Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts Jr. is continuing his silencing of the city treasurer by intentionally excluding her from attending city council meetings.
Treasurer Wanda Brown began to peel back the layers of the city’s finances after the annual two week holiday closure. During the last two weeks of December 2019, an article appeared in the Daily Breeze about a city hall employee landing the top spot on the city’s housing lottery list.
Brown was livid at the assertion that she committed some form of impropriety and forced City Manager Artie Field to set the record straight on how she became involved in the drawing.
Since then, she has used her weekly announcement time to call out Mayor Butts. First he took away her time to speak then he deactivated her badge.
City Hall insiders shared with 2UrbanGirls that staffers were giving Brown access to the council chambers, as she is STILL a member of the public who can speak during public comment period. Brown began to utilize public comment periods at the beginning and end of the meeting to continue exposing Butts’ behavior behind the scenes.
During today’s meeting, Brown was absent, and apparently shared with a meeting attendee that ALL city hall employees have had their access restricted to the 9th floor.
Every week members of the Facebook audience shares stories of being “left on hold” during public comment period, some waiting upwards of two hours, only for the “operator” to say there are no callers in queue. The most glaring evidence that City Clerk Yvonne Horton is suppressing public comments sent to her office as stated on the weekly city council agenda was an email 2UrbanGirls received 7/28/2020 at 10:53am.
A long term Inglewood resident submitted comment to the city clerk’s AND city attorney’s office and Deputy City Clerk Aisha Thompson failed to publicly announce as she is legally required to do during the council meetings. The email was in regard to claims filed against the city which were scheduled to be denied at the 2pm meeting.
The agenda item referenced in the email was a 2010-2019 personal injury and termination claim filed by Melanie McDade-Dickens.
Her claim was filed last month and City Attorney Ken Campos and his assistant Kenya Carey Crook have failed to follow the CA Public Records Act to furnish this author with the claim and its contents.
From what we gather, it was well known to the council members, their liaisons, City Hall employees, Human Resources, and the Inglewood Chamber that Butts and McDade were in a full blown relationship during every salary ordinance the council voted on to give her raises, promotions and bonuses at City Manager Artie Fields’ behest.
Councilmen George Dotson, Ralph Franklin, Eloy Morales and Alex Padilla will have a difficult time going before a jury to say they didn’t know about the relationship when staffers have already said otherwise under penalty of perjury.
9 Comments
Wow! I’ve been so preoccupied watching the City of Carson and feeling that those people should be investigated, that I never noticed how bad Inglewood is! God, help us all! Can anything be done about these politicians and their egos??? When will they serve the people they were elected to serve?
Dj noticed your post when the illegally modified motorcycle roared thru my INGLEWOOD neighborhood at 3:50 a.m. Inglewood time !
So 6:46 a.m. posting time suggests you were not in CA. Since LAX along with the rest of the country has limited flights you were probably at your home somewhere on the east coast where women are still expected to keep their mouths shut and whose only “purpose” is to please and pamper any male that crosses their path.
It is the elected and non-elected males in the chamber who ought be embarrassed and apologize to the women in their households, their fellow female employees, and female neighbors for keeping silent and permitting the bullying behavior that is a consistent part of this administration.
OLD NEWS FLASH : Women of the west are not subjects or slaves who need men to tell them not to embarrass themselves when speaking truth to power.
Many women consider Wanda Brown standing up to declare truth a behavior we should respect, honor, and find praiseworthy ! She has attempted to graciously present her concerns in the past and has been ignored.
Far too many years women have been told to keep quite and go to the kitchen by arrogant, controlling, insecure men .
Susan Anthony, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott , Carrie Chapman Catt and Alice Paul showed us by example women can stand up to foolish politicians and that when our gentle concerns are made known and are ignored we need not be silent any longer. We are grateful for the strength of the suffragettes as we celebrate 100 years of the passage of the 19th amendment (women’s right to vote). That any of these women suffered for Exercising Free Speech is an embarrassment to the concept of democracy.
August 18, 1920 day was an “important day” for every woman and every future generation – by comparison July 28, 2020 when five minority men in Inglewood agreed together to disregard the community they represent, is just another UNFORTUNATELY ROUTINE example of corruption .
Perhaps the future retrospective IMPORTANCE of this day will be that those responsible for public integrity on a federal level will decide enough is enough.
To OUR SISTER Wanda – be confident many encourage you Stand tall, Stand firm, Speak loud and know you are appreciated. We only wish there were men elected to represent community rather than the weak males who fail to value women.
#TimeStampGate has me LMFOA.
