March 2004
MESSAGE FROM THE CITY MANAGER
KEN PULSKAMP

Greetings!

March is another busy month here at the City of Santa Clarita. We have a lot going on and even more planned! Here is a quick update on a few things the City is currently handling.

On Saturday, March 13, the City of Santa Clarita will celebrate Arbor Day at Central Park from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. This year’s Arbor Day event will celebrate the planting of the City’s 15,000th tree in just 16 years of cityhood. This includes trees in parks, rights-of-way, in front of homes, in center medians and along City streets. You may be surprised to learn that every tree the City plants is entered into a database to assure proper care, feeding and pruning on a regular basis. Join us on March 13 at Central Park for a very special Arbor Day celebration!

March is absolutely my favorite month of the year because it is time for our annual Cowboy Poetry and Music Festival. This year, the 11th annual event will be held from March 24-28 at locations throughout the Santa Clarita Valley including Melody Motion Picture Ranch. This year, we will be doing things a bit differently out at the Ranch (March 27 and 28). There will be no ticketed shows at the Ranch. Instead, for one admission fee, you and your family can enjoy your favorite cowboy performers. We’re setting up a large, comfortable 1,000-seat outdoor stage as well as other intimate venues throughout Melody Ranch for your enjoyment of what we believe will be the best Cowboy Poetry and Musical Festival ever! Of course we still have special ticketed performances at various venues including the Hart High Auditorium, Canyon Theatre, Hyatt Santa Clarita and many more. To learn more, give us a call at 661/286-4021 or go online at www.santa-clarita.com.

We recently completed the outreach portion of our 2004 community strategic planning process, “The Big Picture.” I am pleased to tell you that we received several hundred responses from the community, letting us know their top issues. In the next few weeks, staff will be working on a report to bring to the City Council, outlining the results of the outreach and suggesting several strategies for addressing these issues. “The Big Picture” information is available to you on line at www.santa-clarita.com/thebigpicture.

Finally, we recently rolled out an educational outreach campaign called “You’ve Got a Friend at City Hall.” The purpose of the campaign is to let our local residents know that Santa Clarita City staff is friendly and available to help. Many people are often intimidated by government and may have issues about calling the City or having dealings with the City. The campaign is designed to help you get to know some of our staff and put a friendly face on City Hall! We hope that our residents will learn to call us to get the help they need. The “You’ve Got a Friend at City Hall” campaign comes on the heels of a City-wide “service excellence” program our staff recently completed. The program was designed to take an already high level of customer service and make it even better. We hope that when you call the City or have an opportunity to interact with our City staff, that your experience is excellent!

Thank you for your interest in the City of Santa Clarita. As always, if you would like to contact me, you can call my office at 661/255-4905 or email me directly at kpulskamp@santa-clarita.com

Best Regards,

Ken Pulskamp