Longtime Activist Jeanne Dobrin Predicts the City Council Contests

For the second part of our interview with longtime Weho activist Jeanne Dobrin, we focused on the the City Council elections. Dobrin had plenty to say about each candidate. We discussed incumbents Mayor and Councilwomen and , and of the two challengers, Dobrin said she's supporting over .

"Abbe Land is a dear friend of mine. I love her dearly," Dobrin said. "I don't agree with everything that she says, but I agree more and more and more with her as the years go by." 

Dobrin said she met Lindsey Horvath after she was appointed to fill out the term of Sal Guarriello when he died. 

"I like her immensely. She is a wonderful, smart lady, former president of Southern California NOW...but she doesn't have a clue about land use and zoning," Dobrin said.

"I do not believe that she is qualified to be on our council."

Dobrin met Mayor John Heilman when he was 28, she said. She attended his 28th birthday party. "He was still going to law school at that time." 

"He is brilliant," Dobrin said. "I do not agree with him on everything, but I believe that he is a benefit to the city in many ways."

"Some people say that he should go and there should be term limits. I don't believe in term limits because I claim that we have them already—they're called elections," Dobrin said. 

State legislators have term limits, but the lobbyists in Sacramento don't have them, Dobrin said. 

"So all these freshman people in the Assembly and the Senate don't know what's happening and that's contributed to the fall," she said. 

"John Heilman, I think, will continue to stay on the City Council because he has good backing and so on and he is smart," she predicted.

Dobrin described candidate John D'Amico as a "renaissance man" and praised him for going back to school and getting his master's degree and for also taking Italian language courses. 

"He's just absolutely brainy and he cares about people," Dobrin said. "I'm supporting him for election to the City Council very strongly."

Dobrin said she doesn't know Mito Aviles well, but described him as a "cute little guy." 

"I don't think that he is very, very familiar with how a city is run," Dobrin said.  "He's cute, but I don't think he's going to end up on the City Council."