By Patric Hedlund, TME

This week, The Mountain Enterprise received a letter from Jeff Walker of Neenach, stating that he was writing as the lead liaison for a “Formation Committee” of a new entity in the Western Antelope Valley named the Neenach Town Council.

In an interview, Walker said that the same letter had also been sent to the Association of Rural Town Councils (ARTC) and to Los Angeles County Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who represents L.A. County’s District 5.

July 19, 2019
Patric Hedlund,
The Mountain Enterprise

Dear Ms. Hedlund,

I am writing on behalf of the Neenach Town Council Formation Committee to announce our intent to form a Neenach Town Council.

It has been brought to our attention via Oso Town Council’s President, Jeff Zimmerman, and via a letter penned by Oso Town Council’s Attorney, Ramoncito Poblete Ocampo, that our rural area of Neenach is excluded from representation by the Oso Town Council.

Accordingly, we are forming a town council to act as a unified representative voice for our rural community.

The boundaries to be represented by our council are as follows: Bordered on the North by Avenue B, on the East by 250th Street, on the West by 260th Street, and on the South by Avenue D (Highway 138).

These boundaries may change as registered voters living in nearby regions wish to join our Neenach Town Council.

This letter was signed with a list of people who were identified as the formation committee. The list included Jeff Walker and Robyn Walker of 258th St. West; Lisa Grijalva of West Avenue B; Jeffrey Gilliland of La Petite Avenue; with Gary Allison and Susan Allison of West Avenue C.

Background

This follows a confusing election process by the Oso Town Council, for which they invited Holiday Valley residents to serve on the Oso Town Council Election Committee, to be a candidate who appeared on the June 15 ballot and to even vote.

They then withheld the results of the election for 10 days.

On June 27, 2019 Oso Town Council met. Outgoing president Richard Skaggs claimed that the OTC had decided to jettison all their contemporary bylaws and resolutions (from 2011 to 2019) to revert back to a 1992 charter that he said excludes Holiday Valley residents from participating.

Then they announced that a winning candidate from Holiday Valley would not be allowed to take her seat on the Oso Town Council. They stated that 22 people had voted in their election, but did not state how many of those votes came from Holiday Valley residents. Holiday Valley estimates that at least a third, and probably more, of the votes came from their neighborhood. That would mean that about 14 people total who are not Holiday Valley residents, including four candidates, voted in the Oso Town Council election.

This is part of the July 26, 2019 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

Have an opinion on this matter? We'd like to hear from you.