Candidate jump-starts council race





 

 

The campaign for Agoura Hills City Council took an early— and harsh—turn last week as Councilmember John Edelston openly admonished city planning commissioner Chris Anstead for a letter to the editor he wrote to The Acorn.

Anstead’s letter, printed July 30, criticized the City Council for not annexing 43 acres of unincorporated Los Angeles County land off Liberty Canyon and Agoura roads. He said the council was “sleeping at the switch by not moving to annex this property.”

The City of Calabasas will instead annex the property, which lies adjacent to the Liberty Canyon wildlife corridor.

Agoura Hills wrote to the Los Angeles County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), the agency that handles annexation issues, and said the city would be negatively affected if Calabasas acquired the property.

Edelston took issue with Anstead’s assertion that the council missed an opportunity to protect the land near the city by annexing it.

“This statement is simply wrong,” the council member said. “It is wrong on the facts. It is wrong on the law.”

Edelston accused Anstead of writing the letter to boost his visibility in a campaign crowded with candidates.

Anstead is running for a City Council seat in November. Edelston is not running for a fourth term.

The two main businesses on the property, telecommunications firm Spirent and Cypress Properties Inc., which owns the land, expressed a desire to become part of Calabasas rather than Agoura Hills. The wishes of the property owners are generally the deciding factor when an annexation property is disputed.

“I am disappointed and concerned that Mr. Anstead came to conclusions without understanding the facts about the annexation and then brought his erroneous ideas to the public,” Councilmember Harry Schwarz said.

“I understand the need to get headlines and launch a campaign, but I would hope before he makes future statements he at least confer with staff to get the real story and facts and not rely on rumors or speculation,” Councilmember Denis Weber said.

Anstead prefaced his letter to the editor by saying that he wrote it in a “personal capacity,” but that didn’t cut it for Edelston.

“The fact is, he gave up his status of ‘private citizen’ when he took that oath,” Edelston said. “What is fact is that if or when the annexation issue comes up in front of the planning commission or if Mr. Anstead were to be elected to this council this November, he may have to recuse himself from deliberations and voting on this issue because he has already publicly announced that he has formed an opinion.”

Anstead did not attend the meeting, but he later responded to Edelston’s charges.

“If you believe strongly in an issue you should become involved,” the candidate said. “That is exactly what I have done in expressing my view of our city’s failure to take action on annexing the property in dispute at Liberty Canyon. Our city has not taken action to annex this property, and this fact is supported by the city manager of Calabasas’ statement to The Acorn that Agoura Hills never sought to annex the land.”

Anstead said Agoura Hills had cause to fight the annexation. He said LAFCO must consider the effects of annexation on nearby areas as well as “mutual social and economic issues and planned orderly and efficient urban development.

“Many of our residents live right behind this property in Liberty Canyon and will be the ones that will be affected by the traffic and late-night lights,” he said. “Calabasas does not have any communities adjacent to this property.”

Mayor Illece Buckley Weber, who is running for reelection, said, “Mr. Anstead has started his campaign with a negative attack. I will not respond by going negative.”


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