Court is in Session: Lite v. Weste

Weste's Revenge: Targeting Lite to Protect Her Santa Clarita Empire

Wow, just wow, what is Laurene Weste smoking these days? I woke up to a text with a link to Perry Smith’s jaw-dropping Signal article, headlined ‘Weste seeks to oust Lite from commission.’ My first thought? Perhaps it was Denise Lite who pushed the Newhall boondoggle project. Nope! Turns out, Lite had the guts to question Weste’s shady deal-making for the city. Now Weste is on a revenge tour that is going to end up being the end of her on the city council. Seriously, what does Ken Striplin even do if this elderly lady can throw a few elbows and start negotiating our deals to tear down our historical buildings? What does she have on him that allows her to do whatever she wants? And the city’s legal counsel? Pretty much useless, isn’t it their job to limit the city’s legal liabilities? The only lawyer in City Hall who had a problem with what Weste was doing was Denise Lite, her own planning commissioner. How is this not a lawsuit already? Last time I checked, historical registries were not suggestions; they are designed to protect a community’s culture. Why is this crone even involved with the SCV Historical Society if she can betray our town like this? Weste on our historical society makes as much sense as a vegan butcher.

Denise Lite made a significant entrance into the political arena when she ran for City Council in 2022. She proved to be an excellent fundraiser, collecting $100,000 for her campaign, and was well-positioned to achieve an upset victory. However, her campaign ultimately became the second biggest choke in Santa Clarita's political history, following only Tony Strickland's loss to Steve Knight in 2014, despite Strickland having nearly five times the funding of Knight’s campaign. Like Strickland, Lite ran a rather forgettable campaign, primarily due to the political misstep of hiring Chelsea Orzechowski, a consultant known for her work on the Garcia campaign that defeated Christy Smith twice. Still waiting for that coup, Christy. 🤡

Chelsea believed and acted as if she were the next “it girl” in SCV politics. Unfortunately, Mrs. “it girl” Orzechowski failed to recognize that local Democrats lost a lot of momentum after the Katie Hill controversy; they weren't running a particularly brilliant or disruptive campaign. Local Dems had egg on their face, and they lost alot of faith with moderates. So it was more a case of Christy Smith losing than Garcia winning. Christy actually held political office up here; she had a name, and no one really knew who Mike Garcia was, other than he was once a fighter pilot. Lite's campaign similarly lacked substance; the website didn’t have an agenda or offer compelling reasons for voters to choose her beyond the simple critique that her opponent, Marsha, was "old." Furthermore, both Lite and Mike Garcia mirrored Orzechowski’s attitude, which was that voters needed them more than they needed the voters. This perspective was somewhat off-putting to many people.

Now that Orzechowski has some pretty significant losses on her resume with being the first campaign manager to lose a City Council race despite a $100,000 war chest, and overseeing a loss of our congressional seat to a Democrat for only the second time in history, perhaps she will adopt a more humble approach moving forward. According to Lite’s campaign website, she opened a 2026 FPPC campaign account for running in District 2, and we will see if she can build on her name ID and raise funds like she did in 2022. The advantage of being a lawyer is that she has a lot of lawyer friends in her phone who wouldn’t miss a $1,000 maximum donation. I don’t see anything stopping Lite from taking down District 2, Miranda is done, and Dems will likely put up some cannon fodder candidate like “any seat” Andy Taban. Is it even an election if Andrew Taban isn’t pretending to care about something other than himself? Why wouldn’t we want a college dropout on the COC board? Good call, Wendy.👌🏻 Did you spend half a million to lose control of the board? Yes, yes, you did. Guess we'll have to save that for another Substack; back to Lite v. Weste.

Laurene Weste, on the other hand, is seen as the emblem of corruption in Santa Clarita. The words most often used to describe her among close associates are "vindictive," “arrogant,” and “nasty.” Weste believes she controls the city and is not shy about making sure everyone knows that she has Ken Striplin’s balls in her purse. The problem is, no one is brave enough to challenge her until Denise came along. Weste lives in a fantasy world if she thinks any of this will turn out well for her. The issue is that Weste’s corruption has gone unchecked for so long that she now believes she is untouchable. Laurene has been orchestrating shady deals like this for the last two decades. These developers ultimately donate to or cover the costs of Weste’s political fundraisers, as well as fund whatever pet project or NGO she is currently working on. It is time for us, the people, to show her that she is not untouchable and that we no longer need her leadership. She might be better off spending time with her ravens. Yes, she has ravens as pets because she is like a Disney villain—only more soulless.

Currently, Laurene is scheming to maintain her power because, unlike Marsha, she has the money and resources to establish a presence in another part of town. We went to the districts, and this created some wrinkles for her. She lived in Patsy’s district, so she “moved” to her other house in Saugus. However, it now appears that she will have stiff competition in that district, so she is looking to pivot to Canyon Country, likely the Sand Canyon area. The new districting created significant problems for the current board members, who can no longer rely solely on $50,000 in political donations and name recognition. Of the five districts, only one has been claimed, and that would be Patsy Ayala in District 1. Miranda is retiring, and we wish him well. Marsha, who lives in Patsy’s district, would have to move to run, so she is likely out unless she rents a room or something. District 2 (Valencia area) is essentially Denise’s for the taking, with Laurene Weste gifting her the narrative of running on stopping City Hall corruption. That leaves Districts 3, 4, and 5 up for grabs. We can expect to see a significantly different city council soon.

So, what will happen at the next meeting? My first prediction is that it will be a hot, uncomfortable room for Weste. Weste is so used to winning that she doesn’t know what to do when challenged. Remember, Laurene, you asked for this, so brace yourself because this is going to be a bumpy ride for you. All you are doing is giving Denise Lite her Trump mugshot moment; it epitomizes stupidity and shows that the city council is averse to accountability. All this circus is going to do is turn Lite into a Timben Boyston-type candidate who can raise money. Great job, Laurene, you got the political dogfight you wanted, making yourself radioactive all the while making Lite look like a million bucks. You didn’t think this one through at all. There are many people in and out of City Hall who are enjoying watching you go down in flames. Burn baby Burn 🔥

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