All is Not Quiet on the CD 1 Front

During the recent campaign for the May 21 election to the Council District 1 seat being vacated by termed-out Councilmember Ed Reyes, a key campaign aide to Assemblymember Gil Cedillo, who is scheduled to succeed Reyes on June 30, drew the attention of the media, including Highland Park-Mount Washington Patch, to a controversy currently playing out in the council chambers of City Hall.

The campaign aide, Arturo Chavez, accused Reyes and his chief of staff Jose Gardea, who lost the CD 1 election to Cedillo, of trying to push through the sale of a 7,700-square-foot lot owned by the city on San Fernando Road to Onnik Mehrabian, owner of a sprawling Glendale Kia dealership on the corner of San Fernando and Division. 

Last Friday, the City Council voted 11-0, with four abstentions (including CD 14 Councilmember Jose Huizar and mayor-elect Eric Garcetti) on a motion by Reyes to sell the land to Mehrabian for $427,000. Because the motion did not receive the 12 votes necessary for it to pass outright, it is scheduled to come before the council once again for a second reading this coming Friday, June 28—the last chance for the pubic to comment on the sale of the lot to Mehrabian.

According to the Los Angeles Times Monday, "Mehrabian gave $15,000 in February to a group that sent attack mailers criticizing Cedillo for spending campaign funds at such hotels as the Standard in Los Angeles and Harrah's in Las Vegas." The contribution led to an open feud between Reyes and Gardea on one side and Cedillo on the other, according to the Times. For his part, Cedillo tried, but failed, to get the City Council to delay the sale of the San Fernando Road city-owned lot until he officially succeeds Reyes, says the Times.

Click here to read the full Times story, titled "Friction Mars Transition of Ed Reyes, Gil Cedillo on L.A. Council."