So I stopped by City Hall last night and saw the usual billboard preservationists – the folks who are opposed to the billboard removal ordinance. They must really like the existing billboards a lot, because they sure are working hard to keep them.

One gentleman had a T-shirt that made me laugh out loud. Besides stating how he was going to vote on Measure S, it also had the words, “It’s a Bad Deal” that seemed to jump out at those reading it. I think it may have been shaped like my stomach – that is a bad deal.

I don’t get why those folks keep showing up and talking. The City Council of Santa Clarita knows what those folks want. Maybe it gives voice to a council member who always wants to be one of the people instead of a council member.

So they continue the protest, and only a few of us listen. Sort of like another gentleman who keeps showing up on a Facebook page, telling us all again how much he likes a certain candidate for Congress. I’ll be so very happy when we don’t have to read that any more.

So the T-shirted guy asked me why I care so much about stopping the expansion of the dump when I should be jumping on the anti-Measure S bandwagon. I told him his whole anti-billboard removal ordinance idea was based on a false premise, as I’ve explained in many of these commentaries, but the dump issue is one that is “in our valley,” and it is causing people in Val Verde to get sick.

People getting ill because of illegal dumping is a lot more important than three electronic billboards.

The gentleman seemed to lack understanding that it is the “whole valley” I’m concerned with and write about. He can’t seem to get beyond those billboards.

He can’t get beyond the fact that yes, it really is a real-estate leasing deal – it’s about companies that lease Metrolink property for billboards, and Metro wants the billboards taken down. They struck a deal, whereas Santa Clarita would allow a total of three electronic billboards on city land along I-5 and the 14 Freeway in exchange for taking down all of the billboards in the railroad right-of-way.

Now since it was and is a real-estate leasing transaction, it could not be discussed in an open meeting. City staff negotiated with the other parties to get some money for the city from the deal. It was then brought to the City Council for a vote.

Now one City Council member is very vocal in his rejecting what the other members of council voted to approve. He does that often. Recently he was at another agency’s meeting and spoke as a “citizen” and not a member of Santa Clarita City Council. He stated views that were opposite from those already approved by the other council members. Sore loser.

When I hear about a council member going out in public and saying that “as a citizen” he doesn’t agree with how the council voted, well, that is free speech, but it is also unethical and deserves the contempt of the citizens he is pledged to represent.

He reminds me of a certain congressional candidate who is taking a step over the line from the 26th to the 25th District in order to run for office. Back in the 26th, he is just a citizen. Here he is, by any other measure, a certified carpetbagger. He wants not to serve but rather he wants power.

On another election matter, I’m still 100 percent for Jim McDonnell for L.A. County Sheriff. He doesn’t have much baggage, does he? He would make the better choice as our new sheriff since he doesn’t have, at last count, 21 various charges against him by the grand jury. Gee, an honest sheriff. What a concept.

Darn. I keep coming back to the question I was asked: “Why are you so interested in Val Verde?” That gentleman also asked if I liked being on the losing side of a battle. Well, I don’t; that battle isn’t lost. It has a lot more support than the billboard issue. Val Verde is fighting without the big money help of the billboard companies. I actually think they have a chance to stop the expansion. It has a chance to save a few lives.

So that is how it goes. “Yes” on Measure S and “No” on the dump expansion.

A good friend told me that every time I write about the dump and all of its problems, I was helping some youth organization in some way. Usually it was because a charity that is located a far away from the dump site made a bunch of bucks with a new infusion of cash from the landfill operator.

I like that idea. You can always give to the best charity I know. That charity is named after me. If I’m here tomorrow, stand by. Great events will happen. Be willing. Take the steps. There are only two.

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. His older commentaries are archived at DManzer.com; his newer commentaries can be accessed [here]. Watch his walking tour of Mentryville [here].