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Politics & Government

Meet City Council Candidate Scott Schmidt

The challenger in Tuesday's election wants to preserve the initial vision of Weho as a place where diverse people could live together and find affordable housing.

“The West Hollywood I came to in the mid-'90s was one that welcomed everyone, whether you were gay, straight, young, old,” City Council candidate Scott Schmidt said. “And there were affordable places you could live. People didn’t care about who you were, just that you wanted to be part of the community that accepted your neighbors. Our strength is that we have a tremendous amount of diversity. In other places that might be a problem. Here, we’ve figured out how to live together side by side. That’s a vision of West Hollywood I want to preserve.”

In order to preserve it, Schmidt says it’s necessary to get rid of the incumbents on the City Council who were part of creating that initial vision. “They’ve lost touch with what the residents want. They’ve been there too long,” he said. “In talking with residents, I keep hearing there is ‘Heilman fatigue.’ has been on the City Council for 26 years and people are tired of him.”

At a boyish looking 35, Schmidt is using social media to get that message across. He blogs regularly, routinely updates his Facebook page and tweets to his followers multiple times a day. In fact, almost half of the $17,000 he’s raised for his campaign has come from online contributions.

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But using these new forms of communication is his job. His business, RSC Partners, is a communications consulting company that specializes in showing clients how to harness new media for delivering their message.

And his message to the voters of West Hollywood?

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“We are at a cultural crossroads as we struggle with what the West Hollywood dream is,” he said. He fears that and Boystown are no longer the entertainment destinations they once were, that dissenting voices that were once honored are being ignored, that affordable housing is becoming unobtainable. “The next City Council will define whether we continue to preserve our legacy as a unique and special place for everyone.”

Schmidt started college at age 17 and earned his master’s degree in international public administration from USC at age 20, Schmidt wants to get West Hollywood moving, both literally and figuratively. Since 2006, he’s served on the city’s Transportation Commission, so he knows about traffic patterns and gridlock.

His idea is to synchronize the stoplights via a computer that adjusts the traffic signals to respond to real-time road conditions. Since Los Angeles began using this Signal Sync program in 2007, he says traffic times have been reduced 14 percent.

He also has ideas about affordable housing. “Rather than looking at affordable housing solely as building more density, if someone works in West Hollywood and meets certain salary ranges, what if they were able to get a work-force housing credit that would count against paying rent in West Hollywood,” he suggested. “That would mean fewer cars on the road and free up parking spaces too.”

He knows about freeing up parking spaces. In October, he sold his BMW, saying, “I found I no longer needed a car. I work at home and I walk or use public transportation.” He believes that modeling a behavior can encourage others to do the same.

As for the city’s figurative gridlock, he wants to whip the city’s budget into shape, saying there’s far too much reliance on parking tickets for income. “West Hollywood makes $8.2 million from ,” he said. “Parking constitutes a substantial part of our budget, more so than any other city. If L.A.’s general fund from parking tickets was the same percentage as West Hollywood, it would have $1 billion extra.”

He also believes have gotten out of control, noting that 50 percent of the city’s budget goes to paying employees while only 5 percent of it goes to social services. “The largest social service program is actually the public employees union,” he said. “I’m sorry, but I’d rather serve the seniors and the disabled and the people here in our community who are really the ones that deserve the government to be working for them.”

Friend Shelia Lightfoot calls Schmidt “a real nose-to-the-grindstone guy. A lot of people talk about something and then don’t show up. But with Scott, you can always count on him being there.” She added that while Schmidt's on the quiet side, “he’s listening and observing, taking it all in, making calculations. Those are traits that will fit in well on the council.” 

A San Antonio native, Schmidt is in his second term as president of the L.A. chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans, the nation’s largest branch. He was heavily involved with its Republicans Against 8 effort, which got conservatives such as San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders and Redondo Beach Mayor Mike Gin to speak out again Proposition 8 to conservative voters.

“That was a base of people the No on 8 campaign was ignoring,” he said proudly. “Our campaign was effective enough that the American Association of Political Consultants gave us an award for Best Use of Video in a State Ballot Measure Campaign.”

But being an out and proud Republican does prove challenging in West Hollywood. “Sometimes it feels easier to be gay in the Republican Party,” he sighs, “than to be Republican in the gay community.” 

There are nine candidates running for the three City Council seats up for election Tuesday. The other candidates are , Mark Gonzaga, , Lucas JohnLindsey HorvathSteve MartinMito Aviles and John D'Amico. We will continue to profile other candidates. 

You can also check out other candidate profiles from Weho Daily and LAist online. Schmidt's profile on Weho Daily is available here and LAist's profile on Schmidt is available here. A video profile of the candidates is also available on YouTube courtesy of LGBTPOV and Frontiers. To view Schmidt's video and other candidates videos, click here (Schmidt's video is also embedded to the right of this story). 

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