Inglewood Mayor James Butts views the city’s brief, conflict-free council meetings as evidence of stability that attracts business investment.
The four-term mayor said meetings in years past were a big “free-for-all”.
In the early 2010s, city council meetings were regularly tense and sometimes adversarial. In 2015, the Inglewood council voted to move its meetings from 7 p.m. to 2 p.m.
“If you go back and you look at those meetings, they were stupid,” Butts said, adding that he believed people considering doing business in the city would watch them before deciding to invest. “When they see the foolishness that occurs, that doesn’t give them confidence.”
Now, Butts is proud of how the city council currently operates and what it has achieved.
“These are not town hall meetings, they’re business meetings of the city,” Butts said. “We’re not there for a political rally or for people to bring their people and then argue.”
Butts’ comments came after The LA Local reported the Inglewood City Council had voted unanimously on all but three of the 583 items scheduled to be heard over the last two years. Meetings in 2024 and 2025 averaged 34 minutes and rarely adjourned after 3:30 p.m.
While council members can ask questions and discuss matters before voting, Butts said that the unanimous votes project professionalism to investors.
“That’s one of the things that makes us attractive to people that are going to invest millions and billions of dollars,” Butts said.
But the focus on business doesn’t always align with some of the more pressing concerns of community members.
Residents, organizers feel shut out of city decisions
Earlier this week, The LA Local reported that two crew members working on a city project were taken in Inglewood by masked men wearing clothes with ICE markings.
Yaritza Gonzalez co-founded ING Fellowship, an organization that works to facilitate youth participating in local government.
ING Fellowship has been trying for nearly a year to voice its concerns about federal immigration raids to the city’s leadership, according to Gonzalez.
Gonzalez said she emailed all council people before attending a public meeting with Councilmember Gloria Gray. She and members of her organization also went to council meetings to speak on the topic in person last year. They spoke for the allotted one minute at the end of meetings, when items not on agenda are allowed to be addressed. The effort led to no action.
“It hasn’t been something they’re willing to discuss at length,” she said.
With recent sweeps being reported across the region and large events planned in the city this year, Gonzalez said that she fears there will be more federal immigration action impacting Inglewood residents. But she’s doubtful the city will get involved on any issue if they don’t interpret it to be good for the economy.
“The fact that they would focus on matters of business rather than the community is very frustrating,” said Gonzalez. “I feel like it’s not a priority, which is crazy because these are your actual constituents.”
Others said the unanimous votes suggest that council members had already made up their minds about city business before hearing from residents in session.
At a December meeting, Jessica Lesley said council members ignored public concerns about a water rate hike before voting to approve it. She’s now organizing community members to show up before such votes happen.
“It seems like all they care about is the money,” Lesley said. “And these meetings should not be at this time, when youth, who we need to teach to be future leaders, can’t attend because of school.”
For Butts, the city’s financial outlook is the clear priority. He said that when he first took office in 2011, the city was facing possible bankruptcy. Seven or eight- hour meetings, he added, were not productive.
He admitted that there are some decisions he’s made that others still see as controversial: loaning city funds for the Madison Square Garden Company’s renovation of what is now called the Kia Forum and the development of the city’s digital billboards. He believes decisions like these turned out to be “the saving grace of the city.”
“The proof is in the pudding, isn’t it?,” Butts said.
Matthew Reagan and Isaiah Murtaugh contributed reporting.
