Manny Rodriguez delivered these fiery comments during City Council meeting Monday as the Council postponed its much anticipated Public Safety Update.
I find it extremely frustrating and disappointing that at the eleventh hour you table item 4C.
City staff had since Thursday to make any amendment they felt were needed to be done and correct any errors or add information. Instead you do it at the 11th hour with I’m sure many people waiting to get on the call, rearranging their day. It’s very disappointing, and if there’s any discrepancies in the report now that’s what you should be discussing! Because it’s very clear: “the council shall provide additional direction regarding public safety priorities and resources.” That is what you were supposed to do today, OK?
This is extremely disappointing. I will talk to you about something that you can change and that is the public safety commission’s perplexing recommendation. It’s remarkable that a person who has spent only five minutes in West Hollywood can convince four other deer-in-the-headlights commissioners to go along with this idea.
Maybe these five commissioners should belong to some other group but they shouldn’t be on the public safety commission. It’s clear that 5 out of 7 members are out of touch with the reality and are willing to look the other way and put the public at risk. I hope that you will ignore this recommendation when it finally gets to you in the interest of the community that you care about the residents of West Hollywood and our expectation for adequate and effective policing.
I encourage you to re-evaluate your current appointments to the public safety commission. Let’s get residents in there that support what their neighbors want and expect from our city. Cause what’s in there now doesn’t seem it get it and has an agenda that’s dangerous and no bueno.
Totally agree Manny. The “public safety “ commission should resign immediately. I’m curious how they even were appointed since few seem qualified at all.
thanks manny….you speak for all of us…..
Unfortunately many on the City Council, Public Safety Commission and Staff have little sense of immediacy, context and details. All these factors are imperative in a functioning municipal setting
The West Hollywood staff are schleppers for whatever five political hacks are in power. These five love bucks from white male developers. Of course, Lindsey Horvath is the prime “pay to play” streetwalker! Plus, why is Horvath so uncomfortable being called a “streetwalker”? Is it because she’s a racist and ANTI Sex Worker? As for commissioners, the moronic group running West Hollywood appointed them. Including the daughter of the Los Angeles “El Segundo” Times publisher who doesn’t even reside in West Hollywood. Everyone knows Horvath wants the LA Times endorsement for LA CC supervisor. As a streetwalker for developers, Horvath… Read more »
Correct!
Kindly stick to the facts and avoid the meaningless personality slashes which serve no useful purpose. It’s hard to recall any substantive participation from you in municipal issues or public meetings to any extent.
If you watch the meeting, you will see that more than once Councilmember was outraged, and more than one was upset. I’m as outraged as Manny. Please don’t assume that they don’t care, based on one person’s comment at a Council meeting. You might want to watch the meeting for yourself. I don’t even think the Commission “lacks immediacy,” as they gave their recommendations to staff more than 5 days before Monday.
Manny, Thank you for your smart and concise comments, you have spoken for the people
Is there a mechanism by which we can recall West Hollywood City Council members? If there is, I’m willing to lend my support to the process.
I think they tabled the presentation because they saw all of the angry emails telling them we don’t want budget cuts for law enforcement. Now they’ll try to reschedule, hoping the public’s anger dies down. It’s not going to die down until we remove the Horvaths and the Ericksons from our City Council. Let’s not forget the “genius” who made this ridiculous budget cut recommendation was Horvath’s appointee to the public safety commission, the little child whose daddy is a billionaire. We need decent council members who can appoint intelligent commissioners.
Thanks Manny. The city council has been corrupted!
Good one, Manny! How often have of the individual members of the Safety Commission gone out on rude-alongs? How much time spent with the Block by Block people? Have any been to a crime scene while it was still hot? Intellectual discussions are one thing, even debates have their place, but actually getting out into the street can be an education not available elsewhere. Yesterday late afternoon, six quad cars and the LASD helicopter appears on my block to answer a call from a frightened older couple whose front door was being assaulted by a raving, out of contri=ol homeless… Read more »
Right on! Manny, it needed to be said. Thank you. The Public Safety Department needs to hear from the Council. Yet, far too often, agenda items are tabled. Public Safety Commission has deteriorated into a useless advisory body. I am outraged that the shenanigans, the lack of responsiveness to the public at the commission level. The Council does nothing. The residents grow increasingly fearful of conditions in our city that have gone unchecked for too long. The public at large must rise. The Council has devolved into apathetic slackers who don’t see the urgency. I can think of seven residents that… Read more »
A crazed vagrant is trying to live in the bushes in front of my apartment building on Kings Road. I asked if I could help him and he screamed that he’s King Richard and threatened to kill me as I ran away from him. I could hear him screaming at me for two blocks.
