Scotts Valley Becomes a City

By Jessica Johnson and Donna Lind

One could make the argument that Scotts Valley owes a lot to local media.

In 1960, the Santa Cruz Sentinel published an article describing a cemetery planned for an area between Highway 17 and the wooded hillside beside it. Residents of Sandhill Road — known for their beautiful views — would look over this proposed cemetery.

When local residents learned that this plan was being considered by the Santa Cruz County Planning Commission, they rose to action.

In a 1976 article longtime resident Agnes Knox Lewis recalled how a neighbor phoned her to say the affected residents planned to protest and “Would I join them? Protest we did! I spoke for the three of us and found we were not alone. The room was full of dissatisfied people.”

The Chairman of the County Planning Commission then asked the memorial park developer to meet with approximately 22 protestors in a special meeting. Suffice it to say the meeting did not lead to an agreement and Agnes Knox Lewis took a lead in organizing citizens to protest the cemetery… and the movement to make Scotts Valley a city was born with the Scotts Valley Property Owners Association (SVPOA) leading the way. Ironically today’s city limits do not include Sandhill Road.

The SVPOA was integral to the eventual incorporation of Scotts Valley. When the Scotts Valley Property Owners Association was formed in 1960, Lewis was voted temporary Chairperson and was the President of the Association for the next three years.

There were many issues facing Scotts Valley during the early 1960s. The City of Santa Cruz had annexed Skypark Airport, the proposed cemetery was still being contested, and the two largest water districts were battling over the constant repair of pipes and delivery of water. The association negotiated with the Santa Cruz County Water Committee to form a new water district, which was formed in 1961 with Friend Stone selected as President of the Board.

Residents were concerned that their voices and opinions about what was going on in their community were not being heard so the movement grew for Scotts Valley to incorporate as a city. In a very close vote in 1964 residents chose to do just that. The issue was hotly contested by both sides for the next two years until the courts upheld the election and announced the birth of the City of Scotts Valley on August 2, 1966. Scotts Valley was the fourth city in Santa Cruz County, following Santa Cruz, Watsonville and Capitola.

Humble Beginnings

The City of Scotts Valley had a lot of catching up to do – personnel needed to be hired, offices needed to be acquired, and they needed money to get started. So the newly formed municipality borrowed $20,000 from a local bank – which was eventually repaid from tax revenue — and got to work.

Five men were elected to the inaugural Scotts Valley City Council in the original vote to incorporate: Bill Graham, MW Lotts, C.R. Roberson, Dave Alford and Ken Stacey. In the two-year interim between the vote and the court’s final ruling, Stacey and Alford had moved out of the area and were replaced by Paul Couchman and James “Bud” Kennedy.

One final, very important decision came down to a coin toss, which Bill Graham lost, and with that became the first Mayor of Scotts Valley. Current Mayor Donna Lind recalls Mayor Graham would joke that this was the first time he won something by losing.

With a portion of the $20,000 city nest egg, Friend Stone was formally hired as City Administrator. He also served informally as the planning director and chief of police. In November of 1966 Stone was joined in the city’s administration by Police Chief Gerald Pittenger and Agnes Lewis who became Scotts Valley’s first City Treasurer.

In 1967 the City acquired a farmhouse and land that became City Hall and included the police station. Shortly after in 1968, Stone hired Jun Lee as Planning Director and current Mayor Donna Lind (then known as Donna Berri and fresh out of school) as City Hall Secretary. Lind recalls that on her first day at work she accidentally hung up on Mayor Bill Graham.

“I thought for sure I would be fired,” Lind said. “But Bill just joked with me about it.”

Lind and the Mayor became good friends when she shared with him that she had discovered a cricket in her apartment and because it was so loud, had named it “Mr. Mayor.”

“From then on, Bill gave me the nickname of “Cricket,” said Lind. Years later, when Lind became the city’s first female police officer, Graham would greet her with a shout of “Cricket” and a hug.

While Graham was generally known as a kind and nice man who loved to tease, Lind recalls he could easily handle anyone who tried to disrupt a City Council Meeting.

“Once when I was taking minutes at a Council Meeting I remember someone in the crowd yelling aggressively and disrupting the meeting. The man was warned a few times and finally Mayor Graham banged the gavel and called for a recess. He stood up and invited the man outside to deal with it man to man,” Lind shared. “[The mayor] was a large man and as he stood up, the disruptive man looked at the Mayor, his size, and his obvious frustration with him, and he decided to sit down and be quiet. The meeting resumed without any further issues.”

Stone’s Vision

Friend Stone is remembered as a resourceful and practical visionary. In 1967, when the city acquired the farmhouse that was to be the City Hall and the police department, the city had very little cash in its coffers so “Stoney,” as he was known, took a trip to the state surplus store where he got desks, filing cabinets and other office furniture. But that was not all he purchased.

