Opinion: Nobody wins after city council spat
Mayor Frometa’s comments begin at 1:23:00 in the video above.
DOWNEY — There is no nicer way to say it: If you didn’t tune into the City Council meeting on Tuesday, then you missed quite a display.
That’s not to say it was much different than what has taken place off and on (mostly on now) for over a year.
Somehow, the name calling has gotten worse, and it’s not just limited to Armando Herman anymore (although he has managed to get even more obnoxious). Still limited to watching online and calling in due to pandemic safety protocols, public speakers on both sides seem more than eager to take aim at each other as well as their preferred council or staff member.
And if you had any hope of our combustible council playing nice with one another, let me squash that now; it ain’t happening, and on Tuesday it came to a head.
This week’s city council meeting saw Councilmembers Sean Ashton and Catherine Alvarez participate from home via teleconference, which in itself hasn’t been out of the ordinary during the pandemic.
What was out of place, however, is the fact that both Ashton’s and Alvarez’s cameras were off.
Again, it’s not necessarily weird; both have a tendency to pop in and out of screen, usually turning their cameras on when they themselves are speaking (whether they should stay on is a different conversation, likely to be grouped with if those in attendance should get up and leave during public comments).
However, this time Ashton’s camera stayed off while he addressed the community and his colleagues; instead of a live feed, viewers were greeted with a picture of Ashton from a Veteran’s Day event in 2019. His comments were relatively brief and were welcomed warmly by Mayor Claudia Marroquin Frometa with not so much as an inquiry to his camera status.
Next came Alvarez, who also did not turn on her camera. She stated that her comments would be a bit longer.
Then the trouble started.
Alvarez was a few minutes deep into her remarks and mid-sentence when Frometa interrupted her.
“Councilmember Alvarez, can you turn your camera on,” she asked. “Can we see you?”
“Why? Why do I have to turn it on,” Alvarez replied, obviously annoyed.
“We’re in a council meeting. I thought all the residents that are in the meeting would like to see all of us,” responded Frometa.
“Well, Sean Ashton didn’t turn on his camera, so I’m not going to do it either,” said Alvarez. “I’m sorry, but you stopped my comments, so please do not do that again.”
Alvarez then finished her initial remarks before opening the floodgates.
“Today, Ms. Mayor, you gave me a very unpleasant comment because I was not going to be present at the chambers, and I’d like to let you Mayor, and my colleagues know that I’m really sick, and I can’t sit or be standing for long term,” said Alvarez. “That is why I cannot participate in person at the meeting.”
Alvarez would then go on to accuse Frometa of being disrespectful to her, demanding that it stop, and that City Manager Gilbert Livas intervene.
“I treat all of you with respect and I want the same in return,” said Alvarez.
Frometa quickly went into her own comments and requests for staff. She then took a few moments before launching more than a few choice words right back at her council colleague.
“This evening – and it’s unfortunate that Councilmember Alvarez will not turn on her camera – but, not too long ago, Catherine Alvarez showed up at my home with bullhorn in hand, disrespecting my family, disrespecting my peace, and scaring the wits out of my girls,” said Frometa. “This is the same woman who stood here with bullhorn in hand, and with her posse, while my dear friend and former mayor laid in a hospital bed fighting for his life – he was literally fighting for his life, he almost bled to death – and this woman who does not have the gall to sit here in the seat that unfortunately she was elected to, she has the guts to say that I’ve been disrespectful? I have been nothing but respectful to this individual; every email, every interaction that I have had with her has been nothing but courteous and respectful.”
“You listen to me Councilwoman Alvarez: You stood here in this same council chamber time and time again demanding that my friend and former mayor resign from this seat because he couldn’t be here. How dare you. How dare you claim that you are now too sick to show up and sit here, but you have the audacity to show up for photo ops and ribbon cuttings in the name of your community? Please, don’t you dare lecture me on service and respect…Your behavior is reprehensible.”
Frometa brought up Alvarez’s criminal history, which is currently being investigated by an outside law firm hired by the city. She would also give Alvarez an ultimatum: work together with the council and staff to serve the city, or “continue with the side of the protestors.”
Her final statement on the matter would not offer much hope, however.
“It is a shame that rather than using your position to unite a community, you continue to bring negativity, and conflict and division, and from somebody like you, that is all I would expect,” said Frometa.
There is a lot to unpack in the mayor’s comments, though at the core of it is the fact that the wounds from 2019 and 2020 are still very fresh for the council and constituents. Simply put, Councilwoman Alvarez was, is, and very likely will always be “the rent control lady with the bullhorn” in the eyes of many.
