Is it this…

“A great conspiracy has been thwarted. Elected officials have been put ‘it their place.’ The people will be heard.”

… or this?

“Lots of people signed something they really knew nothing about, and now it is going to cost the City of Santa Clarita.”

I think baseball could teach us something about this. Here is the example: When an umpire makes a call, that is the rule and the decision. It might not be the best or wanted decision, but it is what it is. Then if the player or manager goes up to the umpire and argues the call and the umpire doesn’t change his mind, the call stands. If the player or manager continues to argue the call, he can be thrown out of the game. Done. Complete. Finished.

When the City Council votes and one council member doesn’t like the result, he or she should voice displeasure and protest at the meeting – and then graciously accept the vote as it stands. Like the player or manager who continues to argue, maybe that council member should be thrown out of the game.

Mr. TimBen Boydston, the titles of “citizen” and “councilman” can’t be interchanged on any whim you might have just because the rest of the council voted against you. In our “at large” City Council election process, you represent all of us – not just those who agree with you. You represent the city of Santa Clarita, especially when a vote doesn’t go your way, as often happens.

I, for one, do not like how you’ve made our city look in the eyes of other governmental entities such as Metrolink and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. You seemed never to have learned how to play fair and follow some sort of rule of the majority.

What if I went to a Metro meeting or to the Board of Supervisors and decided that just for that meeting, I was going to call myself a councilman? (I’d like it to be “Mayor or Mentryville” if you must know.) Once you take on the mantle of “councilman,” you cannot throw it off unless you resign, get recalled and don’t win, or don’t get re-elected. It isn’t your choice when to stop representing us. You are a member of Santa Clarita City Council every hour of every day until you leave office.

Now, what you’ve been doing might be legal, but it sure isn’t ethical. Not by any measure.

I spent a long time in and with the Navy. I was a sailor. I was a sailor every hour and every day of my total enlistment. There were times when I didn’t want to be a sailor, but I raised my hand and took an oath. I made a contract with the citizens of the United States that I would give anything to support and defend them with all I had, up to and including my life.

You, sir, also took an oath to be a council member representing the city of Santa Clarita. The whole city. Not just the folks who don’t like the billboard deal. The whole city, not just a select few on Facebook who started the billboard mess. Folks who can see a conspiracy in an elected official crossing a street are your supporters in this.

You seem like a little kid in the sandbox. You didn’t get your way, and now you’re kicking sand on everyone. Did you run with scissors, too?

There are really two “deals” to remove billboards. One is done and approved so that 47 billboards get removed. If the deal with Metro and Allvision isn’t approved, there will still be an additional 60-plus billboards remaining. All for the blocking of three electronic boards. That really seems to be a stupid choice.

Did all of the folks that signed the petition know that little detail? I doubt it. I mean really, if I were asked if I wanted to block three electronic billboards and keep over 60 other non-electronic boards, I’d say I’ll take the three electronic.

But wait. The deal approved by City Council not only gets rid of 60-plus additional non-electronic billboards but will also pay the city more than $500,000 per year in fees for the electronic signs for 50 years.

The deal to remove the 47 Edwards Outdoor Advertising signs would not even have come up if it weren’t for Metro and Allvision wanting the electronic signs. So in reality, we’d be stuck with more than 100 signs that the city of Santa Clarita has wanted removed since it became a city.

If there is one thing I learned in my years of military and later civilian employment, that is one simple truth. There is power in silence. If folks wonder what I’m thinking and how I’m going to write something, there is power. They might think me a fool but have no proof until I speak or write. You, Councilman Boydston, sir, have once again stepped over the line to where I’ve no doubt as to what you are when your silence would have kept me wondering.

Maybe someday I’ll tackle the horrendous truck parking problem in the median strip of Creekside on Auto Row. Oh, the humanity. The idea was brought to you by the same guy who pushed for the billboard petition.

Darryl Manzer grew up in the Pico Canyon oil town of Mentryville in the 1960s and attended Hart High School. After a career in the U.S. Navy he returned to live in the Santa Clarita Valley. He can be reached at dmanzer@scvhistory.com and his commentaries, published on Tuesdays and Sundays, are archived at DManzer.com. Watch his walking tour of Mentryville [here].