@2UrbanGirls please provide a little bit of clarification for WOMEN FOR TRUTH TELLING and INGLEWOOD RESIDENT and let them know my post was uploaded to your site more than six hours before it was approved and made public at 6:46am on July 29th.
For example, Women For Truth Telling’s post is time stamped 7:58pm on July 29th and 7:58pm is still hours away even if you are on the east coast. LOL.
????????????????????
Apparently Butts is confusing the title mayor to mean Supreme Ruler .
Just a Reminder : he is not the owner of Inglewood nor is he the owner of City Hall. Three are elected city wide the mayor, the City Clerk, AND the City Treasurer – he is NOT their or our boss, father, ruler or overseer.
The four elected Council Members Dotson, Padilla, Morales, and Franklin (each only elected by one fourth of the city) who allow, encourage and SUPPORT BY THEIR SILENCE Butts’ unethical and immoral behavior betray the People and the oath they promised to uphold .
Staff members who have participated in the misinformation and community disenfranchisement should have the luxury of becoming household names on the national media and permanently be recognized for their misdeeds whenever “corruption” is entered on any search engine.
Every WOMAN. ought to outraged that an elected Woman is being treated with such disrespect in the public performance of her elected position.
All elected women INCLUDING Congresswomen Maxine Waters, California Representative Autumn Burke, Los Angeles COUNTY Supervisors Barber, Solis, Hahn, Kuehl as well as the male in office Ridley-Thomas, and Bradford should speak out against the disrespect being shown to City Treasurer Brown !
Perhaps, the FBI will have to remind Butts and “his team” that he is neither GOD or Supreme Ruler.
Let us pray that OUR city is not completely sold to Billionaires before the FBI takes action!
I agree
I’ll say it once and I’ll say it again the Mayor’s treatment of Wanda Brown exposes his character as a man.
Speaking of character, WANDA BROWN really showed her LACK OF CHARACTER at last week’s city council meeting when the Clippers arena environmental report was approved.
In my opinion, WANDA EMBARRASSED HERSELF on a very special and important day for Inglewood by going out of her way to cause a scene during the city council meeting.
There really is NO EXCUSE for the way she acted last week, especially since she’s been saying the same old news for months now.
If I was Wanda I would be ashamed of my behavior and I would PUBLICLY APOLOGIZE to the city, the Clippers, my City Hall coworkers and the people who voted for me.
Oh oh your time stamp let’s us know you are probably not an impacted Inglewood resident but a New York Fan who will not loose air quality or transportation access to an Inglewood home when the out of towers invade our neighborhood . (On the west coast it is only 4 a.m.) You should be embarrassed !!
The LACK OF CHARACTER is displayed weekly by the bully in the middle seat who does not permit public comments and attempts to belittle any who do not lick his boots!
Thank you for now revealing the one who has been commenting re “old news” is not a community member – you apparently are unaware old news is relevant— Grab a clue rich oppressor Black Lives Matter is a movement about a history of disrespect over a long period of time.
Doing wrong over and over and over should not somehow make wrong okay simply because of the time period that passes
Another clue for the old stuff matters challenged Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes are not now okay because the girls he abused grew older !!
Really EMBARRASSINGLY is the MEN who routinely stand by and watch as other men treat women poorly.
Indeed PUBLIC APOLOGIES ARE IN ORDER….from BUTTS for suing Joseph Tixiera, for telling Diane Sambrano to “Go choke herself”, for disregarding Miranda Warnings, for choking his former wife, for wrongly promoting Melanie Mcdade and then terminating her when she ended a The affair, to his wife for having an affair …..yep OLD NEWS DOES MATTER it tells us about a person’s CHARACTER .
Our community is more than a BALL GAME we have real lives with real families with real jobs and news flash all the parts of each of these lives are far more important than playing ball !
IT IS THE CLIPPERS who owe this community an apology for their back-room, closed-door, under-the -table, pay -to-play, Boss Tweed behavior!
If anything Wanda Brown showed true professionalism in her support of the arena .
If I remember correctly she spoke glowingly about the project
The fact that Wanda Brown who has been an elected official, a black woman , a mother , grandmother , and I’m probably going to assume a great grandmother who has acted in her position as City Treasurer with the utmost professionalism to be treated this way.
What I do remember her reading a list of women whom has been bullied and harrased by this Mayor , including residents.
Now the residents are possibly on the hook for an extra marital affair that he carried on for 8 years with his executive assistant and City Council and administrative staff knew and did nothing about it.
Stop excusing this Mayor and Councils actions.