Money Begins Flowing into Inglewood Mayoral Candidates Campaign Coffers

Inglewood residents have a monumental task ahead of them this November, should they decide to vote.  Due to dismal voter turnout, the current Inglewood City Council has earned an additional year on their terms thanks to consolidation of our elections in 2020.  The question Inglewood voters will have to answer is has Inglewood Mayor James Butts earned another term as our Mayor?

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Since January 2018 Mayor Butts has received campaign contributions from a handful of Inglewood businesses, who receive substantial returns on their investment.

• Marvin Engineering (ME) has contributed $25k.  In return, they will have Grosvenor Blvd blocked off to through traffic to accommodate their employees.  They also had $800k in back taxes wiped out by the Mayor’s Executive Assistant Melanie McDade and Finance Manager Maria Heaney.  ME has made no significant investment in Inglewood Unified School District (IUSD) STEM programs to support students wishing to enter the field of Engineering;
• LAX Firing Range has invested $15k into Mayor Butts and had both McDade and Heaney wipe out nearly $80k owed in city owed back taxes;
• Shopoff Realty Investments in Irvine, CA contributed $5k;
• Goodman Food Products on Beach Ave contributed $20k; and
• Miami City Self Storage out of Coconut Grove, FL, contributed $5k for the right to be awarded a new storage facility they wish to open in Inglewood city limits.
• There are (7) pages of loans detailed on the Mayor’s forms made payable to Dotson for Council 2017 campaign fund, dating back to 11/2012.

A review of Mayor Butts campaign spending shows he donates a considerable amount of money to the football programs at his alma mater but not much towards the football programs at Inglewood schools.  He did finagle a campaign photo call featuring the LA Chargers and LA Rams donating uniforms to the Varsity teams for the local high schools.

Butts did manage to donate $500 to the Inglewood High Robotics Program and gave $50 to Eye on Inglewood creator Halimah Ginyard to feed Inglewood’s homeless.  Butts also contributed $300 towards the Eye on Inglewood Women’s March expenses in January of this year too.

He also fails to build relationships with Inglewood eateries as he only spends his money in Marina del Rey and Westchester establishments.

He does support the homeschooling of Inglewood residents Aaron and Christopher Brown, whose mother regularly attends Inglewood council meetings to heap praise on Mayor Butts.  Aaron has somehow managed to win a handful of MLK speech awards and cash prizes from IUSD.

As expected mayoral candidate Marc T. Little has received $50k from Madison Square Garden (MSG) but has yet to report any expenses.  Word on the street is his campaign office will operate out of office space at Faithful Central and he has hired a PR firm to handle campaign messaging. Signage is already visible and strategically located along Century and Manchester Blvds. Many are speculating that Little will hire Jasmyne Cannick, who most recently the Campaign Director of the Reform LA Jails committee.

Brandon Myers, a relatively unknown candidate, submitted his form 497 detailing no monetary contributions.

Marc Little has a long history in Inglewood serving as a Pastor in the city’s largest church and orchestrating the sale of The Forum, to MSG, which set the stage for the investments made by Stan Kroenke and Invitation Homes.

Little will have some tough questions to face surrounding his once cozy relationship with the Mayor, an alleged cover up in Faithful Central, and his being a registered Republican.

Does Marc T. Little stand a chance to become our next Mayor of Inglewood?