The top-six fundraisers gathered at Beaches Tropicana for the West Hollywood City Council forum. (photo courtesy of Anthony Vulin)

More than 200 residents packed into the Beaches Tropicana on Sept. 27 for a candidate forum for the West Hollywood City Council election, hosted by Collective Realty owner Anthony Vulin.

Vulin, a West Hollywood resident for over 20 years, emphasized that he hosted the forum as an individual and his company was not associated with the event.

“I noticed no one was hosting a forum and saw a need to hear from our candidates just before mail-in ballots go out,” Vulin said. “The forum was a huge success.”

West Hollywood has 14 certified candidates running for a seat on the City Council. The candidates are Councilwomen Chelsea Byers, Larry Block, Kyle Brazeal, Kody Christiansen, Jonathan Cottrell, Tom Demille, John Duran, Chukwudubem “Chiedu” Egbuniwe, Alden “Marlon” Gobel, Helen Krieger, Kevin L. Ligon, Stephen J. Post, Tatyana “Tanya” Tsikanovsky and Joel Zaldivar.

The top six fundraisers, Block, Brazeal, Byers, Cottrell, Duran and Krieger, were invited to participate in a forum focused on public safety, housing and business. The remaining eight candidates were all given 90 seconds to state their case to the attendees at the opening of the forum.

“I wanted a manageable number of people. So each candidate would have time to respond to many important questions,” Vulin said. “Though the six got a majority of the time, all candidates were included. Guests were encouraged to show up early, meet all the candidates and stay after the forum to ask their own questions that may not have been asked.”

Candidates stated their positions on hot-button topics like public safety, struggling West Hollywood businesses, large billboards in the city and the Fountain Avenue Streetscape project. On most points, the six candidates agreed.

When asked whether they support continuing to add large billboards to Sunset Boulevard, all six candidates said yes; when asked the same question about billboards on Santa Monica Boulevard, all six said no.

The candidates all agreed to hire more sheriff deputies once the hiring moratorium ends. The West Hollywood Sheriff’s station has been a focal point since 2020, after the City Council initially cut deputies in favor of increasing unarmed Block by Block ambassadors.

The council has since backtracked on this decision. Since the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which the city contracts with, is not providing new deputies to contract cities because of staffing shortages in LASD, the city still only has 62 deputies – the same number of deputies they had before the pandemic.

However, during the last question, candidates split. Vulin asked if Councilman John Erickson wins the Senate race for District 24, would they favor appointing someone to his seat or holding a special election to fill it. Byers and Krieger said they supported appointment. Block, Brazeal, Cottrell and Duran favored a special election.

Under California law, the City Council has 60 days after the seat is vacated to call for a special election or appoint someone to the vacant seat. If someone is appointed, they would serve the rest of Erickson’s term through 2028.

West Hollywood has not appointed someone to a City Council seat since 2009, when Lindsey Horvath was appointed to replace Councilman Sal Guarriello, who died.

A recording of the forum was initially supposed to be available to members of the public, but technical issues with the sound prevented Vulin from sharing it.