WeHo City Pays Tribute to Newly Appointed LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath

The City of West Hollywood paid tribute to the city’s former council member, mayor, and newly appointed LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath at last night’s regular city council meeting. Supervisor Horvath was appointed to serve as a council member from 2009 to 2011 and was elected to the city council in 2015. She has served the city as mayor for two terms.

Supervisor Horvath was presented with a City Proclamation by Mayor Pro Tem Sepi Shyne. The Supervisor was recognized for her efforts to combat homelessness in West Hollywood, advocating for women’s issues and reproductive rights, civic social justice, affordable housing, COVID-19 pandemic recovery, community safety and transportation.

Highlights included her efforts to ensure the city has a three-prong approach to homelessness that include being inclusive of housing, services and community safety; she signed on the serve the Mayors for Guaranteed Income to ensure that all Americans have a fair living wage; she has prioritized women’s issues and reproductive rights and initiated programing and events highlighting the Centennial Anniversary of the 19th Amendment which gave women the right to vote; she co-sponsored resolutions in the City’s support for the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, opposed anti-abortion legislation and was a champion for V-Day a movement to end violence against women and girls; her policy priorities centered around transportation and mobility issues, including efforts to make West Hollywood more pedestrian and bicycle-friendly and joined the discussion to bring a Metrorail line to the city; she brought forward initiatives to support workers and the business community by waiving city fees and assessments for businesses impacted by COVID-19 health orders; and she established a hazard pay for certain essential workers and a hotel worker protection ordinance.

Supervisor Horvath presented her appointed City board members and commissioners with a certificate of recognition for their services to the city of West Hollywood. Each appointee thanked her and congratulated her in her new leadership role as LA County Supervisor.

Council member John Erickson, who is close friends with Horvath, presented her with a large Lindsey Horvath Lane West Hollywood street sign, saying she is now an official Wehoan.

There was also a video photo montage capturing events and moments over the past 15 years (due to music copyright this is not the original audio presented at the meeting).

Horvath’s family was front and center during the presentation. Mother Kathy Horvath said she has watched many of the council meetings via live stream from Ohio. “I can’t tell you how much it means–her family is here tonight to thank the city of West Hollywood for welcoming our daughter into your city, making her feel at home and as a second home. I just want to say thank you everybody, and congratulations to Supervisor Horvath.”

On behalf of Congressman Adam Schiff, Mike Aguilara-Gaudette presented Horvath and now former council member D’Amico with a United States flag that was flown over the United State Capitol in the names of both former council members. Congressman Schiff thanked them for their leadership, tenacity and advocacy for their shared constituents in the city of West Hollywood. Gaudette added that he was thankful for their kindness to a not-so-young-anymore staffer.

Horvath reminisced about her start as a city official, first as a Women’s Advisory Board (WAB) member in 2007, and her involvement as the president of the National Organization for Women, Hollywood Chapter, working with WeHo’s V-Day team and her work with the Vagina Monologues where she met then Mayor Abbe Land. “The WAB’s legislative committee provided opportunities for me to weigh in on legislation on the Regional, State, and Federal levels,” she said. “The WAB’s support for the women’s leadership conference connected me to our current mayor, Lauren Meister, who spoke alongside me on a panel at the very first conference that the city hosted. The WAB’s stand to fully fund the backlog of untested rape kits evidence in LA city and county taught me how to advocate on behalf of the city and we were able to make meaningful change in the lives of survivors of sexual assault.”

Supervisor Horvath focused on the question regarding what she loves most about West Hollywood: “Typically my responses include The Sunset Strip, The Rainbow District, Sunset Marquis, Voda Spa, Pride, Victory Day, Marches and protests, celebrations and love; rent control…I could take all night because all of us on this space love West Hollywood. Our hearts are on fire for a city that welcomes us and is home to wonderful memories and relationships. It is sometimes more of an idea, or a feeling, than an actual place. I love our city staff more than I have words for tonight. Having spent the last 18 months traveling the region to share our community’s successes, I met countless people who wished they could live in a place like West Hollywood.”

She also said she loved her colleagues, acknowledging that a city council can be five individuals who have nothing in common and each make their own decisions, or they can work as a team to deliver results for the community. “This new council has been a bit of both,” she said. “But each of them individually and a council as a whole have taught me about writing our own story and embracing a new generation of leadership.”

To view her entire speech click on the WeHo City YouTube Link below and jump to 1:05:24.

Supervisor Horvath has replaced Sheila Kuehl, 81, who has retired from the board after eight years. Horvath will represents the newly drawn Third District stretching from the Westside of Los Angeles into most of the San Fernando Valley, the Conejo Valley, the Santa Monica Mountains all the way to the Ventura County line, with the northern border including Chatsworth and Porter Ranch. She is the youngest woman to ever be elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and the first millennial and only renter to serve on the historic all-female Board.