City Revises Plans; Will Now Honor Outgoing Councilmembers Heilman and Duran at Next Two Council Meetings

The City of West Hollywood has revised its plans to honor outgoing longtime councilmembers John Heilman and John Duran. The city now plans to pay tribute to them at the next TWO City Council meetings.

There will be acknowledgements and tributes to them at Monday’s City Council meeting and also at the Dec. 7 City Council meeting, which will be their final meeting.

“[City staff] is still working on details. Some celebration this Monday and some on the 7^th,” City Manager Paul Arevalo told WEHOville via text message.

Meanwhile, Duran reported he and Heilman will be giving their farewell speeches at the Dec. 7 meeting.

“We are planning on saying our goodbyes at our last meeting on 12/7,” Duran texted WEHOville.

Earlier plans had called for the pair to make their goodbye speeches at Monday’s meeting, but city staff revised that plan since WEHOville first reported on it.

Heilman and Duran were defeated in the Nov. 3 election. Newcomers Sepi Shyne and John Erickson were the top two vote getters and will be sworn into office during that Dec. 7 meeting.

Now Duran and Heilman’s farewells will coincide with Shyne and Erickson’s welcome ceremony. The city had originally planned to do separate goodbye and hello ceremonies, with the goodbyes on Monday and hellos on Dec. 7.

Due to pandemic social distancing, the ceremonies will all be taking place online rather than in person.   

With two Council seats up for grabs in the Nov. 3 election, Heilman finished in third place, while Duran finished in fifth place.

Heilman has served on the City Council for 36 years, save for a three-month break in 2015. He was first elected in 1984, the same election in which residents voted on cityhood. Because of that longevity, Heilman has arguably had more influence than anyone else on the way the city has evolved from its infancy.

Duran has served on the City Council for 20 years, first elected in 2001. He was the first Latino to be elected to the Council as well as the first openly HIV-positive person on the Council.

Residents who want to pay tribute to Heilman and/or Duran during either of the two meetings – Monday or Dec. 7 – are invited to call into the meeting, which starts at 6 p.m. (a change from the previous 5:30 p.m. start).

Those who want to make a comment by telephone during the meeting are asked to email City Clerk Yvonne Quarker at [email protected] no later than 4 p.m. on Monday or on Dec. 7 to be added to the public speaker list for the meeting. Please include your name, the phone number from which you will be calling and what you wish to speak about.

Then, dial into the meeting ten minutes prior to the start. You will be placed on hold in the virtual meeting room until it is your turn to speak. The dial-in number is (669) 900-6833 and the meeting I.D. is 974 8186 3267, followed by the # symbol.

The meeting can be viewed on the WeHo TV portion of the city website (www.weho.org). Additionally, it will be broadcast on Spectrum Cable Television’s Channel 10 within West Hollywood’s borders. The meeting will also stream live on YouTube, Apple TV, Android TV, Fire TV and Roku by searching for “WeHo TV.”