Council Challengers Call for Change at Debate

Fireworks were in the air as the candidates for the West Hollywood election gathered for a debate Wednesday night. Accusations flew as the challengers kept repeating the same message: Change is needed to get the city back on track. However, the incumbents insisted that everything is fine as it is.

All nine of the contenders for the three City Council seats up for grabs on March 8 participated in the debate at the auditorium, which was attended by about 100 people with many more watching at home on the city’s public access channel. 

“The current City Council has lost touch with what residents want and with progressive values,” said challenger Steve Martin, who served on the City Council from 1994-2003. 

That sentiment was echoed by another challenger, John D’Amico, who said, “Our city is drifting. Our city’s drift towards bigger, faster, louder when it comes to development, that’s not what the citizens want. We have said over and over again to our city council, ‘bigger, faster, louder is not for us,' yet traffic gets worse, the parking disappears.”

Urging the city to get back to the progressive roots upon which it was founded, challenger Lucas John said, “More and more, West Hollywood is looking like conservative Calabasas rather than liberal San Francisco.” 

Meanwhile, incumbent , who has served on the council for 18 years, said she is “proud of the role I have played to make West Hollywood a great place.”

Candidates were given 90 seconds for opening remarks, then answered questions posed by moderators from the League of Women Voters. With so many people participating, questions were asked of candidates in groups of three, then a new question was posed to a different group of three and so forth. Later, all the candidates were given a chance to respond to two of the questions they did not originally get to answer.

The question of development in the city was a recurring theme as the challengers charged the incumbents with approving new building projects because they receive campaign donations from developers. 

Although none of the incumbents addressed those charges, challenger Mito Aviles promised that he has not taken any money from developers and said he wants to bring more accountability and transparency to the city.

D’Amico called for the City Council to adopt a policy that lets residents know if they receive donations from contractors.

Other challengers said the city is seeing too much development, forcing residents out of their homes either through higher rents or evictions when a building is torn down to build luxury condominiums. 

Challenger Mark Gonzaga, who announced that he is financing his campaign entirely with his own money, said he is running primarily to help renters and that he is opposed to overdevelopment.

Challenger Scott Schmidt wondered whether in five years the city will look like the Weho that people knew when they moved here. 

The appointment of to the City Council in May 2009 after the death of council member Sal Guariello drew repeated fire from the challengers. Rather than hold a special election to choose Guariello’s replacement, the City Council appointed Horvath, who now faces the voters for the first time.

“Lindsey’s appointment was an insult to the citizens,” said Martin. Meanwhile, John said of her appointment, “democracy seems to have left West Hollywood.”

Defending herself, Horvath said that many people encouraged her to apply for the seat. She was one of 38 people who applied to be Guariello’s replacement.

Later during a question about term limits, Horvath’s appointment came up again. Land opposes term limits, saying that “the experience you acquire in office makes you a better leader." 

Schmidt shot back wondering how experience makes Horvath a better leader after only 18 months of residency and why “we don’t have a council member [John] Altschul or council member Joe Guardarrama.” The septuagenarian Altschul has lived in the city for 50 years and has served on the city’s Planning Commission for 15 years.

John said he favors term limits and again reminded, “no one voted for Lindsey Horvath,” a comment that drew fierce applause from the audience.

Aviles said the lack of term limits are in large part responsible for voter apathy that results in low voter turnout for council elections. Approximately 16 percent of those registered voted in the last council election.

On the incumbent said it was needed to protect the health of residents.

D’Amico replied, “We’re adults. We all leave our houses knowing there are things we don’t agree with.” D’Amico then criticized Land and Heilman for initiating the ban saying, “I’m very concerned that mommy and daddy are trying to protect us from things that aren’t scary.”

The question of the large number of vacant stores throughout the city caused Schmidt to point out, “Sunset Boulevard, if it were in the San Fernando Valley, would be considered blighted.” He urged the city to find short term uses for vacant offices and stores.

D’Amico also favors incentives that would put short-term stores in those spaces, saying, “this needs to be the summer of the pop-up store.”

On the on the March ballot, Martin opposes it, saying it’s a “Trojan Horse” that will legalize tall walls (advertisements on the sides of large buildings). He added that it will encourage developers to build larger and taller buildings on Melrose, Beverly and Santa Monica boulevards, something he doesn’t want to see happen.

On the question of rising crime rate, Land encouraged citizens to be more vigilant. Schmidt countered that crime is up because the city has cut the budget for the sheriff’s department while raising the salaries of employees.

Aviles criticized the planned redevelopment of , calling it “Plummer Parking Lot,” and said the city did not reach out to the Russian community for input into the overhaul. Heilman countered that there had been dozens of meetings with the Russian community.

The West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the Weho PAC sponsored the debate. The next will be held at the West Hollywood Park auditorium on Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. The next forum is being sponsored by the West Hollywood Heights Neighborhood Association, West Hollywood Neighborhood Association, West Hollywood North Neighborhood Association, West Hollywood West Residents Association and Weho Neighbors.