By Mary O’KEEFE

The weekend’s election of candidates is in for the Crescenta Valley Town Council (CVTC). All five candidates were incumbents so all were expected to be on the Council at the close of Election Day. The only question was who would be general members – elected to a three-year term – and who would be alternates – serving a one-year term.

Harry Leon, who currently serves at the president of CVTC, was the top vote getter with 34% of the vote, followed by Donna Libra with 31% and Aram Ordubegian with 21%. All three members will serve a three-year term as a regular member. Ted Yu and Dr. Young Su will be seated as alternates serving a one-year term.

Leon has been on the Council since 2010 and has served as the CVTC president since 2016. He raised the visibility of the CV Youth Town Council, worked with former CVTC presidents Cheryl Davis to create the CV Dog Park and Robbyn Battles to secure a crossing guard at Rosemont Middle School. Prior to that, middle schools within the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County did not have crossing guards. When Rosemont’s was approved that led to all middle schools within unincorporated LA areas having access to crossing guards.

A candidate forum was held on Thursday night during the Council’s regular monthly meeting. Participants were Leon, Yu and Libra. The focus for the future appeared to be keeping a watchful eye on development in the area and all that it brings, including the implementation of SB 9-The California H.O.M.E.(Housing Opportunity and More Efficiency) Act.

SB 9 was signed into law in 2021. It adds a Government Code to “require a ministerial review process for eligible development of up to two principal dwelling units on a parcel in a single-family residential zone,” according to the Los Angeles County Dept. of Regional Planning.

It also adds a ministerial review process for eligible “urban lot splits” to create two new parcels for residential uses in a single-family residential zone, according to the Dept. of Regional Planning.

Several community entities, like CVTC, are looking at this new law and working together to make certain any new developments take into consideration water source requirements, parking and fire risks.

During the forum historian Mike Lawler shared an overview of the history of the Crescenta Valley. He began with the Tongva indigenous people who lived mostly on the western end of the valley near where Verdugo Golf Course is now.

“They had their own system of government, they had a private council,” Lawler said. Their government lasted for 6,000 years.

Then in the 1800s Benjamin Briggs laid out city blocks and bought the entire valley, Lawler said.

“But he was a speculator and when times got tough he ran out of steam, so he never actually made a city out of La Crescenta. In the 1920s Verdugo City took off and the rest of the residents in the valley were getting a little nervous about this guy [named] Harry Fowler [who] wanted to rename the valley North Angeles,” Lawler said.

An attempt at cityhood was made but “ran of steam.” Today Verdugo City is more of a historical footnote with the only official Verdugo City section found at the Verdugo City Post Office located at the southwest corner of Honolulu and La Crescenta avenues.

In the 1930s Sunland-Tujunga was annexed by the City of LA.

“In 1948 we had a drought and everyone ran out of water here [in Crescenta Valley]. The City of Glendale stepped in and offered us water,” Lawler said.

It was then that Glendale annexed almost half of the Valley and the rest was left as the unincorporated area of LA County La Crescenta-Montrose.

“In 1964 there was again fear of annexation by the City of Glendale so we tried to go for cityhood. There was an incredible lack of interest on the part of the residents here and it didn’t go anywhere,” he said.

He added only a handful of people showed up to vote and those who did cast their ballot against cityhood. During this time they wanted to rename the area Montrose.

“We watched the City of La Cañada gain their cityhood in 1976 and by the late ’80s there was a concern about no local control here. So in 1989 then [LA County] Supervisor Mike Antonovich suggested [forming] a town council,” Lawler said.

A CV Town Council was a very popular idea at the time with 40 candidates wanting to represent the area.

“In 1989, at the first meeting, their first task was to reduce the number of billboards on Foothill Boulevard,” Lawler said.

Although there are a few billboards still along the boulevard there are a lot fewer then there had been prior to the formation of the Council.

Lawler went on to list some additional accomplishments of CVTC including the undergrounding of the utility lines on Foothill Boulevard, the creation of the La Crescenta flag, the implementation of a dog park, installing medians along Foothill and a new library where the CVTC monthly meetings take place.

The CVTC works as a liaison between LA County Fifth District Supervisor Kathryn Barger and the community. The Council is the “eyes and ears” of the community.

While the Council does not have voting privileges on County government business it does voice concerns or supports items that come to the supervisor’s attention.

LA County continues to count the ballots. As of Nov. 19 the total ballots counted were 2,441,323, which is 43.48% of registered voters. There are 25,250 outstanding ballots, according to the LA County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk office.

The official results are scheduled to be posted on Dec. 2; however, there are some candidates who have conceded the election including LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva (with 38.74% as of Nov. 19) to Robert Luna (with 61.26%), former City of Long Beach police chief.

When Villanueva won the election in 2018, it was the first time in more than a century that LA County residents voted out an incumbent sheriff. Now, for the second time in more than a century, it has happened again as Villanueva was not elected to a second term.

For more LA County election results visit lavote.gov; for statewide election results go to https://electionresults.sos.ca.gov.