The police will hopefully take him back to jail. I wouldn’t want him in a mental hospital. His presence would hurt others who actually want to get better.
They can’t keep him in jail indefinitely though. You realize that right?
Not the point. We need law enforcement patrols that will respond to concerns, not block ambassadors who are not trained for dangerous situations. That makes confrontations worse.
Actually that is the point. This crazy person will be back on the street in a day or two most likely. There has to be a change to the system.
It’s important for the public to push for a better way to respond to situations like this, with people who are trained to deal those who are having a mental health crisis, like this person. Making the point that someone cannot be permanently incarcerating is not teaching someone to look at someone who has severe mental illness with compassion. It’s only making them even more frustrated.
We need professional mental health workers to deal with these issues but sometimes a hold is appropriate. Gov. Newsom is working on legislation to extend the period for involuntary holds for people having mental health meltdowns. Clearly permanent incarceration is neither compassionate or practical. But we need better tools to help people break the cycle so people can move off the streets.
When you let violent criminals out because of the flu at the risk of the general public you are part of the problem. So now the problem is figuring out the solution? Sounds like we’re screwed.
You wouldn’t deliberately be confusing “the flu” with “Covid”, would you? Don’t recall compassionate release for any flu cases,
” is not teaching someone to look at someone who has severe mental illness with compassion”
Thats…not what I was trying to do.
Thanks for playing, Mary.
Werk, diva. Slay that runway.
My apologies, forgot that you are more concerned with seeking attention. I’m seriously worried about our community, I hope “King Richard” finds help, and “threatened” isn’t (threatened) anymore.
I was pointing out a flaw in the system, diva. The point is most of these dangerous unhinged people might be put in jail and let out very soon after. Something has to change.
The man had a foot-long beard. He screamed at me that he was King Richard and threatened me during a minute-long tirade. He’s likely been hurting himself and everyone else who has ever known him for many years. I would not use limited mental health resources on this man, who is likely beyond help. Resources should go to people who can be helped and want to put in the necessary efforts to get well. Attempts to treat the long-term crazy people on the streets will almost always fail.
It’s enough that the police forced him to move–he might still be living there otherwise. He was trespassing on our property and screaming at me for telling him he couldn’t stay there. He had a foot-long filthy beard and had taken off his shoes, making himself comfortable hiding in our bushes. I made the mistake of talking to him. Next time I’ll just call the police immediately.
I do not consider this a failure by the City Council. It falls squarely on City Staff. Both Horvath and D’Amico had their own fiery comments, and were angered on behalf of the public. Horvath nodded continuously in approval as Manny delivered this message. She seemed as pissed as he is, as was D’Amico. Meister gave them grief for screwing up, also. I believe the principal person to blame here is City Manager Wilson. If Paul Arevalo was still at the helm, this wouldn’t have happened, in light of an earlier delay from the previous meetings cancellation. They had no… Read more »
Was Lindsey outraged when her appointed commissioner proposed the reduction of 10 sworn sheriffs from the budget? That’s what sparked concerns across the city. And the allegation of incorrect information to the city staff came from Lindsey’s BFF, John Erickson. If you think she wasn’t in the know regarding his last minute concerns over accuracy, you haven’t been paying attention.
I don’t know if she was outraged, or not. She didn’t indicate, one way or the other.
One of the points of my comment is that I do wish people would watch these Council meetings before finger-pointing.
This article only points out one concerned citizen’s public comment response (which I agree with). It does not represent everything that happened in the meeting. And it is right at the beginning of the meeting, then in public comment and then in Councilmember’s comments.
This was so disrespectful to all who emailed and scheduled time out of their evening to talk. It would appear that the public safety commission were given a peek at all the emails and said we have to pull the presentation. Any other excuse is, respectfully, BS.
To the city council, it would be fair at this time to reevaluate the composition of this commission and only include residents.