If you’ve ever wondered what it looks like when a local government decides to treat its own zoning laws like a “suggested serving size” on a cereal box, look no further than the 3127 Fite Circle debacle. Welcome to Rancho Cordova, where the rules are made up as we go and ethics only matter if you’re sitting on the right side of the dais. In a breathtaking 4-1 display of legislative amnesia, our City Council recently forgot its own zoning laws and greenlit a digital billboard for the Cordova Community Council that isn’t just big; it’s “we’re-ignoring-every-law-on-the-books” big. We’re talking over a thousand square feet of glowing pixels, nearly double what any mere mortal business owner is allowed to erect. It’s a 60-foot-tall middle finger to anyone who actually bothered to read the city code.

The real comedy here, however, isn’t the sign itself (which, thankfully, hasn’t been hammered into the dirt yet) it’s the casting. In a move that would make a Chicago alderman blush, Councilmember David Sander didn’t just vote for this monstrosity; he basically championed it while simultaneously wearing his hat as the President of the very organization set to rake in the advertising dough. When Joe Little, the lone voice of reason in the room, started shouting about favoritism and “special rules,” the rest of the Council acted like they’d never heard of a conflict of interest. Sander’s defense was essentially that his “expertise” was too valuable to lose, which is political-speak for “I’m the fox, and this henhouse is delicious.”

Now, because the city decided to play favorites with a high-value advertising asset, the lawyers have entered the chat. While the dirt at Fite Circle remains undisturbed, the air is thick with the smell of litigation. Companies like Orion Outdoor Media and Clear Channel, who actually have to follow things like “laws” and “logic”, are currently suing to stop this glowing monument to cronyism before it can blink its first LED. They’re arguing that the city has basically rigged the market, creating a state-sanctioned monopoly for their buddies while everyone else is stuck following the restrictive codes that were apparently only written for the “little people.”

It’s a classic small-town soap opera: a nonprofit with a direct pipeline to City Hall gets a custom-made loophole, and the taxpayers get a pending legal bill that’ll likely cost more than the billboard itself. The city claims this is all for the “public good,” because apparently, nothing serves the community quite like a giant, illegal, distracting light-box run by the guy who just voted to approve it. If this thing actually goes up, we might as well just replace the “Welcome to Rancho Cordova” sign with a banner that says “Rules for Thee, but Not for CCC.”