West Hollywood City Councilmember John D’Amico will forgo the elaborate City Council Chambers on Monday and instead be installed as the city’s next mayor in Plummer Park.
D’Amico succeeds Abbe Land, who has held the position for a year and has served as mayor five times. The City Council rotates the largely ceremonial position each year. As mayor, D’Amico will lead City Council meetings, sign official documents for the city and serve as the public face of West Hollywood. John Heilman, who is in his 30th year as a council member, will be sworn in as mayor pro tempore. In that position he will fill in if D’Amico is unable to attend a Council meeting.
The installation will take place at 6 p.m. on the Vista Lawn at Plummer. A special reception will take place immediately following the Installation and the regularly scheduled City Council meeting, which will be held at the park. It will feature works by Steven Reigns and Yelena Zhelezov. There will also be a gamelan music performance.
There is some irony in the location of D’Amico’s installation. Heilman has been a vociferous proponent of the city’s proposed redevelopment of Plummer Park, which would require demolishing Great Hall / Long Hall, the WPA-era building in its center. D’Amico has pushed for further study. The Council has reached sort of a compromise with a vote to study the possibility of moving the building elsewhere.
The event is free and open to the public. Limited parking will be available at Plummer Park; attendees are encouraged to carpool and to use Metro as a transit option. A Metro Trip Planner is available at www.metro.net
Past mayors of West Hollywood have been:
- Valerie Terrigno (1985-1986)
- Abbe Land (1989-1990)
- John Heilman (1990-1991)
- Paul Koretz (1991-1992)
- Babette Lang (1992-1993)
- Sal Guarriello (1993-1994)
- Abbe Land (1994-1995)
- John Heilman (1995-1996)
- Paul Koretz (1996-1997)
- Sal Guarriello (1997-1998)
- Steve Martin (1998-1999)
- John Heilman (1999-2000)
- Jeff Prang (2000-2001)
- John Heilman (2001-2002)
- Sal Guarriello (2002-2003)
- Jeff Prang (2003-2004)
- John Duran (2004-2005)
- Abbe Land (2005-2006)
- John Heilman (2006-2007)
- John Duran (2007-2008)
- Jeff Prang (2008-2009)
- Abbe Land (2009-2010)
- John Heilman (2010-2011)
- John Duran (2011-2012)
- Jeff Prang (2012-2013)
- Abbe Land (2013-2014)
West Hollywood by definition is a “General Law City” & bound by the laws of the state of California, as opposed to a “Charter City” which is not and has more freedom in choosing their government’s method of operation.
Shawn Thompson, The “council-manager” (elected City Council, hired City Manager) form of government is used by about 40% of U.S. cities. Although the mayor is elected/appointed by vote of the rest of the city council (and never by the community electorate), it is strictly a voluntary position that can be accepted or rejected by the electee/appointee, in which case the Mayor Pro Tem would assume the position. (If I remember correctly, John Heilman once voluntarily forfeited his term as mayor to Abbe Land.) The mayor has no formal authority or executive function whatsoever beyond what they already have as a… Read more »
Although I totally support John D’amico I think it should be made clear that as a city we don’t actually elect a mayor. The 5 city council members take turns with that title. Before I got schooled up on this I never knew. In my own case I actually thought we had a mayor that was separate from city council like other city’s And again although I think John is a great public servant and by no means am I being critical of him, why do we actually need to go thru this process in our city? Spend money on… Read more »
PS. I neglected to also say, what a perfect location to swear in our Newest Mayor, the honorable John D’Amico. Congratulations to him…..
FYI….as of last May, Great Hall/Long Hall have been designated by the State of Califorina as a State Historic Landmark and the National Register of Historic Places, National Historic Landmark. Back in the early days of Cityhood, Plummer Park was where our city was formed……just saying…..