Dec. 19th, 2022 The vote was 3-2, with John Heilman and Lauren Meister in the minority voting to keep the Sheriff at the same levels as currently staffed. Mayor Pro Tem Sepi Shyne proposed cutting the deputies by 2, Councilmember John Erickson seconded the motion, and Councilmember Chelsea Byers was the third vote.
June 2022, The vote was 3-2, with Erickson and Meister voting against the implementation of cuts to the deputy sheriffs. Councilmembers Lindsey Horvath, Shyne, and D’Amico voted to cut the deputies. From that vote forward Erickson would often state that he voted ‘against the cuts’, and it was his colleagues ‘voted for the cuts’.
June 28 Erickson posted on his official facebook timeline: “I want to be very clear”, and went on to say “In a 3-2 vote, my colleagues voted to reduce the # of deputies gradually over a period of time and re-evaluate after the summer the levels of crime, etc.”. Erickson continued : “With a public safety crisis, and residents, businesses and tourists expecting us to deliver, I do not think this approach, while timed out, would help the community achieve our goals of creating a safer West Hollywood”
At Ruth Williams Memorial Service in early July, Erickson spoke of how important it was to listen to her guidance and support the Sheriff. The crowd applauded.
September 2022, D’Amico voted to delay cuts to the sheriff. All 5 council members voted to delay the cuts. Mayor Meister voted to delay the cuts because she did not want to see deputies cut. Now Erickson’s motives are unclear – but it looks like he voted for political cover for himself, and to support Horvath’s Supervisor campaign messaging.
Erickson also heavily supported candidate and Public Safety Commissioner Robert Oliver in his quest for a city council seat. Oliver had seconded Nika Soon-Shiong’s motion to defund the Sheriff budget but his position in the election, after the June vote, changed, as did Erickson’s. They both placed Politics over Public Safety.
As the alarming crime statistics were read out loud in the Council Chambers. the air in the room was stunningly quiet. D’Amico was off the dais and nobody was leading this ‘national lie’, message that D’Amico had often repeated. Instead people had to listen to the facts. And a request from the Captain to restore the previous deputy that was cut pre-Covid. The statistics were astounding.
Despite the rise in crime and request by Captain Moulder to restore the extra deputy to the Entertainment Police Team, Erickson, Shyne and Byers, voted against maintaining the current levels of Sheriff deputies.
It was Erickson who was the flip vote, towing the anti-Sheriff message being promoted by UNITE HERE Local 11, and Shyne.
Byers had a chance to stand on her own and for the most Public Safety afforded to the residents but she voted with her donors UNITE HERE Local 11 and followed Erickson’s lead.
Former Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva described the cuts to the Sheriff as a ‘kick in the teeth”. But there is a new Sheriff in town, Robert Luna. The new Sheriff will start off with a West Hollywood City Council that expects more, for less, and another kick in teeth.
In the end, Council member Erickson voted against his own logic stating he was recently ‘almost carjacked’, and against the rising crime rates. Erickson voted against Ruth Williams, and against his own words “to help the community achieve our goals of creating a safer West Hollywood”.
The three votes in support of cutting the Sheriff deputies, Shyne, Erickson and Byers, also voted without any new dialog with the new LA County Sheriff Robert Luna.
Erickson played with our Public Safety like a yo-yo, putting the politics ahead of the policy. In the end everything he said in June and July was not true and he caved to the Shyne and UNITE HERE Local 11 position.
Erickson and Shyne have nothing to lose by defunding the Sheriff’s Department. Their phone call to the station will be escalated simply because they’re on the City Council. The rest of us will go into the queue.
Stay strapped. Hopefully this Luna-tic won’t be a dick about CCW licenses — which are unconstitutional but whatevs — and all you “guns are bad and scary” boys and girls can learn to defend yourselves.
John Erickson has no connection with the real world. He lives in a warped environment and is not fit to command a city council position due to his exceedingly poor judgement but, oh can he talk up a storm! Sad for the City of West Hollywood .
The Eastside has let it be known to criminals that it is well armed when it comes to Democrat Squalor camps, and the lawless. Almost every single resident on my block has bought a gun.
The irony is Erickson noted he wanted fewer guns in the streets by removing the deputy positions. All he’s done is add more guns to the streets because now untrained people are arming themselves.
joe biden and his son engaged in overt financial fraud – they will be in jail – TRUMP IS AN AMERICAN HERO
Looks like Mark doesnt know what an actual HERO is.
Please get back on you meds as your insanity is showing.
How about responding with something of substance instead of juvenile insults?
Everyone knows that having a serious addict in the family is beyond their control. It is personal speculation that Joe Biden ever authorized or is directly involved in the wrongdoing you allege. Please act responsibly and stop spreading rumors that you likely know zero about.🙄
Donald Trump raised his sons to not be drug addicts or international fraudsters who smoke crack and screw hookers – you can tell alot about a person by how they raise their kids
That is a false and naive analogy. No one raises a son or daughter to be an addict. Some have a biological propensity for addiction. On the other hand Donald Trump is a fraudster at many levels with several of the exact specifics to be determined and charged. Contact the NY AG for a list to get you started. Then we can talk.
