It’s a classic political hack move.

Make unfounded assertions about an opponent in such a manner that you can hide behind words such as “it appears to be,” “not contending,” or “it looks like” and then sit back hoping people will add 1 plus 1 and get 666.

“Not saying that’s what’s happening,” but consider Lei Ann Valletta Larson’s thinly veiled accusation that Mayor Gary Singh and/or the City of Manteca have done something improper or illegal in regards to their dealings with OutFront Media under public comments at Tuesday’s Manteca City Council meeting.

Larson, “who may or may not be still smarting from her loss to Singh four years ago,” is not running against Singh on Nov. 3 but instead wants to get rid of incumbent Dave Breitenbucher so she can represent District 4 on the City Council.

To be clear, Larson is entitled to her opinion.

Her assertion that somehow the timeline of city actions “may” point to dubious dealings is just that, opinion.

The numerous public actions the council has taken over the years regarding OutFront Media and/or the proposed electronic LED billboards proposed along the 120 Bypass and Highway 99 are a matter of record.

You can make anything smell rotten by asserting that it might be.

It’s the premise behind the morality tale Hans Christian Anderson penned in 1837 that’s known as “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”

Two clothing weavers — they might be called political consultants today — use the power of gullibility to shake down an emperor for the price of fancy invisible clothing.

The goal on Tuesday apparently was to peel off voters from Breitenbucher and Singh with broad strokes of wondering out loud if there were possible improprieties.

Of course, adding that you were formally asking the San Joaquin County District Attorney to look into the matters is a nice ominous touch.

So, let’s examine what Larson was alleging being done away from the public’s eye which was simply not the case.

It started 25 years ago.

The City of Manteca gave notice, per their contract for leasing space for three two-sided billboards on municipal property along Moffat Boulevard, to terminate the lease agreement with what was then Gannett Outdoor Advertising.

What prompted the action was an engineering proposal that would have required a secondary wastewater treatment line serving Eckert’s Cold Storage to go under the billboards.

Another option for the line was determined to be more effective and the council’s directive was not implemented.

On April 16, 2007, the council reaffirmed its previous decision to terminate the lease. That notice went to CBS Outdoor on May 1, 2007. CBS Outdoor — the nation’s largest owner of billboards at the time — has since acquired the signs.

The legal agreement between the city and the media company required the billboards to be either removed within 30 days of receiving notice from the city or — if not removed by them — the city could do so within a year’s time and be reimbursed for the cost.

But instead of removing the signs by June 1, 2008, CBS Outdoor decided to play hardball.

They said they’d fight the city using a federal law that was intended to prevent local government from forcing the removal of billboards on private property. In this case, the billboards are on public property.

OutFront Media then purchased CBS Outdoor.

On Oct. 4, 2022, the council voted to file a lawsuit against OutFront Media in San Joaquin Superior Court to enforce the terms of the contract.

In 2024, the City Council voted to acquire 3.85 acres on Atherton Drive that was deemed difficult to develop with the expressed purpose of developing a food truck court or land a sit-down chain restaurant.

Shortly thereafter, staff suggested leveraging the site — along with a static billboard on private property along Highway 99 — for electronic billboards in exchange for the removal of the Moffat Boulevard billboards to avoid a court battle.

In exchange, instead of receiving $2,070 a year in lease payments for the three billboards on Moffat, Manteca would receive a minimum of $600,000 annually from the two digital billboards.

The Highway 99 property owner agreed to annex as did two of his neighbors.

In addition, a large swath of Caltrans right-of-way involving Highway 99 was added to the annexation.

All of that, plus increasing sign height limits to 75 feet, were all part of actions that were taken as required by state law through public notices and at public meetings that were properly noticed to the public.

Of course, to paraphrase what Jack Nicholson’s famously shouted in “A Few Good Men,” some people can’t handle the truth.

The bottom line is the slow and fine grind of the government process has dotted every “i” and crossed every “t”.

And the end result, is Manteca residents will benefit from city services funded with $600,000 plus annually because of an idea that originated with Manteca haters’ favorite political piñata, Gary Singh.