I didn’t know what to expect. A kind soul called me yesterday and offered my wife and I free tickets to the hottest show in town; the SCV Press Club’s 2007 Newsmaker of the Year awards. It turned out to be an interesting experience.

By the time we arrived at the Hyatt, the lobby was packed with the SCV’s finest. I remarked to my wife that these were the characters I write about everyday and that I was hopeful that the night would give me much material. She rolled her eyes.

Trouble started early on. As I glanced around the room, I realized how poorly I had dressed. A Signal reporter later came up to me and told me it was appropriate dress for a journalist -light blue shirt, khakis and a shabby brown corduroy sportcoat-but that didn’t make me feel any better when everyone else was dressed in formal business attire. I gulped, glanced at my wife (who’s fashion sense could compete with any of the women in that room) and we went to find our seats.

Upon check-in, we were told our seats were at Table 14, located on the right side of the room. I hoped I might sit with someone I knew or at least someone who had read my website, but it turns out we didn’t sit there at all. There were four seats left at the table, but as I started to pull out the chair for my wife, two of the people at that table rather rudely told me that all the seats were reserved. That’s right; someone had taken our seats at Table 14 even though we were on the official list.

We hurriedly consulted with the fine people working the front desk, and eventually no less a media authority than Tim Whyte showed up to help resolve the problem.

“Was your name on the list?” he asked me

“Yes, Jeff Wilson, table 14.”

“And all the seats at that table are taken?”

“Yes, obviously someone is sitting there who shouldn’t be, unless the table counts are wrong.”

“Well, we can’t force them to get up,” he said. No, it wouldn’t do to cause a scene in a room packed with the SCV Chattering Classes.

“Look, I’m sorry this happened, but we can sit you at table 24. It’s got plenty of space,” Whyte said, before hurrying back to the stage.

My wife and I looked over at Table 24 -located in the back, near the help’s entrance and adjacent to the audio/video booth- and were surprised to see who was sitting there.

Miss Teen SCV…all of them. Yes, that’s right, the beautiful teenaged girls representing Saugus, Canyon Country, Newhall and Valencia, all decked out in makeup, dresses and shiny tiaras.

My wife groaned. “I don’t want to sit with the beauty queens!,” she protested, but I reminded her that it was a free dinner and we should make the best of it.

Those girls turned out to be quite sweet and friendly and we enjoyed sitting with them much more than we would have enjoyed sitting with the stuffy guests at Table 14. They even taught us (okay me) a thing or two about etiquette; they knew which fork was the proper fork for salads, and ate their food in a dignified, proper way, as is befitting young women in their station.

Also at the table: Signal photog Will Davison, his friend and freelance photog John Bergantino, and Signal features reporter AnneMarie Donkin, who helped out during the auction and later spoke with me.

With that drama settled, we started paying attention to the auction, which had been underway for a few minutes. Mayor Bob Kellar and car king Don Fleming, who’s booming Texas-sized voice could single-handedly drive cattle, tag-teamed the auction items, talking up each one:

- A day as Editor of the Signal and a full page business ad

- An hour on KHTS, which Don Fleming kept referring to as KHTZ

- One year of car washes, something Don Fleming really hyped

on and on and on for a total of 16 different auction items. Hands shot up for most of them with some items going for as much as $1500, the proceeds of which benefitted the Randy Wicks First Amendment scholarship fund.

With the auction complete it was time for the keynote speaker: CNN anchor, SCV resident and mega-babe Bella Shaw. Shaw spoke about journalism in the internet age, and stressed the need for journalists to be both speedy and accurate in their reporting. But much of the crowd didn’t pay attention; one woman was walking around the tables advising people to shut up, and she stopped at our cheap seats table too.

I made good use of the keynote and in whispers started talking to AnneMarie about her life at The Signal. I had met AnneMarie once before during a guided tour of The Signal’s Creekside building while I was taking a journalism class at COC. She had just finished helping with the auction when she dropped the bomb.

Friday was AnneMarie Donkin’s last day at The Signal. The features writer told me her position had been cut and that she was sad about losing her ‘dream job’. She said she really had enjoyed her time at The Signal and remarked that she knew virtually everyone in the room. She marveled -with cynicism or admiration I’m not sure- at how everyone in the room was so connected, so enmeshed and embedded in each other’s lives, businesses, and careers. In my mind, I pictured hundreds of Venn Diagrams, all intersecting and overlapping.

