Well, it appears the Inglewood City Council has finally responded to the mounting public rumblings of constituency dissatisfaction by organizing a hastily arranged Town Hall meeting hosted by Councilwoman Dionne Faulk. Although it appeared by design, or conscription like a young Russian male being forced into service for an unrighteous cause, there were more employees and city commissioners in attendance than residents. This tells me this wasn’t a meeting for the community but rather the City’s investors who would hear from speakers without interference from angry residents.
I wasn’t surprised because this is the MO of the elected officials since the beginning of the Mayor’s tenure. The goal is to cultivate a friendly audience that won’t offer opposition to his agenda because it was clearly obvious the agenda of the City was to calm the seas so to speak as legitimate questions about the Mayor’s stewardship, as it relates to the City’s current and long-term financial prospects, are being called into question after the City revealed its lackluster first quarter budget numbers. Add that to the public backlash surrounding plans released by the City’s consultants regarding the Inglewood Transit Connector that will shutter many businesses and eliminate many permanent middle-class jobs in the process and you have a clusterf*** of monumental proportions as voters are in the midst of selecting their District 1 representative by next Tuesday.
I wish I could come back and tell residents I actually learned something at this meeting, but what was reaffirmed to me, after watching an almost disturbing and uncomfortable exchange between Councilwoman Faulk as she introduced the Mayor, is that despite mounting and legitimate criticism of this council and their best efforts to appear responsive to the growing concerns of a once voiceless community, this elected body doesn’t give two sh*** about the residents
I don’t know what to say but this isn’t going to end well.
Related: Inglewood Settles Suit Over Controversial Police Shootings For $8.6M
Mayor Butts’ speech artfully correlated the success of Inglewood and its “Renaissance” to sound and steady leadership despite the City’s own financial outlook and impending legal settlements that will cost the City of Inglewood residents in excess of millions to settle. Perhaps this could explain why millions of dollars in federal COVID funds haven’t been publicly allocated. They’re probably already earmarked to payout lawsuits because the City is self-insured. We still don’t know where the City got almost $9 million from to settle a lawsuit for a couple the police department killed in 2016. How did that happen without it being on a city council agenda for a vote?
In closing this town hall was embarrassing and a sad circus and reiterates my belief that this council, per the words of Don Lemon, is way beyond its prime and usage to the residents. The sooner the collective Inglewood community accepts this hard truth, and responds accordingly, we can experience the potential of Inglewood and its benefits to the community as a whole as opposed to a system that only benefits Mayor Butts, his council colleagues, and their friends and family.
Marvin McCoy is a lifelong Inglewood resident and can be reached at therealmccoymarketinggroup@gmail.com Twitter: @MarvinM83905936 | Instagram: @therealmccoymarketinggroup
