A City Councilman’s Parting Gift

“I will be staying on in my position as Councilmember until the end of this year and will remain laser-focused on continuing to represent my district as I have always done.”

- LA City Councilman Mitch Englander

Ignoring the responsibilities that he accepted by running for re-election, Mitch Englander announced last month that he would be “vacating [his] Council seat as of December 31, 2018.” While promising that he would stay “laser-focused“ on the needs of his constituents during his remaining time in office, it seems that he has neglected to perform one very important task since drafting his announcement to the community; it seems that a formal letter of resignation has not been submitted to the Los Angeles City Council. Therefore, they have been unable to schedule a special election for the community to select his replacement.

When answering questions at the last meeting of the Northridge East Neighborhood Council, Englander’s representative stressed that the current staff will continue in place until a replacement was seated. The talking point is that constituents will, therefore, be fully represented. This ignores the fact that staff members cannot place votes in the council. They cannot chair…