She dished on the trials and tribulations of The Signal and told me she hoped to write for a Santa Clarita magazine. Above all, she said, she loved to write.

After the keynote, the lights dimmed, rock music blared from the speakers and a photograph slide show appeared on the screens. It was time for notable Signal photographs from 2007, and they were impressive. Ooohs and aaahs greeted sports photographs, character studies, kid photos, photos of the fires and the truck disaster on I-5, and photos of Sheriff’s deputies (including the wreckage of two cruisers which collided last year). A cheer erupted from the crowd at the end of the show; The Signal photogs were rock stars, visually telling the story of our community every day.

Will Davison, The Signal photog at my table, took a bow. But his boss, Bryan Knieding, photo editor at The Signal, “doesn’t go to events like these,” I was told. It should be noted that Francisca Rivas and Davison were both on duty last night, snapping the shots you see in today’s paper.

With that, the awards portion of the show kicked off. I paid scant attention to most of the awards, preferring instead to watch the crowd’s reaction and the look on the faces of the losing nominees, just as I do on Oscar’s night. Unlike the Academy awards though, every nominee at the Newsmaker awards walks home with glass plaque.

Finally, the award I had eagerly anticipated arrived: Most Controversial Newsmaker of 2007. Who would it be? Tim Whyte read the bios of the nominees and flashed a picture on the screen. There was lobbyist Scott Wilk, in his office, with his legs up on his desk, probably pondering how he could slander a Democratic City Council Candidate with a slick mailer. TimBen Boydston, the artiste turned councilman who rocked SCV politics last year with his insinuation of collusion between city staff and hospital lobbyists. Dave Gauny, who fought City Hall to a stalemate on Mayo Expansion and is ironically employed in a sector revered in the SCV: real estate. Roger Seaver, the jowly chief in charge of said hospital (are you noticing a trend yet?). And all five members of the Hart Board, which, for a variety of reasons, were greeted with some boos from the crowd.

As the poll on my site indicated, TimBen Boydston was the shoe-in. When his name was announced, about half the room loudly cheered while the other half politely clapped. I can’t say for sure that he was reacting to TimBen’s win, but I watched as Mayor Bob Kellar rubbed his temples and looked down as TimBen took the podium.

“I have always been a believer that the free press keeps our country from sliding into anarchy or dictatorship,” Boydston said at the podium. “For if there is no one out there who can speak for the disenfranchised and those without a PR firm, then we are in serious trouble,” he continued.

“I am grateful that our valley has local press and I hope that The Signal is here 100 years from now to make sure that they keep us all honest.”

Then he got to the meaning of the award: “That said, when I was appointed to the City Council, I did not think it was controversial to ask questions in a public forum.”

Loud cheers and whoops from some in the crowd.

Boydston has one month left on the City Council, and by May, we’ll probably have a decision on Mayo expansion.

Though Gauny didn’t win an award last night, we spoke briefly during the ceremony. Gauny stressed that he didn’t oppose the hospital’s expansion just because it was near his house; he said that above all, he wanted transparency and due process in all the city’s dealings with developers. He hinted that win, lose or draw on Mayo Expansion, he’d be back advocating in front of the City Council on a variety of issues.

That was it, the highlight of the evening. I know the big award -SCV Newsmaker of the Year- is really the point of the show, but the selection of Mayor Bob Kellar was anti-climactic in my opinion. In my mind, the others on the list, Dave Gauny, TimBen Boydston, Mayor Marsha McLean, and Anthony Zinnanti were all more significant newsmakers last year than Kellar, who seemed to steer towards the safety of the middle on several controversial topics. Mayor Marsha McLean in particular deserved it just for her role during the fires and the truck disaster.

The only other thing that was notable about last night’s dinner was who wasn’t there. I didn’t see Councilmembers Weste or Ferry. Carl Goldman of KHTS showed up, as expected, but I didn’t see Richard Budman, producer of television content for SCVTV, who’s in a lawsuit with The Signal’s owners. Nor did I see Leon Worden, former editor of The Signal, owner of the SCVTV, longtime city-watcher, columnist and local historian. I also hoped that John Boston might show up, but if he was there, I didn’t see him.

I did get a chance to introduce myself to Jay Harn, The Signal’s publisher, who is taller than I pictured him. He greeted me with a solid handshake and said he wanted me to write more columns for The Signal.