Santa Clarita city officials are set to discuss a legislative agenda for 2014 at Tuesday’s City Council meeting at City Hall.
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An official legislative platform is a first for the city, said Mike Murphy, the intergovernmental relation officer for Santa Clarita.
The agenda is broken up into federal and state agendas covering a variety of topics.
“It’s something that we’ve been thinking about for a while and decided finally that this would be the year to do it,” Murphy said.
The agenda was created by staff and then taken to the City Council’s Legislative Subcommittee — made of Councilmen Bob Kellar and TimBen Boydston — for approval on March 3.
The committee made some suggestions and then formalized the final platform for other City Council members to review.
Much of the platform includes issues City Council members have addressed in the past that might resurface, Murphy said.
“It’s formalizing that, but also looking forward on some of these issues that we know are going to come back up in this legislative session,” Murphy said.
A few of the issues on the federal level include filming incentives, which Murphy said could be taken up by Congress, increased funding for Community Development Block Grants, funding opportunities for a new Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station and Community Oriented Policing Services, a Sheriff’s Department program, and funds to be used for the construction of a new Santa Clarita Valley Senior Center.
On the state level, the issues on the agenda include supporting an effort in the Legislature to apportion Vehicle License Fees back to cities, oppose the imposition of inadequately funded state mandates and additional support for Sheriff’s Station infrastructure.
Another item on the platform is influencing regulation on the proposed California High Speed Rail Project, with the goal of eliminating or limiting negative impacts for Santa Clarita residents.
Cemex, which Murphy said was still “at the top of the city’s legislative agenda” is not on the platform because Cemex-related concerns are addressed by a subcommittee created specifically for that issue.
Cemex officials have said in the past they plan to move forward with their rights to a sand-and-gravel mega-mine just east of city limits if Congress does not give them some sort of compensation for their mining rights.
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