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Garcetti staffer reportedly called BLM-Los Angeles `annoying’ in leaked emails
Neighborhood Jan 20, 2022
LA Mayor Eric Garcetti. | Photo courtesy of Mayor of Los Angeles via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
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Mayor Eric Garcetti‘s office responded Thursday to leaked emails from the mayor’s current adviser and former chief of staff, in which she called Black Lives Matter’s Los Angeles chapter “annoying.”
According to Vice, Ana Guerrero wrote in an October 2016 email that people praising the mayor after he declared Los Angeles a sanctuary city were “not as annoying as BLM, but getting close.”
In a September 2016 email, Guerrero also criticized a former civilian police commissioner, Shane Murphy Goldsmith, for using the phrase “structural racism” and her nonprofit’s relationship with Black Lives Matter, Vice reported.
Guerrero also said in an email to two senior staffers in Garcetti’s office that Garcetti “didn’t like that (Goldsmith) referred positively to BLM.”
“He sort of jokingly said her first meeting should be with the Los Angeles Police Protective League,” Guerrero wrote, according to Vice.
Garcetti’s office said in a statement Thursday:
“The mayor and his staff have always approached the conversation about racial justice thoughtfully with a goal of bringing people together to make change. This is one of the most emotionally charged and sensitive issues we face, and there have been painful moments of disagreement that have included situations where our staff were verbally attacked in person and online while doing their jobs.
“Those deeply personal and difficult moments have not deterred us from pursuing an unprecedented justice agenda that includes millions invested in reimagining public safety, a commission on reparations and a participatory budgeting pilot that specifically confronts the legacy of institutional racism in our city,” Garcetti’s office added.
The office added that it will address any comments that it finds staff shouldn’t have made.
Guerrero was previously placed on leave following revelations in June that she posted disparaging and suggestive comments on social media targeting a civil rights activist and city employees. She returned to City Hall on Nov. 1 as strategic adviser, earning more than $248,000 a year, the same salary she made as chief of staff, the Los Angeles Times reported in November.
In a statement to The Times provided by the mayor’s office in November, Guerrero said she “apologized to the people who I offended and have spent time reflecting on the lessons learned.”
“I’m going to continue confronting and learning from my mistakes and earning back the trust that I lost,” she said in the statement. “Because public service is too important, and I have too much left to give to shy away now.”
On June 17, The Times disclosed that Guerrero posted disparaging remarks in 2016 and 2017 on “Solid Gold” — an invite-only Facebook group that includes several Garcetti staffers, appointees and supporters — about labor and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta, 91, who co-founded the National Farmworkers Association with Cesar Chavez.
In the posts, which were reviewed by The Times, Guerrero called Huerta “Viejita envidiosa!” which means “Jealous old lady” in Spanish. She also commented, “I hate her. You hate her” on a photo posted in 2016 of Huerta, Guerrero and three others. Former Garcetti appointee Cecilia Cabello also commented, “I can’t stand that old bag,” and former head of L.A. Office of Immigrant Affairs Linda Lopez reportedly commented, “Has been.”
According to the paper, Guerrero also posted suggestive comments about Director of Planning Vince Bertoni, hired by Garcetti in 2016.
“Kelli and I looked LONG and HARD for someone that might be easy on the eye,” she wrote as a Facebook comment on a 2010 photo of Bertoni wearing a wetsuit that was pulled down at his waist, The Times reported. In the photo, Bertoni was holding a surfboard and was with family members at a beachfront memorial ceremony. Guerrero was likely referring to Kelli Bernard, who helped hire Bertoni when she worked as Garcetti’s deputy mayor of economic development.
The Times also reported that Guerrero posted insults about a former aide to Councilman Mike Bonin. Guerrero commented “Is he preggers?” on a photo of Bonin’s aide shirtless in front of a mirror. The photo was taken from the aide’s own Facebook page and reposted on Solid Gold.
Guerrero also posted an emoji of a beast throwing up under an image of City Controller Ron Galperin, County Assessor Jeffrey Prang and others watching the 2016 Super Bowl on television, according to The Times.
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