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Get Involved!

"Get involved"  means to make yourself AWARE of the issues that affect you  and  your community,  find out what you can do to improve things and take the steps necessary to do so.

 

You don't have to spend  a lot of  money  or  time.  Just look around the city and see what needs to be done  or what isn't being done.   Go to the Tuesday  City Council Meetings when you can,  see how the process works. Do your own research! Ask questions!  Demand answers! Request  City reports  and other documents by using the California  Public  Records ActBecome an informed voter! (https://oag.ca.gov/contact/publicrecords_form)

 

Then,  when there is an issue being discussed or voted on in a council meeting that you want to improve, make time to be there and voice your informed opinion.

 

 

Don't base your vote on any one issue, but on the big picture.  Using a "litmus test"  (basing a decision on what or who to vote for on a  single issue that you are passionate about)  is  usually  not  a  good  idea.  Remember,  as  an individual or as a citizen of a community, it is the  overall quality of life that makes you and  your community strong and prosperous; likewise, it is also the overall quality of a candidate that makes them a good public servant.

 

A candidate's name,  family,  religion,  race  or  ethnicity should  NEVER  dictate  who  you  vote  for,  just  their competency,  their honesty and their position of the issues.

 

Remember!  NEVER  cast  your  vote  for  Mayor based solely on on what we say,  or  what  anyone  says.   Do not be swayed by how many  signs  you see for any candidate or how much praise or  condemnation the candidate gets from any source that has a clear financial interest in the success or failure of the candidate.   

Click here to get the form needed to make a Records Request from the City of Inglewood.

at City Hall----->

CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS

Important Updates ON Limitations On Free Speech In Council Meetings!!!:

 

      Inglewood's City Council meetings were usually held on Tuesday nights, but in 2013, James Butts voted to move most of the meetings to the middle of the day, when working people have a hard time attending.  

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      On September 23, 2014, James Butts violated the Free Speech Rights of Inglewood's residents by cutting the time for public comments on non-agenda items from 3 minutes to only one minute.   Then, a week or two before the November 2014 election, Butts and the Council also removed every single Council meeting video from the city's website, helping hide James Butts' misconduct from voters.

 

        Later in 2014, the City Council started selectively posting meeting videos on-line, but only after they edited out ALL the public comments, something no other South Bay City does.   In early 2015, Butts and the Council used tax dollars on a doomed lawsuit against this website to keep the content of prior City Council videos, content that exposed James Butts as the crook he is, hidden.  Then, in November 2015, having lost the law suit, and costing Inglewood almost $200,000.00 in legal fees and penalties, James Butts voted to cancel ALL regularly scheduled nighttime council meetings.

 

       Now, daytime meetings are the norm and city employees frequently outnumber the public in meetingd.  And the City still selects which meetings (and public comments) to put on line.  James Butts and the Council have effectively limited Free Speech in City Council meetings!  To quote James Butts at the end of a 1/2 hr meeting on 11-29-16 (click here to watch), "It's so much easier to run the meetings now [when fewer people come and they have less time to speak]..."  

    *During the pandemic, California suspended some aspects of the Brown Act, and residents were no longer allowed to attend meetings in person (in the council chambers), and James Butts used this to further stifle public comments and criticism of his actions.  Initially, citizens could both call in to make comments (which did not usually go smoothly) or  email the City Clerk who would read them.  But at one meeting, James Butts wanted to eliminate the reading of the public comments altogether.  Even after the City Attorney opined that not reading the comments would be illegal, James Butts indicated that he might not have them read in the future. Not surprisingly, observations indicate that public comments are rarely read in their entirety and around 10-4-22, James Butts threatened to cut a resident's microphone off if the resident criticizes any member of the city council and arrest anyone who didn't leave the podium after that.  However, on 2-28-23, the Governor of California ended the State's "State of Emergency," presumably allowing Inglewood residents to attend council meetings, but as of 3-2-23, there has been no indication  that James Butts will change council meeting rules.

 

 

Check Inglewood's website for the time of the next meeting, and any new rules @ 

http://www.cityofinglewood.org/city_hall/city_council/agenda/

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