The first time the community heard about L.A. County's plans to turn the 818 Hotel into a homeless facility was at the January 26th, 2022 Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization meeting. The Councilmember disclosed he had only recently found out about the facility. But at no time during that meeting did the Councilmember also disclose that the City of Los Angeles had targeted the Extended Stay America Hotel, right next door to The 818 Hotel and across the street from Taft High School, as well. Wouldn't that have been the time to disclose this information to the constituents in his community? Instead, he kept this information to himself. When he did finally disclose the news to a shocked community via a Facebook post on February 9th, 2022, he said, "This week I learned...". That was a lie. How do I know? My campaign conducted an official California Public Records Act request and the emails we received revealed his staff had been in communication with the Los Angeles Housing Department and knew about the Extended Stay America LONG before they disclosed it. In fact, there had been a Letter of Intent on the property since October 15th, 2021. Councilmember Blumenfield only disclosed that he "just found out" about the Extended Stay America Hotel in a February 9th, social media post because I had just revealed it to the community first, earlier that same morning. I discovered it was on the agenda to be approved at the L.A. City Council Homelessness Committee meeting the next day. Because the Councilmember had kept this a secret from you and the rest of the community, he effectively silenced your voice and took away your public right to oppose the plan when it came before the Homelessness Committee meeting.
And now the Councilmember wants you to trust him when he "promises" that the facilities will serve the purposes he says they will. How many broken promises does he think you're going to fall for? When I'm elected as representative to City Council, I will represent you, fight for you, and raise up your voice to my colleagues on the City Council. I will never silence you, and I will never lie to you.
The first disclosure to the community from the Councilmember:
The uncovered Public Records Act emails :
