“Apparently we’re reliving our past,” said Councilmember Gleam Davis on an open-mic as the Council returned from closed session. I’m not sure exactly what Davis was talking about at the moment, but an ‘airing of grievances’ for perceived past offenses was how the current Council majority chose to end its last meeting in power.
After stonewalling attempts to investigate leaks of private meetings and delaying on creating a code of ethics for the council and allowing councilmembers to be compensated for votes, Councilmember Oscar de la Torre, who was defeated in last week’s election, placed an item on the agenda asking the city staff to create a code of decorum for future city councils. Unsurprisingly, the discussion devolved into members of the current Council majority lambasting their political opponents.
After a quick discussion of a traffic safety grant after the Council returned from closed session, public comment opened with an angry comment by Maria Loya, one of the plaintiffs in the case that attempts to force the city to change its electoral process to a “district election” process. Loya is also the wife of Councilmember Oscar de la Torre, who was defeated in last week’s election.
“I think it’s important for SMRR, and SMRR endorsed candidates to take responsibility for the lies and misinformation that was spread during the campaign,” said Loya, ending her testimony.
We should note: when Loya was testifying, it was during “public comment on agenda items” and there was not even the smallest of attempts to make her speech related to any item still on the agenda. Had she been stopped by Mayor Phil Brock, perhaps the ugliness that marred the end of the meeting could have been avoided.
When it was time to introduce his motion, de la Torre began by making it absolutely clear the motion was about addressing the allegations made against him at the previous meeting and his anger at losing the election.
He began by accusing Councilmember Gleam Davis of lying at the last council meeting about a conversation that the two had before and then attacked her for claiming her heritage. He was interrupted by Councilmember Jesse Zwick, who asked the mayor what it had to do with the item at hand.
Eventually, Mayor Phil Brock ruled in favor of letting de la Torre go forward but urged him “not to go into specifics.”
De la Torre completely ignored Brock’s recommendation and returned immediately to questioning Davis’ heritage. “You’re off the rails,” Brock admonished him. “Talk about what you want to do, and are going to propose.”
De la Torre continued to ignore the Mayor and went back to attacking Davis for text messages she sent on behalf of the candidates’ she endorsed.
“We’re still going into a personal attack. I’m asking you for the last time to stop the personal attacks,” Brock continued.
De la Torre finally managed to bring it back to a general concern that councilmembers should watch how they campaign while they are City Councilmembers.
However, he then tried to read a letter into the record from the Mayor of Beverly Hills about something that happened from a previous meeting. He eventually read the letter after he was told three times that he could not under Council rules by both the Mayor and City Attorney.
Councilmember Christine Parra then jumped in shouting at Councilmember Jesse Zwick for what seemed to be his amusement at de la Torre’s insistence of going forward despite the Mayor and City Attorney telling him that he could not. She told him he was “being such an asshole right now,” on the council dais during what was allegedly a discussion of city council decorum.
After de la Torre read the letter. He then went on to attack Davis again this time for allegedly leaking items from closed session and said he had filed a complaint with the City Attorney.
“I welcome the investigation, unlike you the previous times,” Davis responded, referencing the councilmember’s repeated attempts to stonewall investigations into leaks.
And with that, the meeting was adjourned without a vote on De la Torre’s discussion item. The next City Council meeting will begin with the swearing in of the four new City Councilmembers and the elevation of Vice-Mayor Lana Negrete to Mayor. This was the last meeting for Councilmembers Brock, Davis, de la Torre and Parra who should be present for the transfer of power at the December 10 meeting.
