Background: You can read my previous stories on the Skid Row Neighborhood Council formation effort and also see Jason McGahan’s article in the Weekly and Gale Holland’s article in the Times for more mainstream perspectives.
The headline pretty much says it. Here is the email and there’s a transcription after the break. After the essential part, that Estela Lopez sent this email from estela.lopez@dlanc.com rather than her personal email address, beatus821@gmail.com, that she had been using previously, the next most important thing is the distribution list. It’s the same bunch of people that Estela Lopez had been emailing since March 20 on behalf of United Downtown LA.
It’s interesting to note, by the way, that, in addition to Estela Lopez herself, the following DLANC board members were on the list:
- Josh Albrektson (joshraymd@gmail.com)
- Robert Newman (robertnewman2@gmail.com)
- Dan Curnow (dan.curnow@gmail.com)
- Rena Leddy (renamastenleddy@yahoo.com)
- Jacob Douglas Van Horn (jacob@newdowntownbrokerage.com)
This is six of them, which is one short of a Brown Act violation,1 so they dodged that bullet. So is Estela Lopez’s use of her official DLANC email address to send out a United DTLA email a violation of some rule? It’s hard to say. It probably depends on why she used the official email account, and at this late date it’s dubious that there’s any proof of motive.2 So I’m just letting the fact speak for itself.
Transcription of the email in question:
Subject: FW: Update – Skid Row Subdivision Election Challenges
From:
Date: 04/15/2017 01:41 PM
To: ‘kent hawkins’ <kent@statewideacqcorp.com>, ‘Elizabeth Peterson ‘<elizabeth@epgla.com>, ‘Jenni Harris’ <jharris@atlas-cap.com>, ‘Carolyn Leslie'<cleslie@ATLAS-CAP.COM>, ‘Joanne’ <jkumamoto@aol.com>,<akumamoto@aol.com>, ‘Ellen Endo’ <ellenendo@yahoo.com>, Josh Albrektson
<joshraymd@gmail.com>, ‘Nick Griffin’ <ngriffin@downtownla.com>, ‘Blair Best'<blairbesten@gmail.com>, ‘Robert Newman’ <robertnewman2@gmail.com>,’Rena Leddy’ <renamastenleddy@yahoo.com>, ‘Dan Curnow'<dan.curnow@gmail.com>, ‘relissa greer’ <relissagreer@yahoo.com>, ‘Melissa Martinez’ <melissa@superiorseafoodco.com>, <jc@downtownventure.com>,’Karen Christopherson’ <Karen@aimanagementco.com>, ‘Naomi Gmail’ <nanakagama@gmail.com>, ‘Justin Nguyen’ <Justin@aimanagementco.com>, ‘Samko General Partnership’ <samkogp@sbcglobal.net>, <shirley@seawin.com>, ‘Merle Ojiri’ <MOjiri@yamasafishcake.com>, ‘Rose Park’ <rose.park@lanystyle.com>, ‘miguel nelson’ <miguel@marvimon.com>,<nasirk@sbcglobal.net>, ‘Jessica Lall’ <JLall@ccala.org>, ‘Marie Rumsey'<mrumsey@ccala.org>, ‘Tanner Blackman’ <tanner.blackman@gmail.com>,’George Yu’ <geoyu28@aol.com>, <Charlie@Megatoys.com>, ‘Peklar Pilavjian'<peklar@live.com>, <daniel@jadeent.com>, ‘Hal Bastian'<Hal@halbastian.com>, ‘Steve Lee’ <steve.lee@steleeind.com>, ‘Steven Sharp'<ssharp@kindelgagan.com>, ‘Christopher Loos’ <chris@urbanize.la>, ‘Michael Gagan’ <mgagan@kindelgagan.com>, ‘Jacob – Brokerage’ <jacob@newdowntownbrokerage.com>, ‘James Kang’ <james.kang@steleeind.com>, ‘Tom Gilmore’ <TGilmore@gilmoredev.com>,’Scott Gray’ <scott@capitalforesight.com>, ‘Carol Schatz’ <cschatz@downtownla.com>, ‘DTCommissary’ <dtcommissary@gmail.com>,Bob Smiland <bsmiland@inner-cityarts.org>, Dilip Bhavnani<dilip@sunscopeusa.com>, Don Steier <donsteier@gslawla.com>, Drew Bauer<DrewBauer@YoungsHoldings.com>, Ernie Doizaki <edoizaki@kansasmarine.com>, Howard Klein<howard.klein@oceanbeauty.com>, Larry Rauch <lrauch@lacold.com>, Mark Shinbane <marks@ore-cal.com>, Matt Klein <mklein@hbkinv.com>
Hello everyone. The brief update is that there were several challenges filed and the City cannot certify the election results until these have been formally investigated. Please see the official announcement below.
Here is the link to the Downtown News story that is now online:
http://www.ladowntownnews.com/news/what-s-next-for-the-skid-row-neighborhood-council/article_9af87286-212d-11e7-b2bc-7f8dc8601345.html
More to come, of course.
Have a good weekend.
- The Brown Act at §54952.2 says that a majority can’t discuss issues within the subject matter jurisdiction outside of a public meeting. There are 24 members on the DLANC Board and a quorum is 13. The bylaws specify that a majority of those present can pass a motion, which is 7. According to this incredibly useful legal manual for neighborhood councils which, ironically, was written by former City Attorney Rockard Delgadillo, it’s the minimum number of board members that can pass a motion that counts as a majority for the Brown Act, hence 7. However, if among these six people there is a majority of a standing DLANC committee there actually was a violation. Patti Berman is infamous for the crappiness of minute disclosure on the fairly useless DLANC website. So if you have the DLANC committee rosters for March and April 2017 and more than enough of these people are on one of them, let me know and we will stir up some shit!
- Or lack thereof, of course.
