Mayor Pro Tem Sepi Shyne commented on the resignation of Lynn Hoopingarner, chairperson of the Planning Commission, after comments she made about Persians during a Design Review Subcommittee meeting last week. Shyne is an Iranian-born immigrant who fled the country’s violent revolution as a child in the late 1970s. Persians are an Iranian ethnic group who make up more than half of Iran’s population.
I have taken a lot of time these past few days to process what has transpired and I’ve heard from community members and read emails about this from folks who were seeking her resignation and also from folks who defended her service to the city and some who defended her comment.
I met with my own appointed officials. I have from the beginning communicated a zero tolerance policy with all of them when it comes to any form of racism misogyny homophobia transphobia misandry xenophobia ageism, any comments against people with disabilities and anti-semitism.
As an Iranian resident and first ever Iranian elected official in this city, hearing Chair Hoopingarner’s comments was very disappointing for me. It was important to receive a public apology and I want to thank Chair Hoopingarner for her written apology.
I have not yet received a phone call from Chair Hoopingarner and I want her to know that she can always call me to have a conversation. I very much welcome that.
We need to always view people’s decisions and choices by looking at their intent and at the same time as elected and appointed officials we also need to be very conscious of the words we use coupled with our intent. Part of the responsibility of serving is upholding the values of this incredible city.
I have always respected Chair Hoopingarner’s service on the planning commission and when I appointed my former commissioner Katrina Vinson, Chair Hoopingarner really took her under her wing and mentored her and for that she’ll always have my gratitude. I personally don’t believe in cancer culture.
I do not believe that that ever brings needed healing or the conversations necessary for folks to truly understand each other or their own actions and the effect that it has on others. I do believe in accountability and I believe in forgiveness and compassion when folks make mistakes and own up to it especially when those mistakes come from a place of not having proper training or from a place of simple ignorance.
My view on racism and stereotypes is that we live in a racist society with systems that need to be dismantled to create equity.… I believe Chair Hoopingarner’s apology and that the harm that was caused to the Iranian community was unintentional. I do believe she deserves that compassion since she took the step to apologize and even the further step of resigning. However as elected and appointed officials we really do need to be super conscious and make sure our intent aligns with the values of West Hollywood.
I also believe that her words could have potentially disqualified her from future decisions and I do believe and can relate to the harm that was caused to our Iranian community. West Hollywood values diversity inclusion and is one of the most progressive cities in California and the entire United States.
What is evident here is that despite having elected your first Iranian-American elected official by a landslide, our community and that includes each one of us and our city staff, we all have a lot of work to do.
What a ridiculous reaction to a non-offensive comment.
While I appreciate Mayor Pro Team Shyne’s comments, I do want to thank Ms. Hoopingarner for HER dedication to our city of West Hollywood, and YES, I used MS & HER! It seems that at this point, we all have to walk on eggshells to be careful what we say, how we say it as the politically correct, Grieveness and WOKENESS culture is being ramped up every single day and shoved down our throats whether we like it or not! I KNOW that Ms. Hoopingarner did not mean that statement to be derogatory in any way, shape, or form whatsoever!… Read more »
I have spent a significant amount of time over the past few days reflecting on what has taken place, and during that time I have talked to members of the community and read driving directions emails concerning this topic from people who were calling for her resignation, as well as from people who defended her service to the city and some who defended her comment. I have also read emails from people who were seeking her resignation.
Ah Sepi Sepi Sepi so beloved for being a “good listener” to her constituents and NEVER engaging in “cancel culture”! Right… Remember when you had me thrown out of the harm reduction coalition I cofounded because I criticized your mask fine policies? In typical weasel style, you used back door pressure and claimed plausible deniability. It felt like cancel culture to me, someone who’s lost countless friends and family to the disease, having spent my whole career advancing overdose prevention. And as for being a good listener… Pretty sure you weren’t listening as you *literally* ran away from us like… Read more »
“Pretty sure you weren’t listening as you *literally* ran away from us like startled cattle at our last Freedom picnic, even as we invited you to join us and find out what we are all about.”
She probably thought you and your pro-covid friends were trying to intentionally infect her with Covid.
