He grew up with an older brother and older kids in the neighborhood. When playing sports, he had to fight to be picked for a team.  Former Santa Clarita Mayor and California State Assemblyman Cameron Smyth said he took away crucial life lessons in those moments.   “I had to demonstrate my value,” he said in a recent interview. “I didn’t want to be left out or left behind.”  Smyth would spend a career in politics similarly trying to bring value to all he did.  On Dec. 10, he presided over his last City Council meeting as mayor. He said serving the community has been an honor.  Outgoing Mayor Cameron Smyth receives a proclamation from Mayor Pro Tem Laurene Weste on behalf of the Los Angeles County Sanitation District during the Santa Clarita City Council meeting at City Hall on Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. Habeba Mostafa/ The Signal “Very few people have the honor of being the mayor of their hometown,” Smyth said. “I got to be one of those. And I got to sit in the same office that my dad used.”  Smyth, 53, grew up in the Santa Clarita Valley. His parents came from Sierra Madre, California, to the SCV in the early 1970s because his dad got a job as principal at Placerita Junior High School in Newhall.   Growing up, Smyth was very active in sports. After graduating from Hart High School, he went to the University of California, Davis, to play football. He’d earn his bachelor of arts degree in rhetoric and communications from the school in 1994.  As for career goals, Smyth said he didn’t really have anything in mind, per se, but he fell into politics after helping his dad, Clyde Smyth, during his dad’s run for City Council.  “That led to an unpaid internship with Congressman Buck McKeon’s office at the time,” Smyth said. “From there, I picked up work for the state Republican Party during the 1994 elections, and things just kind of evolved from there.”  As such, he became campaign manager for William “Pete” Knight’s state Senate campaign. While campaigning, Knight, who was a sitting state assemblyman, was unable to make all the candidate forums, and so, Smyth debated for him.  He remembered his first debate well. It was at a Sizzler restaurant in Acton, and it was definitely a learning moment.  “I got smoked,” he admitted. “But from that point on, I became more comfortable, and I understood what the questions were going to be and was prepared. By the end, I think I held my own.”  Knight would go on to win the seat, and as a result, he’d promote Smyth to his deputy chief of staff. Smyth said the experience got him thinking: Perhaps he’d like to make the transition from staff to office holder.  Smyth went on to win his first seat on the Santa Clarita City Council in 2000. He was just 28 years old at the time, making him, to date, the youngest member of the city council in the city’s 37-year history. He was 31 when he became mayor for the first time.  The big issue in the city at the moment was growth and traffic. Smyth jumped into action.  “I talked to a lot of people that I respected that were in those areas,” he said. “And I was able to develop a position that, fortunately, was successful.”  In 2004, Smyth was re-elected to the council. During that term, he rotated to mayor again in 2005. But, since 2000, he had his eyes on California Assemblyman Keith Richman’s job. Smyth knew Richman would term out in 2006, so, Smyth prepared.  Mayor Cameron Smyth, councilmembers and local dignitaries hold shovels during the Old Orchard Park groundbreaking ceremony on Wednesday, Oct. 2. Habeba Mostafa/ The Signal Smyth would become a California Assemblyman in 2006. His third and final term, due to term limits, expired in 2012, but he’d already been thinking that he needed to be closer to home.   “I started to reprioritize my life,” he said, “Being gone 100 nights a year with three kids under the age of 6 wasn’t healthy. I wanted to be a part of my kids’ lives. I started to reevaluate whether a full-time career in a legislative capacity was really feasible.”  And so, rather than run for a state Senate seat, Smyth came home.  In 2016, he was elected again to the Santa Clarita City Council. He said he felt the council wasn’t very focused on what was important to most Santa Clarita residents.   “There was nobody on the council with young kids,” Smyth said. “So much of Santa Clarita is driven by families and what’s important to young families, and I felt that there was a void there that I could fill with my policy, my expertise, along with what I was living day to day in Santa Clarita.”  Sammy Clarita, left, Councilwoman Marsha McLean, center left, Councilwoman Laurene Weste, center right, and Mayor Cameron Smyth flip the switch to light the tree during Light Up Main Street in Old Town Newhall on Saturday, Nov. 16. Habeba Mostafa/ The Signal Smyth was re-elected to the council again in 2020, and he was mayor in 2017, 2020 and once more this past year.  His decision to leave the council was in large part driven by the city’s change to districts in 2024.  “As part of the settlement,” he said, “we had to draw out one Latino-majority district, and that district had to be on the 2024 ballot. Neither Jason Gibbs nor I lived in District 1. With both of our terms being up in ’24, one of us was going to have to either move or step down at the end of the year.”  Smyth felt it made more sense for Gibbs to stay, given the time of their careers. Smyth said he’s comfortable and “at peace” with the decision.  Asked what he’s most proud of in his political career, Smyth said one highlight is from 2010 when he was appointed as chair of the Assembly Local Government Committee.   “I was the only member of the minority party to chair a major policy committee,” Smyth said. “There were a number of Democrat Assembly members that did not have a committee chairmanship. I saw that as really a validation for why I went to Sacramento, which was to really focus on solving problems of the state and not being a political ideologue.”   Smyth also spoke about the bill he framed called the Surrogate Stalker Act. It was the result of an individual in Santa Clarita, who, Smyth said, was a “self-described pedophile” hosting a website for pedophiles that listed the best places in Santa Clarita to observe children.   At the time, it was not illegal to do what this individual was doing. The loophole that he was exploiting, Smyth said, was that he was not speaking to children or harassing anyone. Smyth’s bill to address that loophole became law in January 2009.  Upon reflection, Smyth said there’s one thing he’s carried with him since those early days of playing sports with older kids in the neighborhood: It’s being able to offer value to others.   During Smyth’s last days in the Legislature, then-Gov. Jerry Brown was looking to pass what was called a timber tax, which, Smyth said, helped support the California timber industry by placing taxes on imported timber.   “At the time, they needed two Republican votes to pass the tax increase,” he said. “We got down to the last 15 or 20 minutes of the legislative session before the clock struck midnight, and I got a call directly from Gov. Brown on my cell phone asking if I would vote for the bill. I felt it was good policy, even though it was a tax. Here I am, a Republican legislator in California, and I have the Democrat governor calling me at midnight, asking for my vote. I thought, ‘What better way to leave my time in the Legislature than having the Democrat governor call and ask for my help.’”  Just like when he was the youngest of his friends on the block, Smyth said he had to prove his value. In this case, as a member of the minority party in a partisan elected office, he had to follow his guiding principles and do what he thought was right, despite the large number of his Republican colleagues who were not happy with the vote.  “I thought it was the right thing to do for the state of California,” he said. “And I put it out.”  Smyth holds a job for Molina Healthcare as vice president of state affairs. He’ll continue doing that following his political career. He said that’s his plan for now, anyway.  Santa Clarita Valley Mayor Cameron Smyth speaks at the 2024 State of the City event at the Canyon Country Community Center on October 17, 2024. Trisha Anas/The Signal. The post Smyth: ‘Serving was an honor’  appeared first on Santa Clarita Valley Signal.