‘We were expecting a kind of Athens. And maybe we were expecting too much.’ : --Stephen Schulte : W. Hollywood Council Frets About Losing Crowd Appeal

A year ago last Friday when the West Hollywood City Council met for the first time at Fiesta Hall in Plummer Park, officials spoke euphorically about the birth of a new democracy.

Gay men, some arm in arm, cheered the city’s new anti-discrimination ordinance. Senior citizens applauded a rent rollback. Even a few of the Eastern European immigrants outside in the park took time out from their games of chess and dominoes to join in. Dozens of people, unable to squeeze inside the crowded hall, pressed their faces against smudged windows for a view.

There seemed to be no end to the people ready to offer their services to the city.

But one year later much of that support has faded, according to City Council members who said their expectations may have been too high. They speculated that residents no longer turned out for most meetings for a variety of reasons including inadequate notice and the council’s own delays in appointing city commissions.

Only a handful of City Hall regulars attend nearly every meeting and speak on almost every issue.

Disappointed by Attendance

“As grateful as I am for this corps of people,” Councilman Stephen Schulte said, “it tends to be just those regulars. It concerns me and other people that we seem to be at the point, after one year, that we are not getting the type of breadth and depth in participation that we want.”

Schulte said he has been disappointed from time to time with attendance at council meetings. “But the budget hearing (last month) really brought it home,” he said. “Here we were setting important priorities for the city, and only two people addressed the council. I think that is alarming.”

Schulte said he still hopes to see new faces at the City Council meetings. “I don’t see why, instead of 10 citizens, we can’t have 40 or 50 paying attention to issues regularly.”

Some meetings still draw crowds of 100 or more, but study sessions on code enforcement, an interim zoning ordinance and the budget have been heard by fewer than 20 people. City Hall insiders said they are not sure why interest has waned, although they have their theories.

“In the first meetings we had so much attention and so many people coming out,” Mayor John Heilman said, “that I sort of envisioned that we would be having that on a continuing basis, but I think that may have been unrealistic.”

Schulte agreed: “I think that we were expecting a kind of Athens. And maybe we were expecting too much.”

The most pleasant theory for the council is that residents are happy with city government, particularly its tough rent control law and an ordinance banning discrimination against homosexuals in public accommodations, housing and employment.

‘Sitting at Home’

When asked where all the people were at a poorly attended City Council meeting, one of the few spectators said: “They’re all sitting at home in their rent-controlled apartments.”

Council members have also found that residents respond to specific proposals. A hearing on creation of a cul de sac on a single street is likely to provoke more intense feelings than discussion of an interim zoning ordinance that would affect construction throughout the city, Heilman said.

The city’s thousands of immigrants from Russia and Eastern Europe have scarcely been seen at City Council meetings. City Manager Paul Brotzman said he hoped to have at least one Russian-speaking employee on the city payroll by late summer, but so far none has been hired.

Council members said the city must take the initiative for bringing in more people. “Putting a public notice in the newspapers, like they do in most cities, is not enough,” Councilwoman Valerie Terrigno said. “We need to take extra steps. It’s our job to bring people in.”

Terrigno suggested that the government use citywide mailers, which cost about $3,000, to notify residents of hearings on issues that affect the entire city. And Schulte said some hearings should be spread over two meetings to give speakers a chance to digest information and respond at the second session.

Left Out

Schulte said that in its first month of operation the council was so intent on getting its work done that it may have discouraged people from working with the city.

“I think some of the people who laid the groundwork for the city felt like they weren’t being included,” Schulte said. “We’re saying to those people, ‘Please come back.’ ”

Finally, council members said the appointment of the city’s boards and commissions will give residents greater entree into city government by providing more time for hearings on specific issues. The appointments were supposed to be made this month but were delayed because of a dearth of applications. Terrigno said she was particularly disappointed with the number of women who applied for the positions.

The City Council plans to appoint the panels later this month.

Residents who regularly attend meetings have their own theories about why others have not come out. Several of the council’s devoted followers said they have felt that even their most reasonable objections have been ignored by city officials.

“It’s their own fault,” said Budd Kops, an apartment building manager who seldom misses a meeting. “People think they (the council) have already made up their minds on some things, so they don’t attend the meetings.”

Often Alone

Jeanne Dobrin, who began attending community meetings several years before incorporation, said she was often alone when addressing the county Regional Planning Commission or Board of Supervisors. Dobrin said the city’s large population of young singles tends to be transient and takes less interest in the future of the city.

“Those people who talked about self-determination during the (incorporation) election,” she said, “they didn’t show up at the county, and they don’t show up now.”