You gotta love the annual SCV Newsmakers Award dinner. Put on by the SCV Press Club (which is a club just for Signal staffers apparently), the annual charity dinner hands out awards to community newsmakers in several different categories.
The categories range from “Newsmaker” to organization of the year, community service, behind the scenes newsmaker, most cooperative with the local press, and a few others. You can read all the nominees and some more information about the February 29 dinner here.
Though the banquet is a public charity event, it’s also yet another one of those insider SCV galas that’s attended by the 300-600 people who are in-the-know and really control the SCV. What’s more, the nominees for the various newsmaker categories are usually found among those same 300-600 people, making it a convenient one-stop shop for back-slapping and drinking, all for charity.
But there’s one category that’s different, and consequently, more interesting for you and me. A journalism instructor once told me that good journalism is about conflict. Man vs nature, man vs man (or little man vs THE MAN), man vs life itself. Carrying that even further, a well known local newswoman once told me that good journalism is about afflicting the comfortable and comforting the afflicted.
So, in that vein, let’s afflict the comfortable by taking a look at the most interesting category: the Most Controversial Newsmaker award.
The nominees (and their controversies along with how they fit into a journalism narrative) are:
- TimBen Boydston, the maverick, bearded City Councilman and artiste who famously hinted that there was “collusion” between City Planning staff and lobbyists working on behalf of Mayo Hospital (Man vs Man)
- David Gauny, the heretofore unheard of Valencia man who’s organized presentation (and sexy PowerPoint slides) focused the opposition to the hospital plan and lead to many a Marsha McLean sigh (little man vs City Hall)
- Hart School Board, the five member panel who probably deserve a long stint in detention after continued delays of Castaic High, budget overruns at area high school construction projects, and misspent Measure V funds (Incompetent powerful man vs little Castaic men and women)
- Roger Seaver, the captain, spokesperson, offensive and defensive coach of the Mayo Hospital expansion plan, who, while managing to modernize much of Henry Mayo has alienated many of his residential neighbors with his plans for ginormous 5 story
Imperial Fortressoffice towers(the politically connected man vs little men) - Scott Wilk, the lobbyists’ lobbyist, the man who’s name pops up in SCV news and politics like Wack-a-Mole at the arcade, the man who managed to become an unelected public official at one SCV education institution while simultaneously lobbying other elected officials at another SCV educational institution. Darth Wilk is the genius behind the city’s open space measure flyers, which told SCVers that a vote against open space was a vote for brown-on-white crime and the SFVization of Santa Clarita. He’s the man who probably has compromising pictures of every mover and shaker in town. (THE MAN, period)
So how does one judge controversial-ness? I have no idea.
But I know I could (and did!) fill about a hundred different blog posts describing these different individuals and groups and their activities in the last year, so they’re definitely a good bunch to choose from.
It doesn’t really strike me as fair to say that David Gauny is controversial; from what I can tell, if Henry Mayo just left him alone and didn’t build anything near his Valencia Summit home, Gauny would slip back into obscurity, happy with his mortgage business. Usually, such people (little man fighting City Hall for home and hearth) aren’t controversial, they’re noble, sympathetic even.
TimBen’s comments, of course, were very controversial at the time and really brought in the hits on SCVTalk.com. He’s fair game for this award, especially since he named City staffers.
The remaining nominees are all controversial in their own right, especially the Hart Board, which tends to trip over its own two (ten?) feet without any help from the outside.
Seaver is a businessman. What more can you say?
Finally, there’s Scott Wilk. He doesn’t seek the limelight, so there’s always that “What’s he up to now?” factor that keeps you on your toes. I can’t wait to see what he’s got cooked up ahead of the City Council election.
So what do you say? Who’s the most controversial of the controversial? Opine in the comments below or in the poll to the right.