Her comments about being too sick to attend in person should have triggered a twinge of irony for those with decent enough memories.
Back in 2019, then Mayor Rick Rodriguez was forced to step away from the dais for several months due to a serious health issue.
During that time (on Oct. 8, to be exact), several individuals clad in blue shirts piled into the council chambers and lined up for their opportunity to speak to the council on rent control and AB 1482.
The first one to the podium was Alvarez, who was just starting to emerge as the face of the renter’s movement.
“You guys were talking about Mayor Rick being sick. I don’t know what is the illness [sic], or what’s going on with him, but I can tell you a little bit about me. I’ve had 16 surgeries. I have a broken foot right now, and I’m here trying to speak up for all the people that are in here,” said Alvarez. “I’m not going to actually tell you what is going on with me…and I actually work everyday trying to succeed with families that they are in need [sic].”
“Just to let you know, if I’m here standing up here, fighting for everybody that is in here in this council meeting, you guys can actually do it and he can do it from wherever he is.”
Rodriguez would go on to finish his term and did not seek reelection due to his health. The seat he left was eventually the very seat that Alvarez would win in the 2020 election.
I’ll give Alvarez this much: she was at least signed on to the meeting (and that is not a jab at Rodriguez in the slightest). I don’t know Alvarez’s condition, and to be frank I don’t think I could easily find out if I tried (she has not answered, nor returned any phone calls from the Downey Patriot since being elected).
I will say that I saw her sitting in obvious agony at the end of the meeting a couple of weeks prior.
However, that still does not excuse the double standard that she has shown on who can sit out a meeting or not and why. If Alvarez expected Rick to show up, hospital gurney and all, then at the very least she can turn on a camera during a council meeting (and for that matter, Ashton should have his on too).
Catherine Alvarez used a bullhorn outside the home of then-Councilman Rick Rodriguez in 2019.
Alvarez also needs to remember how much she put the prior council and constituents through and develop a layer of thick skin accordingly.
Call it what you will – anarchy or activism – the images of her with her bull horn and her alliances with more aggressive council antagonists Juan “Joey” Martinez and Rodolpho Cortez have some constituents – at the very least – on edge.
Yet when the cries of discontent get turned towards her, she and her followers are not afraid to get aggressively defensive. After over a year of pandemonium in the council chambers and protests at personal homes, Alvarez has said that she feels disrespected and bullied.
Alvarez isn’t the only one who came out of Tuesday looking a little messy though.
I became a fan of Mayor Frometa when she was still just a fresh councilwoman in 2019. Having had enough of the constant barrage of accusations, demands, and personal home visits, she drew her line in the sand: The city would work with renters, but would not be bullied by them.
She’s never been one to shy away from defending herself and her beliefs while at the dais, maybe even to a fault at times.
But something about Tuesday hit differently. If it was bound to happen, it shouldn’t have been there, in that way, with that tone, and with some of the words she chose.
I do not blame Frometa for popping off the way she did; The council, City Manager Gilbert Livas, City Attorney Yvette Abich Garcia, and the rest of staff put up with A LOT at these meetings.
It’s not hard to see that what came out has been building for a while. Even after the meeting prior to this week’s, I could hear the fatigue in Frometa’s voice as I asked her for some clarification on an item.
I can understand that much.
Still, what occurred is not a good look for our mayor, our council or our city.
Frometa’s first mistake was making an issue out of Alvarez’s camera and not Ashton’s. Doing so sets a precedent – holding one council member to be transparent while not the other.
Secondly, if an argument – and better yet, the one that took place – was bound to occur, it needed to happen away from the public eye.
Yes, Alvarez chewed out Frometa publicly too; no one is going to argue that there is no love lost between our mayor and newly minted councilmember.
But as one of the veteran members of the council and our current head of the city, unfortunately Frometa is held to a bit of a higher standard. If there was a need to respond, it probably should have been a little more tapered than it was.
Again, part of the reason I respect Frometa so much is because she is not afraid to take a hard stand sometimes; she just went too far this time.
I’ve already seen a couple of comments on some of the Facebook community groups about “the show,” or “the fireworks,” and admittedly, I had a few fleeting moments of Michael Buffer go through my head too.
Realistically though, the events on Tuesday revealed a council that is far from on the same page, and I worry if that image – or the council’s ability to play nice and work together in general – is salvageable.
Downey likes to pride itself as a beacon of positivity for the communities that surround us.
When Frometa and Alvarez start throwing mud at each other, it is bound to splatter around the city too. What kind of example does that leave?
And what kind of faith in our future does that leave our community with?