You’re probably right
If Persians have large weddings and she wanted to use a large group as an example, how is that derogatory?
It isn’t. Oftimes, political correctness outweighs the truth. Facts are stubborn things
West Hollywood political hacks can take political correctness and shove up the SHE’s collective Arse-h-le!!!
Thanks Sepi. I had no idea weddings are offensive if you mention who’s getting married. Your lengthy diatribe on this nothing burger really says who you are.
Adding to the culture of Woke-Burgers germinating from the Me, Myself & I council members. Let’s turn up the grill and roast them away.
Beautifully stated, Councilmember Shyne. We need a lot more of the compassion and understanding that you so beautifully articulated here. We are all human and we all are subject to making mistakes.
I disagree. There’s nothing of beauty here or speaking of true compassion.
To me Sepi sounds smarmy as usual.
Agree. Duplicitous and self serving.
As some of the current comments reveal Sepi Shyne is aligned with her council pals Erickson & Horvath none of which are comfortable in their own skins making them inauthentic. They all purport to be what they are not, collecting fellow victims so they can adopt them into the wider circle if victimhood. She apparently fooled many people with her “landslide election” but now that we see the hollow resume, her flawed decision making, many are not fooled.
Despite Shyne’s feigned compassion her speech is clearly focused on promoting no one other than .Me, Myself and I.
Nailed it. My personal opinion is that Shyne (and others) continues to see herself as the conscience of a community. That’s a terribly arrogant loft from which she preaches. I think they should all star taking care of the nuts and bolts of sound municipal governance and let us all have our own relationship with our conscience. Shyne exploited this situation for her ego and agenda and the reputation of a long-standing member of this community has been sullied in the process. No one owes Shine a call.
“sees herself as the conscience of a community”. What a daft notion. Sepi perhaps needs to find an ashram in which to locate herself and her conscience. Even though Indian by description, every religion connects along spiritual plains on the path to virtue. Attaching oneself to countless issues is a tiresome and endless task when one lacks a central issue or compass.
She was elected to care for the nuts and bolts of municipal government, not as some quasi self crafted spiritual project or fixer. This is too exhausting to even contemplate. Peace!
“My view on racism and stereotypes is that we live in a racist society with systems that need to be dismantled to create equity.” Our system may not be perfect (nothing ever will be) but it’s the best damn system in the world (one of the reasons your family fled here, I’m sure) and we get more right then we ever do wrong. Shyne is part of what we got wrong. VOTE HER OUT and she can take her victimhood, and all the other divisive crap she spews with her.
If one is a hammer, everything they see is a mail.
If one is a hammer, all they see is a nail.
She’s an Iranian resident? I thought she lived in West Hollywood.
I can’t wait until we vote for a (insert 3rd world country), (insert sexual preference), (insert disability), (insert victim hood status), (insert perceived gender) person that crosses off all the “firsts” so we can get over it already and vote for people who actually fight for the people, not their own agendas. This entire article is how SHE was offended. Girl move on. I can’t imagine living life with the ideology that everything, including the color blue, is racist. Shyne wakes up offended at something on the daily.
Spot on.
Something tells me you are completely devoid of empathy.
Zero empathy. All about results on city council, Mr. Feelings. Safety first. Economic success second. Feelings third. Name is Dawn Lacey.
I’d vote for you, Dawn.
The comment was not disappointing. Sepi Shyne has been a great disappointment. She should use her third eye to see that she needs to resign as well.
She’s not that woke.
When Donald Trump said “Mexico wasn’t sending their best, they were sending rapists”, would Sepi be as “compassionate” and forgiving as she is with this horrible Lauren Meister creation of an ex planning commissioner? At what point does Sepi have any kind of spine, or anyone else on our Council? It’s astounding that in a City with so many truly compassionate people, we end up with these 5 people on the city council. Sometimes it’s more telling when a person knows what not to say, like knowing when to keep their nasty mouth shut before they spew out racist generalizations… Read more »
The only time people like her find compassion is when it’s for people with the same ideology. The compassion dries up when it’s somebody on the other side of the aisle.