West Hollywood residents have ushered in a brand new period by voting out the two longest-serving members of the City Council.
West Hollywood City Councilman John Heilman speaks throughout a council assembly on Feb.19, 2019. He’d been on the council because the metropolis was based in 1984.
(Los Angeles Times)
John Heilman, a councilman because the metropolis integrated in 1984, and John Duran, a colourful determine who has been dogged by sexual harassment allegations, misplaced to two newcomers who promised a recent perspective for a governing board as soon as dominated by longtime incumbents.
Sepi Shyne, a 43-year-previous lawyer who runs a holistic therapeutic enterprise for people and pets, and John Erickson, the 35-year-previous director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood Los Angeles, had been the highest two vote-getters amongst 11 candidates on the poll in final Tuesday’s at-giant election.
In this undated picture, newly elected West Hollywood City Councilwoman Sepi Shyne, left, is seen along with her spouse, actress and director Ashlei Shyne, and their canine, Chloe the Queen of WeHo.
(Courtesey of Sepi Shyne)
Both had beforehand been appointed by Heilman to metropolis commissions.
In an election the place turnout was excessive and many citizens forged their ballots early due to the contentious presidential race and the COVID-19 pandemic, Shyne got here in first place with 7,850 votes.
Erickson got here in second place with 7,118 votes and Heilman was third. Duran, who has been on the council since 2001, got here in fifth behind retail retailer proprietor Larry Block, based on unofficial outcomes from the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder.
An undated picture of newly elected West Hollywood City Councilman John Erickson. The Wisconsin native was appointed in 2017 by Gov. Jerry Brown to the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls.
(Courtesey of John Erickson)
“People are ready for change, with everything we have gone through, with the social justice movement, the pandemic,” Shyne stated. “People have awoken to want evolution on every level.”
Both incoming council members stated they might prioritize financial restoration amid the pandemic and would improve protections for renters. Shyne famous that she didn’t take any donations from builders.
Shyne, who’s Iranian American and lesbian, is the primary queer girl of coloration ever elected to the West Hollywood City Council and was one in all solely two ladies on the poll.
When she takes workplace subsequent month — becoming a member of Erickson, Lindsey Horvath, Lauren Meister and John D’Amico — the council will probably be majority feminine for the primary time within the metropolis’s historical past.
When West Hollywood was integrated in 1984, it grabbed headlines with the nation’s first homosexual-majority City Council, together with Heilman, who’s homosexual. One of its first acts was an ordinance banning discrimination on the premise of sexual orientation.
“Politics was never something I thought I was going to do, honestly,” stated Shyne, who unsuccessfully ran for the council final yr. “But in November 2018, after the blue wave, the rainbow wave, the women’s wave, for the first time ever I started seeing myself in office. As a queer Iranian woman, I had never seen myself [reflected].”
Shyne’s household fled Iran after the Islamic Revolution when she was 5, settling within the Bay Area. She was within the nation with out correct documentation till she was 16.
A longtime advocate for ladies’s and LGBTQ rights, Shyne serves on the West Hollywood Business License Commission and beforehand was on the town’s Lesbian and Gay Advisory board. Heilman appointed her to each. She and her spouse, actress and director Ashlei Shyne, stay with their three rescue cats and blended-breed rescue canine, Chloe the Queen of WeHo.
Erickson, who ran for workplace for the primary time, would be the youngest member of the City Council. He stated he represents “new leadership for new times.”
“It was time for people who look like me, people my age, to run for office,” he stated.
Erickson, a homosexual man and LGBTQ advocate who has lived in West Hollywood since 2010, obtained his begin as an intern for the City Council and later labored as a deputy to former Councilwoman Abbe Land. He is a member of the West Hollywood Planning Commission.
He stated it’s bittersweet changing Heilman, who appointed him to the planning fee and is “a personal hero of mine.”
Erickson was appointed in 2017 by Gov. Jerry Brown to the California Commission on the Status of Women and Girls. He credit his late grandmother, Gladys Hritsko — who introduced him as a toddler to civil rights rallies for seniors, ladies and veterans — for his curiosity in politics.
“When people ask, ‘Why am I a feminist?’ I say, ‘I was raised right,’” stated Erickson, a local of Wisconsin.
If Heilman and Duran had gained reelection, it will have been the ultimate time period for each.
In 2013 — when all however one City Council member had been in workplace for greater than a decade — residents despatched a blended message by voting to determine time period limits but decisively reelecting longtime incumbents Duran and Jeffrey Prang, now the Los Angeles County assessor.
In 2015, Heilman briefly misplaced his seat earlier than successful a particular election three months later.
“I’ve served my community for 36 years, and it’s been an incredible honor and a pleasure,” Heilman, 63, who teaches at Southwestern Law School and the USC Gould School of Law, stated Monday.
In latest years, allegations in opposition to Duran, an lawyer, have roiled West Hollywood, with protesters packing council conferences to name for his ouster.
In 2016, the town paid $500,000 to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit introduced by Duran’s former council deputy, whom Duran stated he employed after assembly on the Grindr app and having intercourse with him. He was reelected after that scandal.
Last yr, a number of present or former members of the Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles accused Duran of crude sexual feedback and undesirable touching.
He stated on the time that he had an unapologetically bawdy humorousness, as a homosexual man who lived by way of the sexual revolution. He relinquished the title of mayor, which rotates yearly amongst council members, however cited well being causes for his resolution, saying he was hospitalized for blood clots.
On Monday, Duran stated that he and Heilman “have been the faces of WeHo for decades.”
“When we both lose our seats at the same time, it’s a sign voters want something new,” he added.
Duran stated he’s pleased with the work he has finished for LGBTQ rights and alcohol and drug restoration, in addition to the monetary well being of a thriving metropolis “with huge surpluses.” He now’s engaged on a screenplay concerning the HIV and AIDS disaster of the 1980s, instructed by way of characters now residing amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Every time I sneezed, there was a story … about it,” stated Duran, 61, of the latest controversies. “I was constantly in the public eye, constantly in public scrutiny. I feel I’ll get a little bit of my privacy back.”
