Most members of the Studio City Neighborhood Council resigned last month after the group voted unanimously to appoint a convicted sex offender to fill a vacancy on their board.

According to a city official, all 16 of the council’s board seats are now vacant, meaning the group can no longer meet or conduct business. The elected advisory council is one of dozens of neighborhood councils in the city that consider local issues and provide input to the community.

The resignation was first reported by KTLA

-TV

.

At least two council members were aware of Ian Mitchell King’s 2008 conviction for sexual assault by a public official before voting on his appointment, but said they felt confused and limited by guidance from the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment , which oversees the neighborhood council. system.

Members who knew of King’s conviction also said they felt restricted by California’s Brown Act.

that bray

the majority of a legislative body cannot communicate privately.

Most of the council resigned within a week of the mid-August vote, as news spread of King’s past.

King did not respond to multiple requests for comment by phone and email over the past week. The address on a tax form King provided to the neighborhood council matches the Studio City address listed in Megan’s Law’s sex offender database. King was released from prison in August 2021 and remains on parole

Unpleasant

the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The matter came up

on

On August 16, a few hours before a Studio City Neighborhood Council meeting, Kim Clements, the panel’s three-time treasurer, decided to research the new members who would be appointed that evening. (Representatives are typically elected to neighborhood councils. But in this case, the council voted to approve candidates for several vacancies.)

After scanning countless links with glowing descriptions of a candidate who she thought seemed perfect on paper, Clements came across information that she said was both confusing and disturbing to her.

Could Ian King, a self-described philanthropist and business consultant, possibly be the same Ian Mitchell King who received a 20-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting a young woman while on duty as a school police officer?

Clements shared what she found with another member of council leadership. That council member, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation, sent an email to several city employees asking how the council should proceed.

Lorenzo Briceno, deputy director of policy and governance at the city’s Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, wrote back that he believed the highly sensitive issue could be handled by either voting on the appointment as planned or postponing it, according to a email thread that was reviewed by The Times.

If the neighborhood council were to vote, it would have to be “extremely careful about releasing this information and potentially making defamatory statements about character,” Briceno wrote. suggested they take.

The councilor responded, saying any delay would open a can of worms as he had already spoken to King about how the meeting would proceed and appointments for other vacant seats were also on the agenda.

The last thing I want to do is open a can of worms and since there are other candidates for the seat, my recommendation would be to bring up the subject. Briceno responded, saying that if a particular candidate became the topic of conversation, council members should be reminded of their code of conduct and anti-bias training.

If council members ask a question of one candidate, they should also ask other candidates so that no candidate feels like he/she/they is being singled out, Briceno said.

The neighborhood councilor in the email said he was confused by the guidance and thought it felt like a mystery.

Ann-Marie Holman, a spokesperson for the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, said that in situations where “an agenda item is in question, but the full facts are not available and cannot be verified due to a short timeline,” her department recommends that neighborhood residents The councils are postponing the vote until more information can be gathered.

But, Holman said, the department “does not, nor does it directly, recommend how a ward council vote.”

It

the

y department

interfere with his voting process.

If a council “insists on moving forward with an agenda item,” the department will provide guidance on adhering to existing policies, she said.

At the August 16 meeting, King introduced himself to the board and described himself as

a born and bred Studiostad resident.

“I’ve been involved as a volunteer with several organizations, especially homeless organizations. And I’ve always been interested in city politics,” King told them. He said he heard about the vacancy in the council and thought it would be a good fit.

During a brief question-and-answer session before the vote, another council member appeared to have found the information about King online with his laptop open. That member asked King if he had ever worked in law enforcement.

King, who was arrested for actions he took while working as a school police officer, told the council he had never worked in law enforcement.

Clements, the council treasurer, said this response left her questioning whether King was actually the same person and unsure of how to proceed without potentially discriminating against him.

She joined the rest of the board in unanimously approving King’s appointment, a decision she says she now regrets.

News about Kings soon began to trickle out, and Clements and others said they were concerned about how to proceed. Massive layoffs followed within five days of the meeting.

People were concerned about their own reputations, Clements said, noting that she works at a family-run investment firm and wouldn’t want to be seen “rubbing elbows with a convicted sex offender.” She and others also said they were uncomfortable serving on the board with King because the neighborhood council has a youth member and regularly hosts events with children.

In the aftermath of the vote, several members of the all-volunteer council interviewed by The Times said they felt they had had enough training to know all the things they weren’t allowed to do, but no training to prevent them from doing so. to prepare for a situation like this. Several people also said they felt unsupported by the city before the mass resignation.

Holman, the spokesperson for the Department of Neighborhood Empowerment, said that “efforts were made to expedite a resolution to this matter, which resulted in the resignation of Ian Mitchell King from the Studio City Neighborhood Council on August 25.”

LA City Council President Paul Krekorian thinks what happened is outrageous, said Hugh Esten, a spokesman for Krekorian, who represents part of Studio City. We are looking for a way to reinstate the previously elected ward councilors and find a way to ensure that such a situation never occurs again in the future.

Esten said the former neighborhood council members had been put in an intolerable situation and that King was clearly unfit to serve on the body.

Councilwoman Nithya Raman, whose district includes part of Studio City, said she believed “the members who resigned did so in good faith, and I support a path to reinstate them as quickly as possible.”

Jen Bladen, a teacher, was one of several former neighborhood council members who expressed regret that they would no longer be able to serve the community through the council.

But, she said, she also felt the system had worked properly because she believes formerly incarcerated people should have the right to serve on neighborhood boards, as mandated by city rules.

I know this is too optimistic, sunny and bright a way to look at it. But I really think he should have asked to serve on the neighborhood council, Bladen said. And we should have been able to exercise our right not to be on the same council as him.