As Jun Lee, the city’s first planning director remembers it, Stoney purchased three obsolete corporal guided missiles for $95 a piece. The missiles were cut up and used as street culverts. There was an article in the local paper with a photo of the missiles proclaiming, “$95 marked down from $1 million!”

Known as a man of conviction and action, Mayor Lind recalls the time when the city received a gift of property that was earmarked as the site for a new city hall and police department. However there was a stipulation that construction on the project had to start by a certain date. Before ground could be broken, remains were found on the property that were thought to possibly be Indian artifacts. All plans to start were halted. But Stone had no intention of missing the deadline and went out with a tractor over the weekend and broke ground on the worksite.

“There were protests,” Lind recalls, “but at least ground was broken in accordance to the property donor’s requirements.”

Eventually the issue was resolved and business leaders and police department employees pitched in to build what is the current home of the Scotts Valley City Hall and Police Department. Stone, Robert Mandarino, and Eugene Bustichi (Dene Bustichi’s father and one-time planning commissioner) organized a crew of volunteers with Scarborough Lumber contributing much of the building material. City Hall is truly a building by and for the people of Scotts Valley.

Stone’s resignation from his position as city manager was reluctantly accepted by the City Council in 1974. He was commended as a man of “ability and resourcefulness,” for bringing a steady and dependable water source to the city, establishing a police department and hiring key personnel for the administration of the new City of Scotts Valley.

Mayor Donna Lind, who was hired by Stone, remembers him fondly, “Friend Stone had a huge heart,” she said. “He was like a surrogate father to me. When my younger sister had no one to escort her to a father/daughter dance he stepped forward and escorted her.”

Chief Pittenger and the SVPD

One of Friend Stone’s first actions as City Administrator was to hire Gerald (Jerry) Pittenger as Chief of Police. A veteran of World War II, Pittenger had been a Santa Cruz Sheriff’s Reserve Deputy as well as the owner of a security company in the Scotts Valley/SLV area before Stone hired him.

He began his career on November 1,1966 wearing the Sheriff Deputy’s uniform with a Scotts Valley Police Department patch and writing tickets with citations borrowed from the Capitola Police Department. Given the early financial status of the city, Pittenger found himself with nothing – no equipment, no patrol car, no uniform and no badge. For the first two months Pittenger used his own vehicle and patrolled the city without benefit of a SVPD two-way radio. The department picked up its first patrol car from Al Cheney Ford in Santa Cruz on Christmas Eve of 1966.

After several months of being the City’s lone officer, Pittenger was joined by Officer Robert Corbett in July of 1967. In the beginning Pittenger and Corbett would alternate 24-hour shifts and oftentimes would respond to calls from their homes. By November of 1967 the department had a five reserve officers and their first K-9 officer, King.

In the early 1970s, the Watkins Johnson Company was located next to City Hall and the Police Department. UCSC students, who had been protesting the war in Vietnam, discovered that some Watkins Johnson’s products were used in military planes. Chief Pittenger learned that a large protest was being planned. He contacted his brother, a Lieutenant at the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office, and requested assistance. At the time there was a task force comprised of members from all local law enforcement agencies trained to deal with this type of protest.

The task force was able to successfully disperse the protesters, as the City Hall and PD were so close to the planned action. All that night Friend Stone and Jun Lee sat with Dispatcher Donna (Berri) Lind. Jun Lee’s daughter recalls that Lee and Stone were armed and prepared to protect both Dispatcher Lind and the department.

As the first female officer at SVPD, Mayor Lind experienced Pittenger’s policing style first-hand, “Jerry taught all of us that we were to treat someone we contacted as though they were our father, mother, or family. If they became combative, then you do what you have to do, but you always start with respect. He also insisted that officers got out of their cars, get to know the business owners and community. He expected us all to be involved in the community. From the first day, no one was allowed to accept a free coffee or discounted meal even though this was commonly offered everywhere. It was something Jerry felt was unacceptable in Scotts Valley. Jerry was teaching “community policing” before there was a word for it.”

“I couldn’t do the job now,” Chief Pittenger said from his home in Yuma Arizona where has lived for the past 28 years. “When I started we didn’t even have a copy machine, let alone computers.” Chief Pittenger recognizes how far the agency has come from 1967 when they were averaging 200 calls in a year. “… that’s an average of 4 calls a week. Today there are 20 sworn officers that responded to 19,619 calls for service in 2015.”

“It certainly has progressed,” he said.

Then and Now

In a Santa Cruz Sentinel article dated March 1, 1970 Jun Lee predicted Scotts Valley would grow from a city of 3.5 square miles with 4,700 residents to encompass 18 square miles or more. While the city has not quite grown to the extent Lee predicted, it is now 5 square miles and home to 12,000 residents.

With a reputation as the safest city in the county, Scotts Valley maintains a strong sense of community with award winning schools and a family friendly atmosphere.

Mayor Donna Lind says, “Scotts Valley has adapted [to changes], but also tried to preserve the quality of life that makes us special. I’m proud to be a part of a city I feel is one of the most special places on Earth.”