City Councilmember Lindsey Horvath, who will be sworn in as mayor of West Hollywood on May 18, will be assuming the position of president of the California Contract Cities Association on May 16.
The CCCA represents 73 cities in California that are designated “contract cities” because they contract for services that can include policing, fire protection, legal services, and tree-trimming, among others. The City of West Hollywood contracts with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for law enforcement services.
Horvath will succeed Sandra Armenta, mayor of Rosemead, as president. The installation ceremony will take place via Zoom from 6 to 8 p.m. Those wishing to observe the installation can register online.
The concept of a “contract city” was born in 1954 when Lakewood, then an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County, pushed back against an effort by Long Beach to annex it. Lakewood successfully incorporated as its own city and reached out to Los Angeles County to provide important services that it didn’t have the money or staff to do.
The CCCA has a legislative committee that lobbies lawmakers in Sacramento on issues of importance to the cities that are its members. The CCCA also has a political action committee which funds campaigns for or against ballot measures that have an impact on its members. It intends to close that PAC once the remaining $6,000 has been spent.
Its Associate Members program includes companies and individuals interested in lobbying or doing business with the contract cities. It has membership levels ranging from Platinum ($15,000) to Copper ($2,000). Platinum members include SoCal Edison, and SoCal Gas. Gold members include the Association for Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff. One of the 11 Bronze members is Athens Services, the trash pickup company, which has a 15-year contract with the City of West Hollywood.
“The CCCA also has a political action committee whose funds it donates to specific politicians or causes during elections.” Wow, what politician engaged in political career development wouldn’t want access to disbursing such funds from major corporations. Such PACs are breeding grounds for political corruption. We are a small city where relationships are social and the political hard questions are seen as something other than a search for transparency and political truth. Question, question, question–even if the subject of the question is someone with whom you share a beer or a latte.
John Duran leads the National Association of Latino Elected Officials; he managed to get Ed Buck to make direction political donations to some of his allies. When the bad headlines broke, those donations were given to NALEO. Seems a bit obvious that having such positions have the potential for abuse. But we have faith that Ms. Horvath is not going to be lead down that road.
A “gender studies” major…..is the mayor of this City. The problem is….no serious people would ever consider running for a position associated with this twisted city. Many of us live here quite by accident……just close to work. We are ashamed to use West Hollywood as our address…..so we use LA at all times.
The area is changing and those stuck in the past…….will become the past shortly. I’ll keep my house…and hope that some normalcy/decency will emerge in the near future.