August “Augie” Scalzitti is running for Santee City Council District 4 against incumbent Councilmember Dustin Trotter. Scalzitti said that political preference and age have no bearing on this nonpartisan seat election.
Scalzitti owned a barbershop in Santee in 1978, two years before Santee became incorporated.
“I was one part of about a dozen and a half people who pushed for Santee to become a city,” he said. “When it became a city, I began helping people get elected to different offices, like school board, city council, the mayor’s seat. I had a little advantage for that because I had a barbershop, and some of the people like Jack Doyle, Jack Dale later, would come in and ask me what people thought. I talked to people one-on-one and became the advantage of feeling for what people were thinking, so they would check in with me to see if some of their ideas were good, not so good, or what people thought. They said I had my hand on the pulse of the community. It was true. I did. We talked baseball, politics, and many subjects.”
Scalzitti said he is a retired barber, and after running several successful campaigns, he was elected to the Padre Dam Municipal Water District as director, serving there nearly 25 years.
“I liked the job. I liked representing the people. They dedicated the big gazebo at Santee Lakes in my honor, he said.
Scalzitti said with his barber training, he can communicate effectively with anyone, regardless of political affiliation. I was endorsed by [former county supervisor] Dianne Jacob in a previous election, sat on a board with [County Supervisor] Joel Anderson at the water district,” he said. “I was here when the founding fathers of the city were designing the city’s general plan. For that, they used a mathematical equation that it would be parks and open space. There would not be building at Santee Lakes or the golf course. No building on Mast Boulevard or the riverbed. In the past few years, they have been closing in on those areas. They wanted to build on the golf course, and a few years ago there was even an offer to sell Santee Lakes to commercial, turning it into a different space. I do not want to see the little city go away. I do not like three-story developments for density in housing. So, I decided to run for city council, and I feel like I might win. I will represent the people who do not want three-story developments like other cities, like other cities who go astray like El Cajon did some 20 years ago and built high-density apartments and houses. It has not been a plus. I want to save Santee from big developers who come in town, join clubs like the Rotary and Kiwanis, buy a house. They send in a representative, got to church in the community. But they build big developments, so they could be in Poughkeepsie, New York.”
Scalzitti said in talking with developers they have told him that they do build on golf courses, and their project is to turn it into some form of housing, sell it for as much as they can, then move on to the next city.
“In watching Santee, I have been in Santee for a long while. I know the people and get along with them. I know my neighbors and know people from all over the city,” he said. “I want to retain the Santee look [in District 4]. I could cave in to something really nice but in District 4 it is mostly single-family dwelling houses. A place where they move out of an apartment or out of their first house in District 4. I have a view of the golf course. But it is not only about me. It is about representing the people in District 4.”
Scalzitti said he is against Measure S, a half-cent sales tax measure to update the Santee Fire Department spearheaded by the Santee Firefighters Association, which has received enough signatures for the November ballot.
“I am against raising city taxes at all,” he said. “It is time to pull up the boot straps and do what you can with it. I am against raising any and all taxes.”
Scalzitti said he met his wife in Santee.
“I raised my family here in Santee. They went to Santee schools, my grandchildren included. They used to have a saying that ‘everybody wants to be the last one in and then pull the bridge up and then close the door,’” he said. “I am open for cautious reasonable growth, but not taking Santee Lakes away, or the golf course, or infringing on the river. They want to backfill the river, add ten feet, and dig the river on the other side. That not only seems infeasible and crazy, and I am against that kind of thing. I am not a one issue guy. I talk to the people, and I listen to the people.”
