure there are other locations to obtain what is needed for patio material. That’s the least of our worries !

  8. Manzer is right on the money with this one!

  9. ?can’t believe your liberal commit. Buck did more for Santa Clarita in spite of Boxer.thats like thanking Obama for our weak economy!

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