You read the headline without the follow-up where you would learn that nothing is ever found in the accusations against him. The NY AG makes a list THEN looks for evidence.
Perhaps you should read and then comprehend the evidence on several levels.
I’ll compare my awareness and comprehension of the evidence on every level to yours any day.
Doubtful. Serious folks don’t make insane statements.
That was “inane” statements.
One can also tell a lot about a person based on early deeds. When Trump was preparing to build Trump Tower, he first needed to demolish the Landmark Warren & Wetmore Bonwit Teller building, prior to official landmark designations. Not only did he not pay the Polish workers who performed the demolition but destroyed the Art Deco Frieze that he promised to The Metropolitan Museum to be removed at their expense. That takes a certain type of disposition to perform such a mean and senseless act. How did I know this? I was then working in the Hearst building at… Read more »
As with most of what I hear about Trump I suspect there is a lot more to be said about this story, but I really don’t care about any of those things. What I care about is what he accomplished as president while in office. The list is long but we had the best economy ever and minority employment was never better with good and high paying jobs.
one week of looting in santa monica did 500x the economic damage of the capitol protests – which were completely justified
That is a warped opinion.
Please tell us hiw you perceive justification for these acts.
It could be stated on record, that John Erickson or Sepi Shyne refuse to hear about or admit to increased crime rates. 3 weeks ago in an unannounced city conference in front of media, Sepi said “Don’t think of committing crimes here in Weho” but where were the residents? I saw it on tv, only media were in attendance with Sepi at the podium with city logo backdrop. Did the city think to inform residents or invite crime victims —that would not be good for optics. Why is a union that backed Erickson and Shyne and Beyers entrenched in local… Read more »
Great points, Jamie.
At her very first meeting, we’re already seeing the horrible effects of council member Byers’ decisions in the city that she’s lived in for less than two years. We have to get the word out, and remind people to vote for people who are going to protect the city that they live in, and have lived in, for years. Not for people who are looking to use our wonderful city as a stepping stone for higher office.
Byers is a career politician aligned with the union powers that truly govern our city.
Why didn’t you “get the word out” when & while you were running for City Council? You’re putting the cart before the horse. I had never heard of any of them, Shyne, Erickson, or Buyers until they were elected. I heard lots of campaign rhetoric, got zillions of mailers & “things” hung on doors all over our building for weeks – yet none of them mentioned these lack of qualifications for those council candidates, nor anything, that I know of, warning the voters of potential problems & concerns they might cause, as council members. They remind me of a high… Read more »
Duran and Cockeram for the win in 2024!
Hi Woody, Trust me, we did everything we could to let people know. The Wehoville Voter Guide mentioned it, we brought it up at every forum and community gathering we could, but she was supported by Unite Here, who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars pushing their candidates. And as hard as the rest of us tried to reach the community, Unite Here had the money to send out mailers to more voters, and they were able to reach more people than we were. Unite Here was the only group to really attack other candidates in mailers, most of us… Read more »
You now have great exposure, Jordan. Please run again in two years. You are the kind of person that we need on our council. One that really cares about West Hollywood.
among communists there were some good ones but at the end of the day the majority were idiots – same goes for democrats
crystal meth and weed are really bad for memory – We had economic growth that was 50% higher than under obama and the lowest unemployment rate for African Americans in History – Trump was against the stupid job killing and inflation causing covid flu lockdowns – the border wall was being built until the poop man and kamala the prostitute stole their way into office with fake mail in ballots – We didnt have any wars with Trump – Putin and all the rest including kim jong fat were scared of trump – nobody is scared of biden dont smoke… Read more »
I’ll take your bait and reply, as I feel sorry for you that you think you’re in “our community”. “Our Community” here in West Hollywood often disagrees, but virtually everyone respects that other people have a right to their opinion. Since you are a proud “Trump Supporter”, you do not, and you don’t have the right to claim to be part of “Our Community”. Your community is mostly in the process of being indicted, subpoenaed, jailed, fined, etc. Now go back and be proud of Trump’s “accomplishments”, like tax breaks for billionaires, putting children in cages at the border, a… Read more »
Although I know better than to list Trump’s accomplishments here as mark feigin did, you are parroting exactly whatever news sources you use want you to think … and say. You couldn’t be more wrong. You are right only in that there’s no point in saying what mark said here in WeHo because most people are just as uninformed and as partisan as you; and will self-righteously and confidently blather about something you clearly know nothing about.
No local government or any government for that matter should be at risk of a supercilious, immature individual regardless of their academic standing. Start ejecting these folks locally.
Huh? What? Take your racist B/S somewhere else.
John Erickson stands for nothing but himself. He has sold out the citizens of West Hollywood. Count your days Erickson, your days at city hall are numbered
We can only hope this to be true!!! He is awful & has been since DAY ONE.