2007-09-28·westranchbeacon.com · WordPress (West Ranch Beacon)·Wayback capture

Tim Ben Denies Bad Behavior

By admin

City of Santa Clarita Local

Santa Clarita Councilman Tim Ben Boydston responds to the Beacon article by denying he behaved poorly. In an exclusive article published by the Beacon titled “Local Company Upset by City Councilman Boydston’s Actions; is this Ethical Behavior?”, Tim Ben’s actions were detailed by a local company executive in a letter to City leaders.

“It certainly would be improper behavior if this account were true. It is not” commented Councilman Boydston to the Beacon on Thursday. This was a flat out denial of the behavior that was outlined in Mr. Coffey’s letter, of the Electric Properties group, that owns the property at the center of this controversy. Is Mr. Coffey’s letter completely false? Usually where there is smoke, there is fire!

Regarding a code of ethics, Tim Ben went on to say, “And yes, I am very much in favor of a code of ethics.” Hopefully that ethics code would include expected proper behavior of an elected City official.

Comments

5 · as published

Chris Sharp
Chris Sharp Says: September 28th, 2007 at 3:29 pm I don’t really understand the purpose of the tone in this article. Is it going for melodrama? There is a really good theater company in Coquille, Oregon — I forget its name, but call the Coquille Chamber if you’re interested — that stages some of the best melodrama in America during the summer. A typical scene is when someone comes out on stage in a black cape and ten-story hat while a bunch of stage mist .. that is, “smoke” … is pushed out into the audience. A stage narrator steps up on stage to say, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” It soon becomes a real hoot, with the audience screaming and throwing all their popcorn everywhere.
admin
admin Says: September 29th, 2007 at 7:28 am Chris, The tone was there because Tim Ben denied the entire account of his behavior. I would suspect that there is some level of truth to the letter. Why would a business owner make all that up? -Dave
Chris Sharp
Chris Sharp Says: September 30th, 2007 at 11:26 am I understand, Dave. The “smoke” is this so-called angry public letter. But since no one knows where the fire is, can I make up a fire from the scraps we have until some better picture comes in? I see this Electric guy setting up equipment in the parking lot. Tim Ben comes out and says, “Excuse me. This is the parking lot for my audience, and Friday is my big performance night. As opposed to most community theater directors, my audience is made up almost entirely of a retirement community. Most of the people who see my shows are really old, because I’m always afraid of making waves if I create shows for mainstream and younger crowds. But if I can’t get my old audiences in right through this door I don’t even know if they will even make it into the lobby if they park out on the streets.” Then the Electric guy waves a paper and says “But the City says I can shoot here.” Then Tim Ben says. “That’s funny. I’m a City Council member and I never heard about this.” The “fire” is Tim Ben saying to this Electric guy that he is on the City Council, which the Electric guy took and ran with. Tim Ben, next time you get into any hassle where you leave somebody looking for payback, don’t tell him you’re a City Council member.
Chris Sharp
Chris Sharp Says: October 1st, 2007 at 12:52 pm If anyone is still tuned in, the Oregon theatre exclusively producing melodrama like that above can be found at http://www.sawdusttheatre.com . When I was last there (in Coquille, on the Oregon south coast) the concession stand sold popcorn projectiles to throw at the people on stage who were making really bad mistakes. At least it worked for me — I found I can stand a villain a lot better when I’m throwing popcorn at him.
Chris Sharp
Chris Sharp Says: October 1st, 2007 at 12:55 pm If anyone is still tuned in, you can look up the Oregon theatre exclusively producing melodrama that resembles “The Mystery of Tim Ben’s Parking Lot” at http://www.sawdusttheatre.com