PUBLIC COMMENT: My fellow commissioners rushed to recommend cutting deputies

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Public Safety Commissioner Kerri Balbone spoke during Public Comment at City Council’s Monday night meeting to address the controversial recommendation to reduce the number of Sheriff’s deputies by the Public Safety Commission. Balbone was one of two Public Safety Commissioners to vote against the recommendation:

I’ll start by saying transparency is hard. We’ve been at it for four hours tonight.

But one of the things that I’m excited about is we’ve got a dialogue going and we’re talking and that’s critically important.

I am a Public Safety commissioner. I’m also a West Hollywood resident. My comments tonight are my own.

On February 14th, three and a half hours before a Public Safety Commission meeting, some information was released, some of that has been discussed tonight. We moved from getting that information that had not been discussed or validated or sat down with the actual Sheriff’s Department to talk about it and it moved to a vote.

It was premature.

The conversation we’re having tonight is the type of conversation that should be had in a community before anyone discusses reducing the amount of police or sheriffs that are involved.

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My personal opinion is we have a city that has 36,000 residents. It swells up to about a 100,000 people. Typical law enforcement is 2 to 2 1/2 sheriffs or police per thousand. We’re right now we’re well below that at 60 sworn officers.

So when we rush to have conversations I think we do a disservice to everyone involved and I’m really hopeful that this dialogue continues and I thank everyone who came out to speak and all of you for listening.

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22 Comments
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Redactle
2 years ago

It was uncomfortable to see Sepi Shyne question Captain Ramirez after the council and the public had just hailed his elevation to Commander. Watch the video as the other members of the council frantically search for their mute buttons, Sepi.

Joshua88
Joshua88
2 years ago

36000 residents is not a personal opinion.

WehoFan
WehoFan
2 years ago
Reply to  Joshua88

Your comments are getting angrier Joshua. You don’t like anyone speaking against your city council friends.

WehoQueen
WehoQueen
2 years ago

The real problem that is usually not spoken of, is that it costs us about $400,000 per year for every single Sheriffs Deputy we employ. That wasn’t a mis-print. Yes, each one of them costs that much. Perhaps if there was a way to get rid of half the Sheriff’s Deputies, and hire lots more security people, at a more reasonable salary of like under $100,000 per year, they could supplement the overpriced Sheriff’s Deputies, who spend the vast majority of their time, sitting around doing nothing. If the Sheriff’s Deputies are costing us say $1,000 per day, that’s like… Read more »

WeHoVaudevillian
WeHoVaudevillian
2 years ago
Reply to  WehoQueen

Lets see how high the quality bar is set when we offer minimum wage/no benefit package salaries to the spear tip of our new security infrastructure.

Better yet, lets manage the logistics of deciding when and where to send the trained professionals (400k) vs the apathetic mall cop (100k). Do you have a plan for this too? Are we hiring the precogs from Minority Report?

I almost want to see your completely insane strategy to its fruition

BrownEyedBoy
BrownEyedBoy
2 years ago

This Commissioner is a class-act!

Steve Martin
Steve Martin
2 years ago
Reply to  BrownEyedBoy

At the Feb. 14th Public Safety Commission meeting Ms. Balbone tried to ask some tough yet relevant questions so that the Commission could have a more balanced debate but she was basically stream rolled. But she had the courage not to go along just to get along and maintained a sense of decorum and dignity. Despite the vote, at least we know there were at were two adults in the room, Commissioners Balbone and Tory Berger.

Weho Hombre
Weho Hombre
2 years ago

Next year, a new reality show called “Why weren’t they Aborted?” premieres. John Erickson should be at the top of the list, followed by Lindsey Horvath and Sepi Shyne. Their creepy grandstanding performances last night indeed confirms why they are prime candidates. 

greeneyedguy
greeneyedguy
2 years ago
Reply to  Weho Hombre

Elections have consequences.

Randy
Randy
2 years ago

I would say “Amen,” if this publication showed public comments on both sides of the issue. These are not editorials, volunteered by their contributors. Even if I strongly agree NOT to “de-fund” the sheriff’s contract, and agree with the vast majority of the two public comments posted this morning. I agree that cutting deputies is a horrible recommendation.

Alan Strasburg
Alan Strasburg
2 years ago
Reply to  Randy

You might recall, Randy, two weeks ago when just such a commentary was published “from the other side.” Larry and Brandon are completely fair in what he publishes.

Randy
Randy
2 years ago
Reply to  Alan Strasburg

I didn’t accuse anyone of being “unfair.” I’m talking about balance. If you are going to cover what happened at the safety meeting, which, I assume, is coming, I do not think it is a balanced approach to cut-and-paste two public comments that only represent one side. No matter which side you are on.

And, now, it looks like we have one. So, good.

Last edited 2 years ago by Randy
Steve Martin
Steve Martin
2 years ago
Reply to  Randy

Randy; I appreciate what you are saying. Maybe Robert Oliver or some of the other Commissioners who voted to de-fund the Sheriff could submit a defense of their vote. It would certainly be constructive for both sides of the controversy to be laid out for the voting public.

Larry Block
Admin
2 years ago
Reply to  Steve Martin

Oliver was asked some of these questions almost three weeks ago in a Commissioner Profile and has been offered the opportunity to write an op-ed on the same issue. He has not been forthcoming or timely in his response.

Peter Buckley
Peter Buckley
2 years ago

Watching Sepi Shyne interrogate Captain Ramirez after the council members and public just celebrated his promotion to Commander was just embarrassing. Yes Sepi, watch the video as your fellow council members scramble to find your mute button.

Randy
Randy
2 years ago
Reply to  Peter Buckley

Are you wanting her to go soft on him because he just received a promotion? Her actions speak for themselves, and people can judge them how they want. Commander Ramirez is more than able to handle himself, and stand up to her. He was in the meeting, specifically to make a presentation, and answer questions. I don’t see any problem with questions being posed to our Sheriff’s department, no matter which Councilmember is asking.

Steve Martin
Steve Martin
2 years ago
Reply to  Randy

Any professional should be willing and able to respond to hard questions, particularly when they work for a government agency. There had been a whistle blower story in the LA Times alleging that our local department had fabricated some of the time necessary to comply with our contract; I certainly would want to have an answer to that very relevant question.

West
West
2 years ago
Reply to  Steve Martin

Whatever the merits of the whistleblower.. It should DEEPLY trouble us all that a public official might leverage any special access to a publication, like say LATIMES, to manipulate regional perceptions on a local issue.

Is all of this behavior legal or in compliance with City commioner standards?

Davedi
Davedi
2 years ago
Reply to  Peter Buckley

It’s always fun to watch unremarkable people criticize accomplished people. But I guess it’s all the rage today in our cancel culture where 19 year old liberal art coeds from Berkeley get to stomp their feet on Twitter until Teddy Roosevelt’s statue is removed from our sight.

JF1
JF1
2 years ago

Bravo to Public Safety Commissioner Kerri Balbone for speaking up!! 👏

Alan Strasburg
Alan Strasburg
2 years ago

Kerri’s was one of the most calm, reasoned and thoughtful performances of an evening filled with otherwise performative bullpuckey, most of it on the council dais. Wake up West Hollywood, the hijacking is far from over.

thanks
thanks
2 years ago

Thank you, Ms. Balbone. It must be difficult serving as a commissioner along with those who are choosing to hurt our community. They are placing the hopeless/homeless above the safety and welfare of taxpayers–renters and homeowners–of West Hollywood.

We need to know where John Heilman–and every potential candidate for City Council–stands on this issue before the upcoming election.