The L.A. County District Attorney’s Office has been asked to investigate an alleged violation of the Brown Act by West Hollywood City Council members John D’Amico, Lindsey Horvath and Lauren Meister.
The request alleges that the Council members violated the state law by coordinating their posting of statements on Facebook on Feb. 12 that asked John Duran to step down from his position as the city’s mayor. The Brown Act bars a majority of officials from any elected body from collaborating in private. The District Attorney’s Office has confirmed that it has received the request and is reviewing it. So far no decision has been made as to whether to conduct an investigation.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times on the day the Facebook posts were made, Duran suggested his fellow Council members were violating the law if they had coordinated their call for him to step down as mayor and for the district attorney to investigate them.
“If the three of them are talking about this, and it sounds like they are, that’s a violation of the Brown Act, and the district attorney should investigate,” Duran told the Times. “You can’t have meetings outside of public view.… Do I think that they all got the idea to put up their statements, all three, at the exact same time without talking to each other? No.”
Duran told WEHOville today that the request for an investigation by the District Attorney did not come from him.
The Times quoted West Hollywood City Attorney Mike Jenkins as saying “the statements reflect the individual views of each council member and are not the result of a coordinated effort.”
The requests from the three Council members were a response to allegations that Duran engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct with three young members of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles, a non-profit whose board he has long chaired. Duran has denied those allegations, however he also has stepped down as chair.
Come on John, it’s time to take responsibility and STOP pulling plays from the trump PR spin book. I once though this behavior was beneath you , but as a former friend , I know it’s not! Where your handler from the last election cycle, you need help!
Same five people, making the same complaint. This is wrong, that isn’t right,hes a bad person, she’s a liar. So over all this negative pile of crap.
Spend that time creating opportunities
Helping others.
From the guy who proudly wears black face and wants to be elected
This is sideshow antics and that officials in the city have a la carte to be friends and enemies and frenemies alike. To pay out hundreds of thousands in lawsuits for alleged sexual conduct and conflicts of interests and have our political climate stymied by incessant narcsssistic views of who remains or try to get incumbants off the city council in an election to get on to the council. This is spectacle politics of gathering votes. What’s important is having people there who don’t play with power and abuse power for their own gain. Yet where are the regular people… Read more »
This is sideshow antics and that officials in the city have a la carte to be friends and enemies and frenemies alike. To pay out hundreds of thousands in lawsuits for alleged sexual conduct and conflicts of interests and have our political climate stymied by incessant narcsssistic views of who remains or try to get incumbants off the city council in an election to get on to the council. This is spectacle politics of gathering votes. What’s important is having people there who don’t play with power and abuse power for their own gain. Yet where are the regular people… Read more »
Here’s what I find troubling about John Duran. It happened well after the allegations of sexual misconduct and shows him approving of a comment belittling his accusers. We object to attacks by Trump and others on their accusers. Why do many tolerate it in West Hollywood elected officials….? In response to a face book post Feb 17 from Duran stating “In my hospital room with 4 gay men exhibiting bawdy gay humors to the delight of all in hearing range” Duran gave a thumbs up and to a comment that stated: “Careful, some poor fragile thing from the GMCLA Chorus… Read more »
Well, the conniving: Lindsey P. Horvath, Lauren Meister, John D’Amico, and Sepi Shyne (running for council and supports the aforementioned Brown Act gang) have all lost my vote (and a cadre of close gay friends) for March 5th. People are innocent until proven guilty. Mob rule is BS. And the small minds at the WeHo City Council need to be voted out. And to all of you jumping on the gossip bandwagon–screw you.
Read this: https://staging.wehoville.com/2019/03/01/opinion-whats-my-motivation-for-running-for-west-hollywood-city-council/?fbclid=IwAR1Zq3OpR_pz_vtz3xJsutrHEChpscSmei3s2z1s_F0Ki510GJ_D7_FbHvA
“People are proven innocent until proven guilty.” Duran has gone on air and admitted to statements that could be hurtful to others or that people (including city employees) could find offensive. Duran has insulted his fellow council members by commenting on their possible sex lives (which is sexual harassment). Text messages with time and date stamps have been provided that show he was texting for sex or on Grindr during city council meetings – which he has admitted to doing. Duran has admitted his guilt through his own words, the evidence people have provided, and through his own actions. None… Read more »
Unfortunately, West Hollywood is becoming a tacky two-bit political farce.
Duran’s arrogance and bragging about his sexual conquests makes you shudder even to picture it.
As far as the DA goes, imagine the snide laughter of attorneys downtown having to deal with this scenario. I’m sure it was one of Duran’s groupies that filed it under his direction.
The entire ordeal makes you want to spray yourself with disinfectant.
Los Angeles County has a long history of shady political gamesmanship. It kinda comes with the territory. No matter how altruistic and wide eyed with do gooder notions politicians come into the game they can all count on having to get down and dirty. A criminal defense Lawyer like Duran knows the game only too well. You throw in the historical slap fight animus between all these parties and you are bound to get gotcha politics. Duran should have stepped down years ago after costing the city half a million dollars in sex abuse settlements. He and Jeff Prang should… Read more »
I, for one, am SURE it had nothing to do with them all running for re-election. /s
I strongly suspect John Duran is behind this complaint. Just as Duran suspects the city council members of coordinating their announcement I think this also fails the smell test. If so it’s quite inappropriate and doesn’t speak well that he’s willing to drag the city through the mud to save himself. Let’s demand disclosure of who made the complaint.
This is a shameless and desperate move by John Duran to distract from the serious allegations against him—when you can’t refute the message, attack the messenger. Yet another example of his inability to take responsibility for his own actions. What’s more, he is trying to drag these respectable elected officials down with him for their willingness to do the right thing and hold him accountable. We must hold him and all elected officials accountable.
Anyone noticed one of longest acting city councilman has kept very very quiet.
John Heilman most certainly has not. He announced publicly at the last Council meeting that Duran should step down as Mayor. Heilman doesn’t use social media.
Heilman has, as always, displayed he is a class act. He has nothing but wWest Hollywood’s interests in his thoughts. He doesn’t jump into mob mentality ever. He waited and made one statement. Clean and neat. I’m shocked by some. Not by others.